Born in Port Arthur, Texas, as Milton Rauschenberg, he changed his name to Robert after WWII. Robert imagined himself first as a minister and later as a pharmacist. It wasn't until 1947, while in the U.S. Marines that he discovered his aptitude for drawing and his interest in the artistic representation of everyday objects and people.

After leaving the Marines he studied art in Paris on the G.I. Bill, but quickly became disenchanted with the European art scene. After less than a year he moved to North Carolina, where the country's most visionary artists and thinkers, such as Joseph Albers and Buckminster Fuller, were teaching at Black Mountain College.

On June 21, 1950, he was married to Susan Weil; they divorced in 1952. On July 16, 1951, their son Christopher was born. Robert met Jasper Johns in 1954 and moved to a new studio space in the same neighborhood as Johns in 1955. They worked closely together until 1962. He and Jasper Johns were lovers from 1955 to 1961.

Rauschenberg set up the foundation Change, Inc. for destitute artists in 1970 and a house with art studios in Florida in 1971, where he lives on Captiva Island. Robert continues to work there, bringing his sense of excitement and challenge into the new millennium. He was asked to design the cover of Time magazine's special double issue on the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States.