Robert Rauschenberg: Critics hail 'must-see' Tate Modern retrospective

Rauschenberg's Untitled (Spread), made in 1983, features in the exhibition

The Tate Modern's new Robert Rauschenberg retrospective been has hailed as "the exhibition of the year" and "a must-see" by art critics.

The show brings together more than 200 paintings, sculptures, photographs, digital prints and performance pieces from the US artist's six-decade career.

The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian awarded the show five stars.

The Telegraph's Mark Hudson wrote: "This, to my mind, is the exhibition of the year."

He added: "I can't recall a show in recent times that takes us so vividly into a moment.

"You come away thinking that, if he didn't actually invent the Sixties outright, he pretty much invented Sixties art."

• Robert Rauschenberg: Art pioneer and inspiration

The exhibition is open to the public until April

The Guardian's Adrian Searle described it as "impossibly rich and rewarding".

He wrote: "Room after room arrests us with yet another creative swerve, a shift in medium, scale, formal attack and presence.

"The show maintains surprise, even though he was so prolific that much is missing."

The exhibition covers Rauschenberg's work from the late 1950s to his death in 2008 and is the first posthumous retrospective of the pioneering artist.

Rauschenberg merged sculpture and painting in Monogram, made between 1955-1959

Writing in The Times, Rachel Campbell-Johnston said: "The breadth of vision is mind-opening."

Noting how he influenced UK artists like Tracey Emin, she added: "Our Brit artists may half wish that this show wasn't coming: we find out how many ideas have been pinched.

"For the rest of us this retrospective is a must-see."

The exhibition is open to the public from Thursday until 2 April 2017.