Rauschenberg Erased De Kooning Drawing Analysis
Visual Art Appraising assignment-
The Erased de Kooning Drawing (see figure 3) was produced by Rauschenberg as he was devoted to discover if he could produce an artwork entirely based on erasure, the act focused on the removal of marks rather than their accumulation. He began to experiment on erasing his own drawings but rather decided to use other artwork that was indisputably substantial in its own right. He approached an inspirational artist to himself, Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), an artist who he had remarkable respect for, and asked him to provide a drawing to erase. Somewhat unwillingly, de Kooning had agreed. Rauschenberg had erased the original drawing, drawn over the top of the erasure …show more content…
Rauschenberg than mounted the drawing to reinforce it prior to the erasure process. As he removed the paperboard backing, an unfinished female figure rendered in graphite was revealed. Rauschenberg cited it and erased an original de Kooning drawing. Through first impressions, its meaning is utterly opaque, and is impossible to speculate upon. The citing “ERASED DE KOONING DRAWING BY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 1953,” is the only hint offered to those who are unacquainted with this drawing. The drawing itself does not convey a sufficient amount of visual information to establish its identity. The complete drawing – mat, inscription & frame brings to mind a religious reliquary, which depends on an ornate presentation and associated narrative to create an aura of significance around the remains of it. Once it was framed, the paper represented something more. The drawing reverses the physical, additive process of action painting, and hinges entirely on the concept of an artwork as a performative act. The erasure might have occurred because of its use to break, move and blur modulate lines to form his own drawing. By contrast, the Erased de Kooning Drawing continues on the power of the original,
The Erased de Kooning Drawing (see figure 3) was produced by Rauschenberg as he was devoted to discover if he could produce an artwork entirely based on erasure, the act focused on the removal of marks rather than their accumulation. He began to experiment on erasing his own drawings but rather decided to use other artwork that was indisputably substantial in its own right. He approached an inspirational artist to himself, Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), an artist who he had remarkable respect for, and asked him to provide a drawing to erase. Somewhat unwillingly, de Kooning had agreed. Rauschenberg had erased the original drawing, drawn over the top of the erasure …show more content…
Rauschenberg than mounted the drawing to reinforce it prior to the erasure process. As he removed the paperboard backing, an unfinished female figure rendered in graphite was revealed. Rauschenberg cited it and erased an original de Kooning drawing. Through first impressions, its meaning is utterly opaque, and is impossible to speculate upon. The citing “ERASED DE KOONING DRAWING BY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 1953,” is the only hint offered to those who are unacquainted with this drawing. The drawing itself does not convey a sufficient amount of visual information to establish its identity. The complete drawing – mat, inscription & frame brings to mind a religious reliquary, which depends on an ornate presentation and associated narrative to create an aura of significance around the remains of it. Once it was framed, the paper represented something more. The drawing reverses the physical, additive process of action painting, and hinges entirely on the concept of an artwork as a performative act. The erasure might have occurred because of its use to break, move and blur modulate lines to form his own drawing. By contrast, the Erased de Kooning Drawing continues on the power of the original,