Month: December 2010

Getty Villa to Present Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze

After eighteen months of analysis, conservation, and re-stabilization, the bronze statue of Apollo Saettante (Apollo as an Archer) from Pompeii will go on view at the Getty Villa from March 2 to September 12, 2011 in the exhibition Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze. Providing a behind-the-scenes look at this rare treasure, the special six-month exhibition presents the results of the first full study of this ancient sculpture.

“This project has provided us an unprecedented opportunity,” said Erik Risser, an assistant conservator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and co-curator of the exhibition. “Large bronzes rarely survive from antiquity, and the chance to conduct a thorough investigation into the Apollo Saettante has brought to light its rich and complex history.”

A variety of approaches, including archival research, X-radiography, ultra-violet photography, and endoscopic examination, have provided important new information regarding both the techniques used to make the statue in antiquity, and also the methods used to restore it in the nineteenth century. The investigations extended to analyses of the metal alloy composition, the pigments on the surface, and even of the types of bolts used in the re-assembly, all to answer questions about previous restoration efforts.

Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze presents the results of these investigations, displaying art-historical, technical, and scientific evidence side by side in order to demonstrate the range of methods used during the study of the statue at the Getty Villa. Special features include the discovery of a large void in the statue’s back, which indicates that the method of its ancient manufacture was highly unusual, and the identification of two different phases of restoration. An interactive touch-screen display in the exhibition will provide visitors with the opportunity to explore the statue. This interactive feature will also be available on the Web at www.getty.edu.

Read the full article here.

Conservators comment on a Quran made from Saddam Hussein’s blood

In the late 1990s, Hussein conscripted a calligrapher to copy the Quran in his blood. In what he reportedly described at the time as a gesture of “gratitude” to God, Hussein donated seven gallons (27 liters) of blood over the course of two years to be used as ink in the macabre volume, according to an article in The Guardian on Sunday (Dec. 19).

The Quran is now kept behind locked doors in a mosque in Baghdad, and officials are uncertain how to handle an object that is simultaneously sacred and profane.

“Blood is a common medium used in paint,” Bruno Pouliot, an objects conservator at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware and a professor of art conservation at the University of Delaware, told LiveScience. “Ox blood is one of the oldest forms, and a very stable form, actually, of paint.”…”You have to process it a little bit to get it to have the exact properties that you need, but it’s a relatively easy process that anybody who could search online or would have access to the historical recipe for oxblood paint could do,” Pouliot said, minutes before pulling up an oxblood paint recipe online involving linseed oil and lime.

“What’s different about things that involve human remains is that they are always controversial,” University of Delaware professor of art conservation Vicki Cassman told LiveScience. In the case of the Quran, Cassman said, “there is that symbolism – that is, who it represents and if this person’s spirit lives on in the object.”

Should the Iraqis choose to preserve the Quran, they likely won’t have to take many extra precautions in terms of preservation, Pouliot said. Regular book preservation should do.

“Climate control is the first step,” said Jim Hinz, the director of book conservation at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) in Philadelphia. Humidity and temperature are key, he said, with cooler temperatures being better. Books should also be kept out of direct light, he said.

Hinz said he had not worked with any artwork made with blood, but he did have a tip for anyone who bleeds on something important: Spit.

“The enzymes [in saliva] break down and essentially bleach out the blood,” he told LiveScience.

The big questions that come up with the preservation of biological art aren’t technical, Pouliot said. Instead, they’re ethical. Conserving art sometimes involves applying stabilizing resins.

For blood, “there could be many reasons why it would not be desirable to change the composition of that material, in case it is useful for future studies,” Pouliot said. “Often the cultural aspects of that object become important.”

The above text is excerpted from an article in LiveScience. Read the complete article in LiveScience.

November Meeting Minutes

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ECPN MEETING MINUTES

November 18, 2010

Conference Call Attendees:
Ryan Winfield

Karen Pavelka

Amber Kerr Alison

Carrie Roberts

Amy Brost

Heather Brown

Rose Daly

Stephanie Porto, liaison from the Canadian Association of Conservators (CAC) Emerging Conservation Committee (ECC)

Stephanie Lussier

I. ECPN October meeting minutes approved unanimously

II. IAG Meeting (Amber)

a. Minutes will be posted to the AIC website, engaging with students was a topic, JAIC is interested in reviewers, approach the specialty groups and see if there could be a member of ECPN in each specialty group. 40th Anniversary meeting – focus will be on Advocacy and Outreach, considering changing the format of the meeting to be more general sessions

b. Communications and Outreach – Metadata .pdf for CoOL – more efficient search engine for CoOL, Meg Craft is excited about a student database of research. Approached by Lori Foley in the Emergency Task Force in CERT, student representative, could be like Health and Safety. Contact NYU to see if they would be willing to make postings available to the wider community, online job postings are free on the AIC website, Add links to ET section.

III. AIC Webpage Education and Training Section (Rose/Ryan)

a. Determined that, rather than adding job postings, add links to sites that routinely have job postings. This eliminates redundancy and the time commitment involved with maintaining current job listings. Links to include a list provided by Amy Brost in a recent call, plus others including Washington Conservation Guild.

b. Follow up with NYU to see if they would post more broadly. Concern that regional postings are never broadly available. Perhaps leverage AIC site, which now has free job listings. This page could become more robust.

c. Add images – need to explore how to do this and through whom at AIC

d. Resume samples and tips being explored

e. Becoming a conservator – need to enhance/update this area as well

IV. Database of Student Research (Carrie)

a. Recent discussion among Sagita Sunara, Amber, Carrie and Rose via Skype. Agreement that a vetting process must be in place. Already inherently done by faculty/staff at training programs. To submit research, require a master’s, PhD, or at minimum, a diploma in conservation.

b. Hosts being explored (CoOL or other)

c. Costs being explored – perhaps the membership could be a source for funding

d. Scope – start with N. America and if it is successful, grow internationally

e. Rights – work will be watermarked and also the copyright will remain with the student

V. AAM 2011 Proposal (Rose)

a. It was not accepted, although it was perhaps due in part to submitting by the more competitive second deadline rather than the early deadline. Will try again next year. Many emerging museum professionals there, so important to enhance ties there.

VI. AIC 2011 Meeting (Ryan/Rose)

a. Determined that the Business Meeting should be held Tuesday at 6 pm, and the dinner on Friday night at 6:30 or 7. This way, people who cannot attend the full week can attend one or the other. Also, new contacts made throughout the week can be invited to the Friday event.

b. Angels Project (Ryan) not yet developed, but will take place the Saturday after the meeting ends.

c. Media relations (Rose) – possibility of reaching out to Philadelphia Inquirer to do a story

d. Possible difficulty in reserving rooms for resume or portfolio sessions. Instead, consider having portfolio reviews during the Exhibit Hall break. Possibly 2 students (6-8 portfolios) from each program present to discuss their portfolios, Thurs. 1-1:30 and 3-3:30, at 3-4 tables.

e. Lightning round of short talks will be another year, maybe on the topic of outreach programs. Perhaps at ANAGPIC.

f. Short talks for another year could be done by ANAGPIC participants. Cut their 25-minute presentations down to 5 minutes. Fellows, PhD candidates, etc. on second day.

g. ECPN Poster – Amy will design based on last year’s poster. Style guidelines for AIC are in development and will be helpful. Amy to work with Heather, and gather images from ECPN to include.

VII. Outreach (Heather)

a. Blog posts have been added. To make the site more of a dialogue, ECPN members are encouraged to post comments.

b. Heather is contacting conservation guilds to ask for submissions to the blog, so ECPN members can be introduced to the various guilds. Rose to provide contact info to Heather for Richard McCoy at MRCG as one person to contact.

c. Heather has started a “Top 10” list on the blog as part of building up education and training content.

VIII. Communications (Amy)

a. Flier – IAG is developing best practices for AIC publications, and these style guidelines will help inform the flier design. Flier will be ready for the AIC meeting in May, along with the ECPN poster.

b. Amy is seeking photographs from ECPN members showing them at work on various projects. Image specifications to come, but high-resolution (print quality) images will be needed, with permission from the copyright holder.

IX. Mentoring program (Karen, Ryan, Heather, Rose)

a. Possible mentors have been approached. Plan to match all mentors and mentees by Dec. 1. Then follow-up with previous matches, and a call for additional mentors and/or mentees.

X. CIPP (Rose/Amy/Heather)

a. Develop a section of the website or ECPN blog about starting a private practice. Will contact Emily Phillips and others in private practice to see if they would write for the blog, or provide tips that can be assembled into a webpage. Reach out to CIPP Chair also.

b. Emily Gardner, a Buffalo graduate, also has a forum for CIPP newcomers that could be leveraged.

XI. IAG documents (Rose)

a. ECPN members should familiarize themselves with the IAG documents for committees available on the AIC website. Login and then go to Member Center > Committees and Task Forces > Internal Advisory Group Services.

b. Ryan set up the necessary permission for Amy. Ryan can provide access if it is blocked.

c. Minutes of the previous IAG meeting are available there also

Next conference call 1 PM EST, Thursday, December 16, 2010.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost

The MET’s “Portrait of Philip IV” by Velazquez: A year of study and conservation lead to an affirmation of the attributi

A front page article in The New York Times,“Restored, Then Reconsidered, A Met Velazquez Is Vindicated”, discusses how, after a year of study and treatment, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Portrait of Philip IV” has been reattributed to Velazquez almost four decades after it was downgraded to the work of an assistant or contemporary follower. The portait, which was in terrible condition with many layers of yellowed varnish and extensive repaintings, is thought to have been painted by Velazquez as one of several replicas of an official portrait. An acetate tracing of another of these replicas(collection of the Meadows Museum) was used by conservator Michael Gallagher when he positioned and repainted a missing eye.

A detail of the hand after cleaning and before inpainting

Space Suits, Their Construction and Condition

“The Right Stuff to Wear”, a New York Times Science Times article about the development of the design and function of U.S. spacesuits which reports on a November 2010 panel discussion on the subject at the National Air and Space Museum and gives notice of a spring 2011 Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition of full sized photographs and x-ray images of some of the 300 suits in the collection, makes a few points about the condition and conservation of these artifacts.

10 Tips for Becoming a Conservator

Tip #4: Begin assembling your portfolio early on
I think the term “portfolio” can be confusing to beginning conservators because all of the graduate program websites refer to your portfolio as a collection of studio art (paintings, drawings, etc.). You will need to have photographs of your artwork and/or original pieces to bring with you to interviews, but in addition to that you will be required to create a comprehensive binder showcasing all of your conservation experience: before and after treatment photos, copies of treatment proposals and reports, and documentation of any other preventive conservation projects and research. Altogether, this is what you should think of as your portfolio.

Oftentimes pre-program students will not see a single portfolio until attending the open house of one of the graduate programs; this was the case for me, so I really appreciated the opportunity to flip through ten very different portfolios, and ask the students why they organized them in a particular way. This is one of the reasons I highly recommend attending the open house days. Each school posts on their website when the next open house/portfolio day will be, and you can also email the department administrator to have your name put on the invitation list.

Examples of open houses, from 2010:

UCLA

Buffalo

Winterthur (photo at right)

If you’re unable to make it to an open house, ask your supervisor and other co-workers if they have a portfolio that you can look at—current or not—just to get an idea of what is included as well as how it is formatted. More and more people are posting their portfolios online too, so try googling ‘art conservation portfolio’ and check out the ones that come up. These past students from the UT Austin program were ahead of the curve in posting their portfolios before the program closed.

One thing that makes a portfolio great is visual appeal. Before and after treatment photographs are necessary as documentation, but be sure to also take lots of photos of objects during treatment and of YOU while working. Conservators are used to building portfolios, so they should be more than willing to assume the position of personal photographer for you if you ask nicely.

And remember throughout the whole pre-program process to stay organized so that when you finally get ready to put your portfolio together, you won’t have to scramble to copy reports or find out the names and dates of every piece you’ve treated! It helps to make copies of all written documentation involved with the projects you’re working on as you go along.

Finally, don’t worry about spending a lot of money on the materials for your portfolio; ultimately, the content is what will get you accepted into school or chosen for a job.

Internship at Northwestern Library

Internship at Northwestern

Conservation Intern
Northwestern University Library

Part-time up to 18.75 hours per week, Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm
Temporary position for 3-6 months

Salary: $8.75/hour

Northwestern University Library is offering a pre-program
conservation internship for a period of three to six months. The
Conservation Internship provides practical experience in a busy
academic library conservation lab and is designed to help prepare
applicants to Master’s level training programs in conservation. The
internship is also an ideal opportunity for a Northwestern
University student interested in learning more about the
conservation profession.

The Conservation Intern will develop an understanding of the
functions and responsibilities of a research library conservation
lab working with a variety of library and archival materials.
Through the completion of specific internship projects, the
Conservation Intern will gain bench experience, develop skills in
treatment decision making, and participate in a broad range of
preservation and conservation activities.

The Conservation Intern reports to the Conservation Librarian and
works closely with other Preservation Department conservators
depending on the nature of assigned projects. Internship projects
will include the conservation treatment of a collection of
scrapbooks from University Archives and assisting with an item-level
survey of the Arabic Manuscripts Collection from the Herskovits
Library of African Studies. Treatments are likely to include
surface cleaning, humidification and flattening of paper, mending
paper and filling losses (including aesthetic compensation),
creating appropriate housings, and other treatments. The complexity
of treatments and level of decision making will increase as skills
develop. At the end of the internship, the intern will be required
to produce a written report or presentation of their work.

Qualifications:

Candidates will need to demonstrate hand skills and attention to
detail.

Previous experience in conservation is preferred, but not
required.

Applicants must be U.S. Citizens or eligible to work in the
United States.

Candidates must be enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program or
have completed a bachelor’s degree.

The application deadline is January 31, 2011. The internship will
begin in February 2011. Candidates should indicate desired length
of the internship in their cover letter. Interested candidates
should send a resume and a cover letter to:

Tonia Grafakos
Conservation Librarian
Northwestern University Library
t-grafakos [at] northwestern__edu

AIC Committee for Sustainable Conservation Practices seeking new members

The AIC Committee for Sustainable Conservation Practices is seeking two new professional members to serve on the committee for a 2- year term beginning in May 2011. CSCP provides resources for AIC members and other caretakers of cultural heritage regarding environmentally sustainable approaches to preventive care and other aspects of conservation practice. We provide resources via electronic media, workshops, publications and presentations. Professional members meet approximately once a month via telephone conference to discuss progress of their shared ongoing tasks including editing the AIC Wiki Sustainable Practice Page, research, presentations, and writing articles .

Please submit a statement of interest and your resume to Sarah Nunberg at snunberg [at] aol [dot] com by January 17, 2011.