• Robert Rauschenberg’s aviation-inspired works will headline new Smithsonian exhibition.
• The show will debut as part of the National Air and Space Museum’s newly renovated Flight and Arts Center.
• The artist had a lifelong fascination with flight and did a residency with NASA in the 1960s.

An exhibition devoted to Robert Rauschenberg will headline the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum when it reopens its Flight and Arts Center in July following a multi-million-dollar renovation.

“The Ascent of Rauschenberg: Reinventing the Art of Flight” features 30 works by the American Pop artist—some never before shown—tracing how themes of flight and space exploration ran through his six-decade career.

A key figure of the mid-century New York art scene and widely regarded as the first postmodern artist, Rauschenberg blended Dadaist influences with early Pop Art sensibilities. He was fascinated by aeronautics and references to all types of flight appeared throughout his diverse body of work.

Robert Rauschenberg, Sky Garden (1969). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Birds crop up regularly in his compositions, like in his early work, Canyon (1959), part of his series of “Combines” which melded painting and sculptural practices, which features a protruding eagle. In 1963, he collaborated with the choreographer Merce Cunningham to create Pelican, a dance performance inspired by avian flight which saw dancers roller skate with a parachute attached to their back in an attempt to make them airborne.

In a 1996 Artforum interview, Rauschenberg said that the artwork other than his own that he most wished he could have created was “to have been around to help the Wright brothers work on their concept of flying bicycles.” A hint of this wheeled flying machine can be seen in his 1974 work Kitty Hawk.

Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography Detail (1968) © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Space flight also captured his interest. In the late 1960s, the artist took part in a residency at NASA, working to documenting Apollo 11’s pioneering journey to the moon on July 20, 1969, which the artist was invited to watch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. His lithograph Sky Garden (Stoned Moon)—an over seven-foot-tall lithograph and screenprint inspired by Apollo 11’s mission—will be a centerpiece of the upcoming exhibition at the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian curator Carolyn Russo said, for the artist, flight wasn’t just a subject, “it was a metaphor for freedom and artistic possibility.” She hopes the upcoming exhibition will “offer a richer understanding of Robert Rauschenberg’s innovative techniques, sustained legacy, and unique perspective on all things that fly.”

Robert Rauschenberg, Prehistoric Rose Spore (1981), © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Courtesy of the Smithsonian.

The one-year exhibition, opening July 1, will include key loans from the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. It follows a landmark year for Rauschenberg: 2025 saw more than 30 major exhibitions of his work held around the world to mark the centenary of his birth.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum located along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Photo: J. David Ake/ Getty Images.

The National Air and Space Museum boasts more than 7,000 artworks in its collection. “The Ascent of Rauschenberg” will be accompanied by another exhibition, “The Art of Air and Space,” featuring around 75 works from the museum’s holdings by artists such as Francisco Goya, Man Ray, Norman Rockwell, Alma Thomas, and Annie Leibovitz. Organized by artistic movements and themes in aviation and space flight, it marks the 50th anniversary of its flagship building in Washington, D.C.

“The Ascent of Rauschenberg: Reinventing the Art of Flight” will be on view from July 1, 2026 through June 2027 at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, National Mall, Washington, D.C.