It was created in 1953 when Rauschenberg erased a drawing he obtained from the abstract expressionist and American artist Willem de Kooning.

He approached de Kooning, an artist he admired and who was at the height of his career, and asked for a drawing that he could erase to create a new work of art.

[3] The gilded frame and inscription by Jasper Johns have always been important parts of the work and were explicitly noted in 1976 to remain with the drawing in all exhibitions of the piece.

[4] No photographs exist of the de Kooning work before its erasure, but in 2010 digital images were made by SFMOMA, as a part of the Rauschenberg Research Project, that enhanced the remaining traces of the underlying drawing.

[5] De Kooning's original drawing features several figures facing in different directions, including at least one female, probably made with pencil and charcoal.

Some critics recognized the conceptual drive within Erased de Kooning Drawing, while others called the erasure an act of vandalism.

[6] In later years, Rauschenberg would continue to make pieces that explored his relationship to the Abstract Expressionist, action painting and De Kooning himself.