Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Paintings by Bob Rauschenberg, May 14–June 2, 1951. 

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s, June 15–August 11, 1991. Organized by Menil Collection, Houston. Traveled to Menil Collection, Houston, September 27, 1991–January 5, 1992; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, February 8–April 19, 1992; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 14–August 16, 1992; Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, October 24, 1992–January 24, 1993. 

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Beat Culture and the New America: 1950–1965, November 9, 1995–February 4, 1996. Traveled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, June 2–September 15, 1996; M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, October 5–December 29, 1996. 

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective, September 19, 1997–January 7, 1998 (also Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, September 19, 1997–January 4, 1998, and Ace Gallery, New York, September 19–November 9, 1997). Traveled to Menil Collection, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 13–May 17, 1998; Museum Ludwig, Cologne (as Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospektive), June 27–October 11, 1998; Museo Guggenheim Bilbao (as Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospectiva), November 21, 1998–March 7, 1999. no. 7

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Treasures of Modern Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA, January 30–June 24, 2003. 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 75 Years of Looking Forward: The Anniversary Show, December 19, 2009–January 16, 2011. 

Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art, June 28–October 27, 2013. Organized with San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 

Tate Modern, London, Robert Rauschenberg, December 1, 2016–April 2, 2017. Organized with Museum of Modern Art, New York. Traveled to Museum of Modern Art, New York (as Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends), May 21–September 17, 2017; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (as Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules), November 18, 2017–March 25, 2018. (not shown in London)

Seckler, Dorothy Gees. “Reviews and Previews: Robert Rauschenberg.” Artnews 50, no. 3 (May 1951). p. 59

Robert Rauschenberg. Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1976. Exhibition catalogue. p. 31 (not exhibited)

Feinstein, Roni. “The Unknown Early Robert Rauschenberg: The Betty Parsons Exhibition of 1951.” Arts Magazine (New York) 59, no. 5 (January 1985). pp. 127, 130 (fig. 4)

Feinstein, Roni. “The Early Work of Robert Rauschenberg: The White Paintings, the Black Paintings, and the Elemental Sculptures.” Arts Magazine (New York) 61, no. 1 (September 1986). p. 28

Feinstein, Roni. “Random Order: The First Fifteen Years of Robert Rauschenberg’s Art, 1949–1964.” PhD diss., New York University, 1990. ProQuest (303859753). pp. 59, 89, as Mother of God, pp. 62–64, n.p. (fig. 8), as Untitled

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 28–30, 44, 49 (pl. 14)

Lewis, Jo Ann. “Rauschenberg, Bright and Early.” Washington Post, June 15, 1991. sec. C, p. 8

Smith, Roberta. “Robert Rauschenberg, at Home and Abroad.” New York Times, August 6, 1991. sec. C, pp. 11 (ill.), 16

Ennis, Michael. “A Protean Talent.” Texas Monthly 19, no. 11 (November 1991). p. 82

Smith, Mark L. “Image and Word in the Prints of Robert Rauschenberg, 1951–1981.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1992. ProQuest (304034847). pp. 275–76, 469 (fig. 116)

Camper, Fred. “The Unordered Universe.” Reader (Chicago), March 27, 1992. sec. 1, p. 31

Colpitt, Frances. “Rauschenberg: In the Beginning.” Art in America 80, no. 4 (April 1992). pp. 126 (ill.), 127

Wainwright, Lisa. “Reading Junk: Thematic Imagery in the Art of Robert Rauschenberg from 1952 to 1964.” PhD diss., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1993. ProQuest (304050074). pp. ix, 62, 64–65

Phillips, Lisa. Beat Culture and the New America: 1950–1965. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art; Paris: Flammarion, 1995. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 51 (ill.), 275

Holt, Patricia. “The Beats Go On at de Young.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 4, 1996. sec. C, p. 8

Hopps, Walter, and Susan Davidson. Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1997. Exhibition catalogue. no. 7, pp. 35, 44, 51 (pl. 7)

Bois, Yve-Alain. “Early Lead.” Artforum 36, no. 1 (September 1997). p. 97

Wainwright, Lisa. “Rauschenberg’s American Voodoo.” New Art Examiner 25, no. 8 (May 1998). pp. 30–31

Jäger, Joachim. Das zivilisierte Bild: Robert Rauschenberg und seine Combine-Paintings der Jahre 1960–1962. Klagenfurt, Austria: Ritter, 1999. p. 112

Joseph, Branden W. “White on White.” Critical Inquiry 27, no. 1 (Autumn 2000). pp. 90–91

Joseph, Branden W. Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003. pp. 26, 27 (ill.)

Mattison, Robert S. Robert Rauschenberg: Breaking Boundaries. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003. pp. 62, 256

Robinson, Julia. “From Abstraction to Model: In the Event of George Brecht and the Conceptual Turn in the Art of the 1960s.” PhD diss., Princeton University, N.J., 2008. pp. 51, 358 (fig. 10)

Bishop, Janet, Corey Keller, and Sarah Roberts, eds. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: 75 Years of Looking Forward. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2009. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 145–46, 146 (pl. 109), 151, 432

Richards, Elizabeth. “Rauschenberg’s Religion: Autobiography and Spiritual Reference in Rauschenberg’s Use of Textiles.” Southeastern College Art Conference Review 16, no. 1 (2011). p. 43

Delfiner, Judith. Double-Barrelled Gun: Dada aux États-Unis (1947–1957). Dijon: Les Presses du Réel, 2011. pp. 143, 145 (fig. 12), 146

Craft, Catherine. Robert Rauschenberg. London: Phaidon, 2013. pp. 10, 15 (no. 9)

Davidson, Susan. “Mother of God.” Rauschenberg Research Project, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, July 2013. (figs. 1, 3 [detail], 4 [detail], 5 [detail])

Roberts, Sarah. “White Painting [three panel].” Rauschenberg Research Project, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, July 2013. 

Dickerman, Leah, and Achim Borchardt-Hume. Robert Rauschenberg. New York: Museum of Modern Art; London: Tate Publishing, 2016. Exhibition catalogue. p. 44 (pl. 5)

Kotz, Mary Lynn. Rauschenberg: Art and Life. 3rd ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2018. p. 70

Sinclair, Sara, with Mary Marshall Clark and Peter Bearman, eds. Robert Rauschenberg: An Oral History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. n.p. (fig. 1), p. 180

Stemmrich, Gregor. Robert Rauschenberg’s “Erased de Kooning Drawing” (1953): Modernism, Literalism, Postmodernism. Translated by Steven Lindberg. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2023. pp. 94 (fig. 11), 136–38