Willem de Kooning drawing / eraser

(In 1953, artist Robert Rauschenberg had been working on a series of white monochrome paintings and, in an attempt to integrate drawing into the series, began experimenting with erasure. Unsatisfied with erasing his own work, he approached the painter Willem de Kooning and requested a work of de Kooning’s to erase. In response, de Kooning gave him an untitled drawing done in pencil and crayon. The process of erasing the picture took Rauschenberg weeks to complete. The resulting work, “Erased de Kooning Drawing,” could be seen as a gesture of succession - but, Rauschenberg insisted, not one of destruction.)