Robert Rauschenberg’s first paintings are monochromes: in the White Paintings from 1951 he sees the paintings as a screen where the viewers project their shadows. Soon Rauschenberg starts collaging to the canvas first newspaper pages that he overpaints with black paint, and then fabric that he overpaints in red with the kind of brush strokes that were typical of Abstract Expressionism. These Red Paintings would lead in 1954 to his first Combines, a word created by Rauschenberg to name works that are simultaneously paintings and sculptures. They include collages and objects laden with autobiographical, cultural and mass media references.