Polaroid Process #8

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Guardian' G2 06/10/08

Continuing the series of drawings processed from newspaper reproductions of Warhol’s Polaroid originals dating from the 1970s, &, although it isn’t the purpose of The Project as such (or even this ‘project within’), in this instance making specific reference to the subject of the portrait, the late artist Robert Rauschenberg, in terms of drawing.

Renowned for all manner of ground-breaking work in numerous media – painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage using found objects, printmaking, performance & various combinations of, operating in, as the artist himself claimed, “the space between art & life” – one particular, iconic piece is Rauschenberg’s ‘Erased de Kooning Drawing’, which is, essentially, as titled.


Robert Rauschenberg 'Erased de Kooning Drawing' 1953

With the consent of Willem de Kooning himself, Rauschenberg chose one of that artist’s drawings & proceeded to erase it, thus creating a new work of art in the process of doing so: in order that the ‘work of art’ involve significant effort, de Kooning specified that the original drawing chosen should not be made merely of more easily-erasable graphite but rather of mixed media – Rauschenberg’s finished work as labelled (by fellow artist & one-time cohort Jasper Johns) indeed makes reference to traces of ink & crayon on paper.
Given the date of this act of Rauschenberg’s – 1953 – the appearance of the erased drawing relates closely to his recently-preceding series of ‘White Paintings’, thus establishing aesthetic consistency. The erased drawing itself is therefore not negative in either conception or production, but a positive act: as one thing – a de Kooning drawing – disappears, another – an erased (being a performative process) drawing – appears, leaving a faint trace of the original, creation results from an apparent act of destruction.

Interesting to note a relation between such a process & that habitually employed in the making of my own drawings, where the utilisation of a putty eraser often removes part or all of some original marks in the process of resolving tonal areas to accord with those of the photographic source, & the act of drawing itself, the process, involves a formal dialogue & maintains a constant tension between the addition & subtraction of marks.

Also, acts of erasure in specific relation to newspaper images coincide in examples of the work of the artist Matt Bryans, again creating new works from existing sources, to which my attention was directed by a post on Kirsty Hall’s exemplary & always informative blog.

Soundtrack:


Stendec 'A Study of 'And''
Belle & Sebastian 'Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant'
Go-Betweens 'Tallulah'