The Classics

This drawing is from Rachel Harrison's series The Classics (begun 2017), a group of drawings inspired by photographs of Greek statuary from art history books on Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic sculpture. To make this series, Harrison began with sketchbook drawings executed with pink Sharpie which she documented with her camera. She then enlarged the photographs treating the resulting object as a surface for further drawing in colored pencil, ink, and wax crayon. In certain cases, it is almost impossible to tell what is physical drawing and what is reproduction. At other times, Harrison offers clues such as when she leaves visible her sketchbook's spiral binding or the edge of one of her sourcebooks. What is always apparent is the struggle that takes place on and across her pages as images well known and obscure flicker in and out of recognition.