Life April 9 1951 Page 22/23

UNDERWATER NYMPH floating in a haze of sea flowers adorns the blueprint after it has been developed. The paper is dark blue where it was exposed to the direct light of the sun lamp. Cloudy areas are sections which were only partially exposed. In right center is Bob's foot, which got into the composition by accident. 

EXPOSING blueprint, Bob holds sun lamp over section of paper for two minutes. In actual sunlight, time of exposure is much shorter. 

SPEAKING OF PICTURES

Blueprint paper, sun lamp, a nude produce some vaporous fantasies .

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Blueprints have long been the tool of architects and engineers who cover them with precise plans and cross sections. Recently two young painters, Bob and Sue Rauschenberg of New York, decided to put them to a more fanciful use. Spreading strips of blueprint paper on the floor, they decked it with leaves, ferns and other oddments salvaged from a florist shop and asked a model friend to come in and pose for them. As she lay nude on the paper, Bob moved slowly around her with a sun lamp, exposing the uncovered areas of the blueprint. At the end of 20 minutes he had produced the decorative image on the opposite page. Although the Rauschenbergs make blueprints for fun, they hope to turn them into screen and wallpaper designs. 

DEVELOPING, Bob washes strip under the shower, plasters it on bathroom wall and sponges it with peroxide solution to fix the image. 

SURREAL DANCER was made by Sue as Bob lay on paper in his jeans. She used string for head, shell for mouth, broken glass for eyes.