When I was in school, learning about all the iconoclasts of the 20th century, Robert Rauchenberg had a retrospective at the Guggenheim. I was working across the street then and must've found my way into the exhibition at least 5 or 6 times. As with my many creative people of my generation, Rauchenberg was a huge inspiration. He showed me that design could be art and art could be design. He also erased a DeKooning drawing (given to him by the artist himself) - that's just badass. But most inspiring was his view of the creative process and his interest in "the ability to conceive failure as progress".
