Category: AIC’s Annual Meeting

Provides the membership with updated news about the annual meeting. Also announces themes, deadlines for papers, need for volunteers, etc.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Book and Paper Session, May 10: “Deceptive Covers: Armenian Bindings of 18th-Century Imprints from Constantinople” by Yasmeen Khan and Tamara Ohanyan

Yasmeen Khan and Tamara Ohanyan undertook a survey to better document the bindings found on Armenian printed books, especially those printed in Constantinople during the 18th century. Armenian manuscripts and their bindings have been well-documented, but previous reports claim that most Armenian printed books were bound in Western Europe. These assumptions were based on cover decoration that more closely resembles a Western European aesthetic rather than traditional Armenian style. While treating an early Armenian printed book at the Library of Congress, Khan and Ohanyan noted an interesting headband that appeared to be a hybrid structure of a traditional Armenian endband and a Western European front-bead endband. This discovery piqued their interest to know more about the history of the production of printed books for the Armenian diaspora communities.

The authors surveyed Armenian printed books in collections at the Library of Congress and in the Matenadaran Collection in Yerevan, Armenia, focusing on volumes in poor condition in order to examine the binding structure. Examination of the sewing, spine linings, boards, board attachment, endbands, edge decoration, doublures, and cover decoration suggest the books were bound by Armenian binders. Most of the structural elements examined appear to be based on traditional Armenian binding methods, with a general shift towards simplification and a Western aesthetic over the course of the 18th century.

Traditional Armenian bindings included thin wooden boards with the grain of the wood positioned perpendicular to the spine.  The survey showed that this practice continued well into the 18th century, with pasteboard appearing only towards the end of the 18th century.

Khan and Ohanyan believe the hybrid Armenian-Western endband may be unique to bindings from Constantinople, and may help to localize and date the bindings on Armenian printed books. Towards the beginning of the century, a traditional Armenian endband is common. For this endband, a primary endband structure is sewn through each section and through holes in the board; thus the endband extends past the textblock and onto the top edge of each of the boards. A secondary endband is sewn over this structure to create a decorative chevron pattern. Khan and Ohanyan report that hybrid-style endbands began to appear on books from Constantinople in the early 18th century. Several evolutions of the hybrid endbands were noted, including a simple front-bead endband in the Western style that extends onto the boards in a similar manner to the traditional Armenian endband. Finally, towards the end of the 18th century, simple Western-style front-bead endbands were most common.

In the future, Khan and Ohanyan hope to further their study of Armenian printed books through examination and documentation of tooling patterns in the decoration of leather covers. Their hope is that, as for the hybrid endband, documentation of an evolution of styles will aid in the dating and localization of bindings.

Although the evolution of binding styles is interesting in itself and as an aid to dating bindings, it also reveals shifting attitudes in the production and use of books by Armenian communities.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – CIPP Business Meeting – “Levity and Brevity”

The following was written by George Schwartz, Chair, CIPP

To call what we had on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 a CIPP Business Meeting would be a misnomer. We conducted no official business, because we got carried away, absorbed in a deep and animated conversation with AIC Board President Meg Craft and AIC Executive Director Eryl Wentworth who generously accepted our invitation and spent a great deal of their precious time explaining the structural differences between Specialty Groups, Networks and Task Forces, which are forms of organizational groups within the umbrella of the AIC. We were attempting to determine if it might be advantageous for CIPP to change to one of these other formats and the ramifications of such a change.

Meg and Eryl commanded the attention of all attendees who asked many clarifying questions and the time just flew by in a productive conversation. While there were no conclusions reached, after weighing the pros and cons, we decided to remain with the present structure while keeping our options open as we go forward. I want to thank Meg and Eryl for their insight, patience and for the time they so graciously granted us.

Our Business meeting adjourned with many small groups engaged in conversation long into the night, with some adjourning to the bar. In a different post, I will welcome our new directors to their positions and conclude Board business in accordance with customary practice.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – CIPP Seminar Reaching Out – The Art of Using Outreach to Grow Your Business

The following post was written by CIPP Chair George Schwartz:

Those in attendance in the fully booked CIPP Seminar Reaching Out  – The Art of Using Outreach to Grow Your Business were not disappointed. We held our breath listening to all the exceptionally useful and practical material presented by out two charismatic and animated presenters.

Ann Shaftel took the podium first  and held our attention with her anecdotes, while giving us practical advice on how we can increase our visibility to the public. Ann spoke from the perspective of many years of practical experience. She wrote a regular newspaper column as an expert in preservation, conservation and restoration, appeared on regular radio and TV programs, live to air call in shows, and even movies.

She explained practical ways of capturing the attention of the audience, to educate and enlighten listeners on the finer points of our field. Ann addressed ethical and legal issues that can become unforeseen pitfalls in doing public outreach. It was obvious that her hard work in putting together her program paid off by capturing the attention of everyone present. We’re grateful for her efforts.

Scott Haskins followed with his presentation after a brief intermission. Those of you who know Scott, already appreciate his success and expertise in social media outreach. During his rapid-fire presentation we also got to appreciate his incisive critical thinking, his quick wit and exceptional good humor.

Scott came very well prepared. Within minutes of the start, we were making unbelievable videos without any camera equipment and posting them on YouTube. Here is a link to the one I made: http://tinyurl.com/7p6l7co . Most everyone came up with something useful just by following Scott’s instructions. He showed us other facilities to produce useful promotional outreach materials and what’s even more important, advice on how to determine who our audience is, what the content needs to focus on and how to avoid the mistakes that so many people tend to make.

I cannot meaningfully summarize the hundreds of points we touched on, but check back here on the AIC Blog as Scott has prepared some useful information which he plans to post online soon.

In closing I have to say, that the knowledge that I gleaned during these presentations was alone worth the cost of my trip to Albuquerque!

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Paintings Session, Thursday May 10, “A Chastened Splendor: The Study and Treatment of Works by H. Siddons Mowbray” by Cynthia Schwarz.

Schwarz paper outlined the extensive and complex treatment, carried out over four years, of 9 40 x 80” lunettes painted by Mowbray for Collis Huntington’s mansion in New York. After a thorough biography and outline of Mowbray’s artistic development, she moved into a description of the nine, brightly colored allegorical female muses depicted on the lunettes, which were originally adhered to Huntington’s walls with a thick layer of white lead paint.

In the 1920s when the mansion was demolished, the lunettes were removed from the walls (quite hastily) and given to Yale University Art Museum. Unfortunately they were rolled directly around stretcher bars and stored in a less than perfect environment, which, in combination with previous water damage and some mold, left the paintings in dire condition.

Technical analysis of the paint revealed other possible causes of paint loss. In his search for an absorbent yet flexible ground, Mowbray apparently added an aluminosilicate component (kaolin) to his ground layer, which has likely contributed to the current adhesion failure between the ground and paint layers.

One of the more interesting phenomena Schwarz discussed was the occurrence of bright orange fluorescence under UV radiation in some of the areas painted a mossy green color (but not everywhere). No varnish was present, and cross sections showed the fluorescence occuring only on the surface. SEM-EDS proved the paint layer to be a combination of viridian and cadmium, and Schwarz suggested that the fluorescence might be due to a reaction between cadmium sulfide and air, resulting in a cadmium sulfate. Apparently Aviva Burnstock has conducted research on this phenomenon at the Courtauld.

Questions following Scharz presentation focused on her strappo-inspired method of removing the lead white paint from the reverse of the canvases, which involved two layers of fabric strips and Beva 371 film. The paintings were lined onto aluminum honeycomb panels, to better mimic their originally presentation. The lining involved several layers, including a sacrificial layer to aid in reversing the lining. A nice diagram explained the lining stratigraphy, though I was not quick enough to note it. The paintings are currently on view in the galleries at Yale.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Paintings Session, Thursday May 10, “Comparison Between Two Identical Portraits of Fray Camilo Henriquez” by Monica Perez.

Perez’s talk focused on the comparison and resulting attributions of two painted portraits of Chile’s beloved Fray Camilo Henriques. She first detailed the history and importance of the sitter and the painting itself (this iconographic portrait was the source of most subsequent depictions of the sitter), and then went on to describe the painting and treatment of the version owned by the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile (National Library).

The painting hangs in the private office of the director of the National Library, so very few have ever seen it and most don’t even know of its existence. In fact, it was originally assumed to be the very popular and nearly identical version painted by José Guth, prominently displayed in the Museo Histórico Nacional, Santiago, Chile (National Hist. Museum). The Guth version was actually originally owned by the National Library until it was gifted to the National Hist. Museum in 1920.

These two identical paintings raised many questions, including whether they were both painted by Guth and which one was actually the original. Of course, both institutions believed they owned the original version. Perez was able to examine the National Hist. Museum’s painting along side the National Library’s for comparison’s sake. Infrared reflectography revealed a number of telling details, including numerous compositional changes in the National Hist. Museum’s painting, which the National Library’s version lacked, and cross section analysis revealed differences in the layering structures of the foreground and background in the two paintings. This and other evidence led Perez to hypothesize that the Museum owned the original painting by Guth, and the Library’s version was a later copy. Interestingly, the Library’s painting appears to have been copied from the Museum’s painting while still in its frame, as all four edges of the copy are cropped.

A loan agreement from 1960 revealed that the Museum lent their copy to the Library for a brief period of time, during which period Perez believes the Library may have commissioned a copy to be made. No artist attribution has been made for the Library’s copy, and, as usual, this research and discovery has sparked a whole new set of questions. Fortunately the discovery has not detracted from either institution’s opinion of their work, both of which remain prominently on view in their respective locations, and other scholars have taken up researching the questions surrounding the copy.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Paintings Session, Thursday May 10, “Discriminating Palettes: The Painting Materials of Clementine Hunter and her Imitator” by Joseph Barabe

The theme of the three talks in the PSG morning session on Thursday revolved around the need for a comparative approach to the examination of works of art. Joseph Barabe’s talk perhaps best exemplifies the benefits of examining a group of works by a single artist comparatively, an approach he used to ultimately disprove the authenticity of five paintings by the African American folk artist Clementine Hunter. This talk was quite exciting as it executed technical art history as forensic science resulting in the prosecution of William Toye (the forger), his wife Beryl Toye, and dealer Robert E. Lucky for mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud (a.k.a. forging and knowingly selling forged works of art).

The FBI Art Crime Team contacted McCrone Associates Inc. seeking authentication of five questionable paintings confiscated from the Toyes’ home. Barabe approached the task methodically, comparing the five paintings in question to five authentic works purchased directly from the artist, all from around the same time period. He also had one of Clementine Hunter’s palettes at his disposal, as well as paints confiscated from the Toyes’ studio.

Using a variety of examination and analytical techniques including visual examination with magnification, examination of cross sections, and analysis of samples using polarized light microscopy and infrared techniques including FTIR and Raman, Barabe was able to document very specific differences between the two groups of paintings. His visual examinations focused on the artist’s handling of her figures’ eyes and on her signature, revealing fundamental differences in approach between the group of authentic paintings and the group in question, as well as a marked difference in paint texture and opacity. He also found consistent underdrawing in the five originals, but not in the Toyes’ paintings.

Perhaps the most interesting discovery was the disparity in paint quality between the authentic Clementine Hunter paintings and the five in question. Clementine Hunter was the granddaughter of a slave and spent the majority of her life picking cotton at Melrose Plantation in Louisiana. She remained illiterate and was a self-taught painter, selling her paintings for as little as $0.25 in the beginning and frequently trading paintings for art supplies. Despite these obvious set backs, the paints analyzed on the authentic paintings proved to be of quite good quality. The paints found on Toyes’ paintings, however, were of significantly lesser quality, consisting of mostly student grade paints containing titanated lithopone and other fillers.

The inconsistencies in the materials and artist’s technique of the five paintings in question was enough to convince Barabe, and the FBI, that they were indeed fraudulent, and now the elderly (and quite eccentric) couple are paying the price.

http://gardenandgun.com/article/talented-mr-toye

 

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – Case Studies I: Public Outreach in the Developing World Session, May 10, 2012

The Balance Between the Conservation and the Dissemination of the Art Museum of the

Central Bank of Colombia Collections

Adriana Paez Cure

 

Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative: Learning in Collaboration

Nora W. Kennedy, Debra Hess Norris, Zeina Arida, Rima Mokaiesh, and Tram Vo

 

Heritage Without Borders – Tackling Skills Shortages In The Developing World

Dominica D’Arcangelo

 

This interesting session addressed three initiatives in South America, the Middle East and Europe that provide conservation training, preservation resources, and public education to underserved regions of the world.

Heritage Without Borders brings together qualified and motivated young professionals (volunteers) to help solve heritage problems and build local capacity.  While participation is limited currently to UK residents there is the possibility that this restriction will change. They seek people who are excellent communicators and value education and training and who enjoy the challenge of developing creative solutions to real problems. Emerging conservators and senior professionals are welcome to participate in wide ranging projects. Removing the barrier of cost Heritage without Borders aims to help alleviate poverty through the improvement of heritage provision. 2011 projects were organized in Turkmenistan and Bosnia.

See info@heritagewithoutborders.org OR www.heritagewithoutborders.org

The Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI) is a strategic training and outreach initiative to promote the preservation and awareness of photograph collections in the broad Middle East, from North Africa and the Arab Peninsula through Western Asia. MEPPI is collaborating with several partners. This multi-faceted initiative includes a survey of collections in the region, a series of courses for collection custodians with a distance mentoring component, and a symposium focusing on the rich photographic legacy of the Middle East. MEPPI Beirut 2011 welcomed 18 participants from leading photograph collections of the greater Middle East, including national archives and libraries, museums, press agencies, and universities from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Syria.

See http://www.meppi.org/ Or http://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/education/cons_photo/cons_photo_meppi.html

While the Central Bank of the Columbia Museum of Art is not leading a global training initiative, this presentation reaffirmed the conservator’s varied role as administrator and practitioner, especially when dealing with the challenges of modern and contemporary art and a demanding exhibition schedule.

See http://www.banrepcultural.org/museodearte.htm

Lessons learned from these unique projects and global preservation activities include;

  • Importance and value of collaboration with multiple partners who contribute expertise and financial or in-kind support .
  • Enormous  value of on-site  and engaged partners who welcome expertise, can mediate project development and implementation, and remain committed to public access to collections at-risk
  • Need to develop sustainable solutions to build capacity and better ensure continued impact
  • Need to respect and embrace regional traditional preservation practices while advancing conservation practice and understanding
  • Importance of multilingual glossaries to facilitate conversation and advance understanding
  • Need for cultural sensitivity and clear understanding of goals of all global partners
  • Focus on the highest of standards connected with unvarying flexibility
  • Always identify in-country resources, including  adequate storage enclosures
  • Potential for international projects to advance preservation awareness and best practices and connect communities globally
  • Value of distance mentoring to strengthen education and build a strong cohort of workshop participants
  • Opportunity to connect our  efforts to successful and prominent  global initiatives, including Doctors Without Borders
  • Potential for these projects to build confidence, advance skills, and expand marketability of emerging conservators

N.B.  This post was written by Debra Hess Norris, Henry Francis DuPont Chair of Fine Arts, Chair and Professor, Art Conservation Department, Associate Dean for Graduate Education & Interim Associate Dean for the Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Delaware.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Objects and Research and Technical Studies Joint Session, May 9, “A Comparative Study of Protective Coatings for Marble Sculpture in the Museum Setting,” by Laura Kubick

One of the reasons I enjoy joint sessions is the more focused theme and connection between the talks. Laura provided a nice overview of the research that she carried at out at SAAM on marble coatings. Three white marble sculptures in the collection- by Rinehart, Cooper, and Houdon- attract a lot of attention and love from the public. Some love comes in the form of red lipstick. Laura took this as an opportunity to explore traditional and newer materials for coating marble and determine which have the best protective properties.

Her testing methods appeared thought out and well carried out. She tested Cosmoloid 80H wax and Ketone N resin, Renaissance microcrystalline wax, Methocel A4C Methyl Cellulose, and Avalure AC 315 Acrylic Copolymer 5% and 7% in ethanol. She tested polished and unpolished marble. All the coatings were applied by brush. They were tested for their appropriate aesthetic properties, effectiveness as a barrier, safe application and removal, reversibility and aging. Quite a feat if I say so. Needless to say there is more testing that can be done. However, her initial findings are quite interesting. To measure changes in color and gloss Laura used a Spectro Eye spectrophotometer and gloss meter. The marble samples were stained with lipstick, red wine, and a sharpie. Laura provided a nice graphic showing her samples and the order of testing, aging, cleaning, etc.

Overall, from the testing Laura concluded that none of the coatings were perfect. There is a give and take with all. However, most importantly Renaissance wax was NOT a good barrier- I found it shocking that the red wine etched the marble through all of the coatings except Avalure. The wax resin and avalure did the best in the aging test. Methyl cellulose had the best reversibility, while microcrystalline wax was the worst. It was also interesting to hear that the colorimeter readings were consistent with what she observed by eye. Although nothing can replace scientific readings it is nice to know that our trained eyes are good for something. She also felt that more research should be done on methyl cellulose and Avalure since they tested tested so well. Her tests were only done on small samples, but the practicality of applying it to a large sculpture might change things. Avalure is somewhat difficult to work with, but perhaps a spray application would be better. By the way, Avalure is available through the manufacturer and apparently they are generous with their free samples.

I don’t know if this would be possible, but a follow up to this study might be interesting to look at the penetration of these coatings into the marble. Perhaps looking at a cross-section with FTIR-ATR…

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Objects and Research and Technical Studies Joint Session, May 9, “In Their True Colors: Developing New Methods for Recoloring Faded Taxidermy” by Beth Nunan and Judy Levinson

After 70 years on  permanent display, the taxidermy at AMNH got a much needed renovation. It was beautiful to see the artistry behind the construction and design of the original dioramas. This talk focused on the fading and discoloration of the fur and hair of the animals. The care that was taken in reproducing details from actual locations in the field was amazing- such an elaborate process. The background paintings are true works of art. It is wonderful to see that they are being maintained. There are a limited amount of actual materials used, such as evergreen branches and grasses. The rest was replicated for the dioramas.

So in 2003 there was a survey done of the dioramas and this resulted in a reduction of heat and light in the display areas by moving from theatrical lights to fluorescent and tungsten and screening of UV. In 2010, through a citywide effort to reduce energy use by 50% they moved to LEDs, metal halide, and T8 fluorescents- still screening out UV. However, they haven’t been able to reduce the light levels from 50 and 65 fc to an acceptable conservation level of 5 fc because of the desire to replicate the natural environment. The lights stay on even at night! Beth and Judy can give you the name of who to contact to help them in their campaign to shut off those lights!

AMNH hired an artist to recolor the taxidermy. They chose the colorant based on the solvents needed (these were restricted because the painting had to be done in open galleries with limited fume extraction), reversibility to not prevent future treatment, light fastness, Tg, application method and appearance. Water based acrylics were eliminated because of the low Tg and difficulty for re-treatment. They were leaning towards Orasol dyes and XSL pigments due to these criteria, but he taxidermist had to be won over from their usual use of acrylics. Luckily they were successful!

Finally, Beth carried out light-fading tests to determine which would be the best colors to use. Samples were colored and sent to Paul Whitmore for microfading tests. The microfadeometer is limited by a threshold and this is not equivalent to the real light exposure they will get in the dioramas. So out of view of the visitors they have put samples for future comparison with areas that are covered to block out the light.

The authors got a lot of thoughtful questions about the amount of degradation of the hair (a lot), if a special brush was used for grooming (yes),  if the dyes were applied with ethanol (yes), if they could turn off the lights at night (they wish!, please contact the museum to push for this), and what was used for the yellowed fur (XSL pigments had the best covering properties).

40th Annual Meeting, Objects and Research and Technical Studies Joint Session, May 9, “The Qero Project: Conservation and Science Collaboration Over Time” by Emily Kaplan

After hearing about this project in the past couple of years, I was looking forward to learning more about the evolution of this 16 year collaboration and some of the observations and conclusions that have come out of it. I applaud the original participants (including conservators: Emily Kaplan, Ellen Pearlstein, Ellen Howe and Judith Levinson) in their ability to continue their involvement over the past decade and with various geographic and institutional changes. Analytical participants include the MFA Boston, the Met, Yale, MCI, and University of Barcelona. Emily spoke about the benefits of working on this project over an extended period of time- for example, they are taking fewer and smaller samples now, there is increased collaboration, and improvements in technology have moved them from paper to an electronic shared database.

This project came about when Emily was a post-graduate fellow at the NMAI (when it was in NY), the Brooklyn Museum of Art was preparing for an exhibit, and the Met received a large gift. Several exhibits and publications came out in the early years of the collaboration. Some of the goals were to study the imagery depicted and the polychrome techniques as this was of interest to the conservators, but also to better understand the people, production and use. Qeros are drinking vessels used in the Andean region for consuming fermented beverages. They are sometimes made in pairs, but few still remain together, and have been made from a variety of materials including wood and metal. Qero actually means both wood and cup. They have been described and illustrated in colonial chronicles, sermons and legal documents. Qeros are still used today as this tradition persists.

So far they have identified organic and inorganic pigments: orpiment, cinnabar, cochineal, indigo, copper greens and carbon black. These all have potential local sources. There has been a renewed interest in Qeros and an authoritative book came out in 2002 by Thomas Cummins. The qeros have been dated stylistically and categorized into four periods (sorry I didn’t write down all the dates and I wish I had a photo of this slide): the Inca period (1425-1532) having incised decoration, the early Colonial period (1600-1650) having small areas of polychrome and incised decoration, the Mid Colonial, and the late Colonial.

The most recent research has focused on the white pigments. Three types were identified: cristobalite, anatase and white lead. They are also doing lead isotope analysis and finding two sources for the lead. Apparently lead ore was common in the Andes, but it wasn’t used as a painting material until after the arrival of the Spanish.

I loved seeing the images of a workshop on working with mopa mopa- a resin that was noted as a binder in early literature. Through working with the mopa mopa Emily could see how it was applied to the surface after being pulled into strips, laid on the surface and then heated.

It was nice to see the benefits of an extended project like this one. I’m sure Emily would appreciate knowing about Qeros in other collections if you have any!