Author: Rebecca Rushfield

According to an article in the September 22, 2016 issue of The New York Times (“Technology Unlocks Secrets of a Biblical Scroll”, by Nicholas Wade), using x-ray based micro-computed tomography and a visualization technique called “virtual unwrapping”, the text of a carbonized parchment scroll found at Ein-Gedi (on the shore of the Dead Sea) about 50 years ago has been retrieved without unrolling the scroll. Now scholars hope to apply this technique to the carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum. What a boon to scholarship. Technology can be truly amazing.

In an article in the September 22, 2016 issue of The Wall Street Journal about the exhibit “Jerusalem 1000- 1400: Every People Under Heaven” that recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Medieval Art from Jerusalem Opens Window on Past, by David Masello), it is noted that five 12th century capitals carved with scenes from the lives of the saints were acquired for the show due to the diplomatic bargaining skills of conservator Jack Soultanian who made a deal with the Franciscans of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth where the sculptures were housed. We all know that conservators have many varied skills and play many roles, but negotiator is not necessarily the one that first comes to mind.

In the October calendar of programs and events sent out by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery there is a listing for an “Art and Me” program for children ages 3-5. During the one and a half hour program, “Silver Tells a Story”, the children will join conservator Ellen Chase to explore what goes into preserving precious art objects made of silver and experiment with “newly acquired skills”. Perhaps this program will spark an interest in one or more of the children who attend it that will lead them to a career in conservation decades from now. One is never too young to learn about conservation.

Each month, Hyperallergic, a daily newsletter on art and culture publishes horoscopes that “offer astrological advice for artists and art types, in art terms”. They aim to be witty and clever and usually are. Occasionally, they miss the mark. September’s horoscope for Libras is one time. It reads: “ Your close friendships are in need of some maintenance work, Libra, and a shared hobby or workshop is just the sort of bonding experience you and your besties need. No, we’re not recommending a night of drunken landscape painting at Pinot’s Palette — which is to artistic development as karaoke is to voice training. We’re talking about picking up some serious skills with a good friend or two, whether it’s trying out glass blowing, learning how to restore historic oil paintings, or getting real good at crochet. Nothing rebuilds bonds better than mutual embarrassment — as karaoke teaches us time and time again.” Art restoration and crochet. Just two good hobbies to share with friends.

Every other week, the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal contains a column by Amanda Foreman titled “Historically Speaking” in which she writes on history, culture, and world affairs. This past weekend (August 27-28, 2016), the column, “When Works of Art Come Apart”, focused on the vulnerability of works of art to a number of things, primarily inherent vice. Foreman details the problems of specific works from Leonardo’s Last Supper to Damien Hirst’s “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” (his preserved shark). This is good and informative. The last line of the piece, “There’s a moral in all this, somewhere”–almost a throwaway— seems to belittle all that came before it. I shouldn’t be annoyed by it, but I am.

In the August 16, 2016 issue of The New York Times, Doreen Carvajal writes about the trend in French (and other) museums to have their conservators work in public (“Museum Showtime: Watching Varnish Dry”). She notes the reasons why museums like this trend (increased publicity and funding, more transparency about what goes on in conservation studios) and the reasons why some conservators do not like it (lack of concentration and quiet , being watched all the time). However, this well balanced discussion of the topic is marred by opening paragraphs containing lines like : “it’s show time” , “all to watch varnish dry”, and “they swipe away”. This is a serious philosophical issue. Why undercut the seriousness with snarkiness?

According to Claire Voon posting in Hyperallergic on August 19th, for a five month period beginning on August 20, 2016 the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston will allow visitors to see the conservation process in action as experts from the Museum’s Asian Conservation Studio and the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art will work on an ancient Japanese hanging scroll, “The Death of the Historical Buddha” by Hanabusa Itchō (1713) in the MFA’s Asian Paintings gallery. Accompanied by other hanging scrolls and woodblock prints from the 19th and early 20th centuries that portray scenes executed in the same memorial portrait tradition, the conservation work is part of an exhibit, “Conservation in Action: Preserving Nirvana”. Jacki Elgar, Head of Asian Conservation at the MFA is quoted as saying that, “It’s an exhibition, but it’s a changing exhibition. Every week will be different because we’ll be progressing in the treatment. To me, it’s more like a performance piece.” The conservator as performance artist! Imagine if this show brings these conservators the renown that Marina Abramović got for her two month performance piece, “The Artist is Present”.

Sometimes the most thought provoking quotes about conservation are found in articles that are not directly about conservation. The article, “Body of Work”, by Alice Gregory in the August 1, 2016 issue of The New Yorker ends with such a quote. Gregory is profiling the efforts of the conceptual artist Jill Magid to get Federica Zanco, the owner of the archive of the Mexican architect Luis Barragan to open the archive to scholars and others. At the end of the article Magid and Zanco are in the underground shelter in Switzerland that houses the archive, looking at Barragan’s drawings. Zanco complains to Magid that the hectic development of Mexico City means that many of Barragan’s buildings are being torn down. ” ‘I see the silent, rapid destruction of his actual legacy, all while his biography and his colorful houses get more popular.’ As she motioned toward the exit, she added, ‘I understand, though. If you conserve everything, there is no room for life.’” Agree or disagree, it is something to think about.

The Photo of the Week feature of the August 13- 14, 2016 issue of The Wall Street Journal is a picture of three conservators standing on some kind of platform or scaffold and inpainting a ceiling. The caption notes that “restorers toil away on an 18th century fresco at the Sanssouci palace in Potsdam,Germany on Thursday.” The definition of the verb form of “toil” is “to work very hard and/or for a long time, usually doing hard physical work”. Conservators enjoy doing conservation or they leave the field. Would a practicing conservator really describe the work as “toil”?

“The Arts” section of the July 27, 2016 issue of The New York Times contains a review of the film, “Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil”, a documentary about the preparations for the Bosch exhibit at the Noordbrabants Museum in ‘s-Hertogenbosch mounted in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of his death. While the reviewer, Stephen Holden is unhappy with the amount of time that is devoted to the work of the team who traveled around the world studying and authenticating Bosch’s paintings, the Times chose to illustrate the review with a still of team member Ron Spronk, Queens University (Kingston, Ontario) and Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) professor. Wow. The conservator (okay, the technical art historian) is a movie star.