Matt Dillon, the Actor and Artist, on His Favorite Artwork

Hi, I’m Matt Dillon, and I’m an actor, director, painter, drawer, collager. The artwork that I’m thinking of is “Erased de Kooning Drawing” by Robert Rauschenberg, which was made in 1953. You know, Rauschenberg had been working on the idea of doing drawings with erasers. And he came to the conclusion that it needed to be an already pre-existing artwork. And he went to the artist that he really so admired, Willem de Kooning, and gave him this proposition: “I’d like to erase one of your works.” The condition for him was that it has to be a really great drawing, something that he would, that he would miss. And then my understanding is that Jasper Johns then named it. So it’s this idea of a work developing. The reason I gravitated toward this is I — I sort of like that it’s an artwork that was originally another artwork that if it evolved into something else. Because this work is a collaborative work. And I love the conversation that’s happening. And so much of the work that I do in filmmaking is collaborative, you know? And it is a dialogue, and I carry that with me when I’m doing other things — drawing and painting and collage. If it was fun when it was being created, it’s going to be fun when you experience it.