Up Close and Personal

by Ashley Rand

This week was simply amazing. I was able to look at Roy Lichtenstein’s prints in person. Although we weren't documenting the Brushstroke Figures series, Peter and Shannon pulled each print out in the vault so we could look at them. I was in shock! I have never had the experience of seeing his work up close and personal like that before. It was amazing to see the details and layers used in each piece to create the final project. I could have sat there all day admiring his work. However, we had to move on and get the day's work photographed.

We mainly documented works by Robert Rauschenberg. His work is abstract and simply amazing as well. The main piece was Chinese Summerhall, which he created while traveling and taking photographs. He took over fifty rolls of film with 12 exposures on each, and then narrowed them down to make a collage. He included street scenes, markets, store windows, and everyday life. It was executed beautifully, and flowed together as if you were walking through a day in China. To see it up close gives it so much more beauty than from afar.