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OEC Helps with Kisses

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Archives of American Art (AAA) is installing the exhibition A Thousand Kisses: Love Letters from the Archives of American Art, located in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, and will run through May 30, 2008.

A Thousand Kisses, featuring love letters written by and to American artists, was organized by Liza Kirwin, curator of manuscripts, and Joan Lord, curatorial archives specialist. The exhibit celebrates the publication of their new book With Love: Artists’ Letters and Illustrated Notes.

OEC Graphics supervisor Rolando Mayen installed two vinyl murals for this exhibition: one of painters and spouses Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, and another of nature photographer Harry Bowden and his wife Betty. In order to fit the approximately 80 by 130-inch photographs on the arched walls, Mayen cut them to shape using a template made during the previous installation. He then taped the photographs in position on the walls before peeling away the backing and adhering them to the walls. Each wall mural was made of two sections, overlapping only about a quarter inch to account for possible flexing due to temperature or humidity changes.

When the exhibition closes, the vinyl murals, which are backed with low tack adhesive, will peel off quickly and with little damage to the walls.

top photo: Bruce and Libby Thiel of Blueline Design put away their silkscreening materials.
middle photo: Mayen double-checks the measurements before putting the mural on the wall.
bottom photo: Mayen makes sure the mural is applied without any air pockets.

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