In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg asked Willem De Kooning for one of his drawings. Amazingly, he agreed. Rauschenberg then proceeded to rub out De Kooning’s drawing and exhibit the resulting near blank sheet. This is such a beautiful moment in art history as it brings together the mood of the time and the lasting legacy of both Abstract Expressionism and what would later become post modernism. Find a reproduction of this drawing on the web and make notes on how you feel about it at first sight. Then look a little into the background and try to get an understanding of why Rauschenberg might have done this. There are video interviews online with both artists. Use Google to find the videos and make notes on your thoughts about what happened.

I was lucky enough to see the “Erased De Kooning” drawing in the flesh in the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition at Tate Modern in London in 2017, even if there is not that much to look at.

The erased drawing is framed in a golden frame and bears an inscription “Erased de Kooning drawing” by Robert Rauschenberg. By framing it and labelling it, it becomes elevated to a piece that we can look at and understand the process behind. Without this, we would have no clue what we are looking at.

(Image from: Roberts , S. 2013. SFMoMa. [Online]. [15 April 2020]. Available from: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/98.298/)

Robert Rauschenberg was experimenting with different art forms at the time, and stretching the limits of what could be an art work- continuing the legacy of the ready made by Duchamps. The question was, if the act of erasure could create an artwork. Rauschenberg understood that he would have to begin with a drawing that was recognized as art to start with that he would then erase, so he contacted de Kooning who was already recognized in the art world, and greatly admired by Rauschenberg.

In an interview on You tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ), Rauschenberg explains that if de Kooning had not been home that day- that would have been the work. If he would not have been willing to give out a drawing to erase- then that would have been the work. But de Kooning agreed, and added that it would have to be a drawing that he would miss. Rauschenberg sais that the drawing was VERY difficult to erase. It had crayons and charcoal and took a month to erase.

“It is not a negation, it is a celebration” sais Rauschenberg in another Youtube interview for the SFMoMa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRNQER16Do).

Hearing these interviews added another level of understanding of the work for me- that whatever had happened, if De Kooning would not have been home or not given a drawing, would have been the work. Here the process is really the work. These other situations would not have been possible to frame and hang in a museum half a century later- but they would still have been the work.

I am only beginning to grasp the importance of process in my own drawings, as I am experimenting with drawings where the process is more important than the final drawing, like the body prints I did for Assignment 2. I am excited to push this further by drawing to music for Assignment 3, without being focused on an outcome, but accepting the marks inspired in the moment.