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Oral history interview with Lawrence Voytek 2016

Creator: Voytek, Lawrence
Project: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation oral history collection.
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :Transcript: 312 pages
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
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Biographical Note

Lawrence Voytek is a sculptor, fabricator and musician, performing along with Kat Epple and Laurence Getford as a member of the band Sonic Combine. After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design in 1982, Voytek was hired to work as a fine art fabricator in Robert Rauschenberg's Captiva Island studio in Florida. With only a welder on a dirt floor and no walls, Voytek helped build and establish an extensive private workshop on the property. A versatile problem solver, he was instrumental in enabling Rauschenberg to overcome various technical challenges by using engineering and welding expertise to allow the artist to explore a wide range of material possibilities. As the Director of Art Production at Untitled Press, Inc. and a vital member of the studio staff, Voytek and Rauschenberg remained friends until the artist's death in 2008

Scope and Contents

Lawrence Voytek gives an overview of his early life in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Voytek, the son of a tool maker, describes himself as a visual thinker interested in how things were made. Voytek narrates his first day working with Rauschenberg, including instructions that it was his job to make stuff last. He gives an account of how Rauschenberg's dyslexia played a role in the visions that he had around words and the feelings he had about images. Voytek speaks about Rauschenberg's interest in eastern religion; details how Rauschenberg's process was affected by different studio assistants; and recalls his work rebuilding a White Painting. Voytek gives an account of the conception of Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI); of Rauschenberg's love of scrap yards and the world's throwaways; on designing and making Rauschenberg a brass bed as a gift for Bob's new home in Captiva. Voytek also speaks about Dora and Janet Rauschenberg's visits to Captiva. He gives his account of Rauschenberg's feelings about the lawsuit he faced for using another photographer’s work in a piece, and how that changed Bob's process thereafter. Voytek provides technical details surrounding his work and process on a variety of pieces and series with Rauschenberg. Voytek speaks about the changes in studio processes after Rauschenberg broke his hip and the later effects of Rauschenberg's prescription for Coumadin. Voytek discusses how he passed the first anniversary of Rauschenberg's death making a marker for Rauschenberg on Captiva. He details Rauschenberg's late interest in casting, and the Lotus series, Rauschenberg’s last work. He shares his memories of the ICU unit set up in Rauschenberg's studio at the end of his life

Subjects

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, 2016

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