"I feel strong in my beliefs, based on my varied and widely traveled collaborations, that a one-to-one contact through art contains potent peaceful powers, and is the most non-elitist way to share exotic an common information, seducing us into creative mutual understandings for the benefit of all." (Robert Rauschenberg, 1991) In 1982 a period in the work of Robert Rauschenberg began, that was based on an intensive collaboration with artists and craftsmen of various cultures. He followed invitations to China and Japan, worked in traditional workshops and learned new skills and techniques. He transferred the method of his early „Combine Paintings" into far-eastern inspired works. In the „Japanese Recreational Clayworks" Robert Rauschenberg introduced clay and the subjects of the Japanese ceramics in his oeuvre. Traveling in East Asia in the summer of 1982, he was invited to the small village of Shigaraki (near Osaka), Japan, by Otsuka Ohmi Ceramics Company to work with artisans known for their traditional tea-ceremony wares as well as for their mass-produced contemporary ceramics. The company had recently developed the technology to produce, large, thin ceramic panels with pictorial imagery, called "art ceramics", which were created largely as interior and exterior architectural decorations. For the "Japanese Recreational Clayworks" series, Rauschenberg selected photoceramic decals of various masterworks from Western art history that had been prefabricated by the company. The two examples presented in this exhibition are based on the "Birth of the Venus" by Sandro Botticelli (Robert Rauschenberg:"Artegian Spring") and "The Naked Maya" by Francisco de Goya (Robert Rauschenberg: "Gilt"). He then superimposed his own photographic images taken during his travels to Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya, and also painted directly onto the decals using full-color, high fired glazes. The decals where then adheres to ceramic panels, which were fired in a kiln. Besides these early examples of the "Japanese Recreational Clayworks", the exhibition presents four additional small-format clayworks from 1989, using exclusively Rauschenberg's own photographic images. In these works, his use of transferred images and brushstrokes loaded with glaze on a surface other than canvas or paper prefigured his approach to the metal paintings he created in the late 1980s and the 1990s. At the same time the Jamileh Weber Gallery is presenting new paintings by Robert Rauschenberg's long year assistant, scholar and collaborator . For a long time also the artist Darryl Pottorf was under spell of the doyen of American art. The influence is obvious and intended. With Rauschenberg's blessing Darryl Pottorf seems to continue the famous artistic language invented by the master in the late 1950s and 1960s. And yet it is easy to keep apart the two artists: Robert Rauschenberg is telling us a story, placing the images side by side. On the other hand Darryl Pottorf overlays his photographic images often and creates areas of almost abstract and painterly quality. This dealing is logical if one remembers his early black and white works, were he placed multiple layers of translucent Lexan one behind the other. Robert Rauschenberg describes Pottorf's work trenchant "an archaeological dig that seems to be uncovered within the surface". The working process is complex: Starting point is his own photographic archive, built up during his extensive traveling. He then creates computer assisted prints with water based dyes. This allows him to transfer the images with water onto the paint surface, a polylaminate. Varying the intensity of manual rubbing allows him already in this stage of the working process to affect and pronounce the final expression of the image. In a final step he overworks the so created collages with watercolor, acrylic and pencil. In some details photorealistic and precise and as an overall fragmented and disperse, each painting is a mirror of today's perception of the world. The two shows will remain on view through Saturday, February 8, 2003 at the Jamileh Weber Gallery, Waldmannstrasse 6, CH-8001 Zurich. Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm and by appointment. For further information or photographs please contact the gallery, phone: +41-1-252 10 66, fax: +41-1-252 11 32 email: info@jamilehweber.com, www.jamilehweber.com