Elle Friedberg
June 2022 - August 2022
Second Summer Internship Placement
Primary Supervisor
Thomas Roach, Director of Art Services
Below are the major projects from my second-year summer internship. Please click the "Learn More" buttons for more information on each project.
For nine weeks in the summer of 2022, I worked with the staff at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation's (RRF) off-site warehouse facility outside New York City. My main project was carrying out a collections pilot survey of 28 water-based inkjet transfer works created between 1992 and 2008. Working with Kate Shilling, Associate Research Scientist at the Institute for Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University, we also conducted Microfade Testing (MFT).
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Rauschenberg’s inkjet transfers were created with inherently sensitive dye and pigment based-colorants that have been observed to fade over time. A collections survey was determined as the best way of understanding their condition, most accurately describing their material make-up in the marketplace, and establishing appropriate parameters for their care and exhibition. I examined works that encompass the seven primary series of Rauschenberg’s inkjet transfers and represented works with both relatively high and low exhibition history.
This internship was part of a multi-year collaboration between Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), Voices in Contemporary Art (VOCA), and The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF). This collaboration also involved a research project conducted during the academic year. You can read more about that project here.​​
Photo: Sarah Freshnock
1. Collections survey. I completed condition reports and the survey template for 28 works. The survey covered the topics of condition, exhibition history, storage and packing, and future potential for MFT testing. The inkjet transfers can be quite large, a few around 10 x 10 feet!
Photo: Thomas Roach
2. Microfade testing. MFT is an analytical technique used to understand the light sensitivity of colorants. We aimed to use MFT to answer two questions: (1) Are the artworks in one series generally more light sensitive than another series? (2) For the works that already exhibit evidence of fading, will they fade further?​
​3. Additional activities. We also spent time in Manhattan shadowing the team of RRF art handlers de-install two shows: Mnuchin Gallery, “Robert Rauschenberg: Exceptional Works, 1971-1999” and Gladstone Gallery “Venetians and Early Egyptians, 1972-1974.” We had the opportunity to see the complex crates used to pack Rauschenberg’s multimedia and often multi-piece sculptures.