Robert Rauschenberg's Retreat for Un-Tortured Artists
An artists retreat on an island off Florida’s Gulf Coast with unfettered access to studios, screenprinting presses, a darkroom, and more? It sounds too good to be true, but the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s residency on Captiva welcomed 100 artists annually before Hurricane Ian flattened great swaths of Florida in 2022—and now, in time for the artist’s centennial, it will again.
Rauschenberg, who died in 2008, bought a small beach house and made the island his home in 1970 after living in New York City for two decades. Over the years he bought adjacent properties to protect them from development and to host fellow artists, including Cy Twombly and Brice Marden. He swam, fished, and walked his dogs, and he also worked furiously, producing some of his most admired pieces and inspiring others to do the same. “Captiva is the foundation of my life and my work,” he wrote in a letter. “It is my source and my reserves of energies.”
Ian wasn’t the first storm to damage his home. In 2004 islanders evacuated thanks to Hurricane Charley. Rauschenberg rebuilt then, and now his foundation has rebuilt again. Residencies at the wild, shambly paradise resume this spring.
Photo at top: Robert Rauschenberg fishing with his friend Julie Martin.
This story appears in the March 2025 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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