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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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).
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!
I love Angels Projects. There is nothing precious about them. They are practical, down-to-earth conservation projects in which the rubber meets the road, and they give AIC members a chance to reach out to ordinary people who care passionately about their unique collections. On May 8, 2012, several new Angels earned their wings at the Sandoval County Historical Society, working side by side with volunteers to preserve archives, rolled maps, photographs, and oil paintings.
Sandoval County Historical Society is located in Bernalillo, New Mexico, in the home of artist Edmond DeLavy. DeLavy studied illustration at the Pratt Institute in New York, and following World War II, he moved from Maine to homestead the Bernalillo property: two and a half acres of what had been Santa Ana Pueblo lands. (The tribe is now buying back the surrounding land; they own the successful casino next door.) Before DeLavy’s death in 1989, he bequeathed his adobe home and studio to the local historical society.
Photo displays at the Sandoval County Historical Society
Its collection includes dozens of DeLavy’s original paintings and hundreds of photographs documenting the local Spanish villages and Indian pueblos, many of which have been mounted on posterboard. The historical society also collects archival documents, genealogies and family histories, bound volumes for its library, and maps. Its all-volunteer staff includes Martha Liebert, who acts as the archivist, and Dirk van Hart, who has been single-handedly digitizing the society’s photographs. Many of these photos are themselves copies of family pictures belonging to the local people, who often burn the originals after the deaths of those depicted. Often, the Sandoval County Historical Society retains the only images witnessing to the Spanish or Indian heritage of the surrounding families. The posters that illustrate this heritage travel to local schools and service organizations to educate and instill pride in today’s Sandoval County residents.
Last Tuesday, about fifteen volunteers with AIC’s Angels Project joined the society’s volunteers to begin the task of organizing and re-housing its maps, oil paintings, and archives. One team hauled the paintings from their storage closet, where they had been stored in groups in large plastic bags, and rewrapped them individually where necessary. Another team gathered the rolled maps for flattening and rehousing in a map case. A third team, which included me, gathered the society’s most-used archival documents and transferred them from acidic bankers’ boxes to new folders and polyethylene sleeves in alkaline boxes.
Paintings after rehousing
As is often the case with Angels Projects, we worked with few tools and a narrow assortment of supplies. We were forced to be creative, and to make efficient use of the short time we were given. The team rehousing the paintings lined them up against the walls and selected the most vulnerable images–for example, those without frames–to wrap in paper. They then returned the paintings to their storage closet, ensuring that no canvases were in danger of denting or stretching. Without a humidity chamber, the map team resorted to mechanical flattening, using stones in polyethylene sandwich bags as weights. Over the course of the morning and afternoon, they gradually unrolled and rehoused all of the society’s rolled maps, which are now stored flat in a dedicated case.
Volunteers examine the flattened maps.
In the archives team, faced with mountains of paper, photos, and newspaper clippings, we debated about how we could be of most use. Should we start an Excel database of each folder? Each item? Should we attempt to reunite loose materials with the folders where they belonged? Where should we start? And how could we include the society’s volunteers, who were desperate to help? Eventually, we decided to begin with the most used materials, and to spend our time removing staples, paper clips, and sticky notes. We rehoused items that had been fastened together in polyethylene sleeves, and we moved sticky notes to sheets of acid-free interleaving folded around the originals. When folders were overstuffed, we subdivided them into new archival folders, and we kept records of the types of materials found in each folder.
More importantly, we sat down with the volunteers and gave them a basic overview of archival maintenance. We explained how fasteners and sticky notes can damage paper and photos in the long term, and offered suggestions for their removal and replacement. We also discussed possible options for cataloging the collection and for storing and backing up its digital images. All afternoon–after a delicious home-cooked lunch of deviled eggs, enchiladas, salads, cakes, and pies provided by the volunteers–we worked side by side to improve the housing and organization of the society’s archives.
Volunteers rehouse the Sandoval County Historical Society archives.
The day was a tremendous success, and we all left feeling that we had made a big difference. The work was a reminder that sometimes we need to set aside our conservation ideals–the clean benches, the lab coats, the high-tech gear and the high-brow jargon–for simple conversations. We need to explain what we do and why, in plain language, without condescension. We need to empower other cultural caretakers to do whatever they can for their collections. In short, we need to make colleagues and friends.
Like all Angels Projects, the work with the Sandoval County Historical Society opened a short window in which to build long-lasting connections. We helped its volunteers preserve their own cultural heritage, whether they are rehousing their collections themselves or calling a conservator for advice, guidance, or to undertake a complex treatment. Next year, be an Angel! It might be the best outreach project you’ll ever undertake.
On Tuesday May 8, a group of 13 conservation professionals visited the Sandoval County Historical Society (SCHS) to assist SCHS volunteers in several preservation projects for the 2012 Angels Project as part of AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, NM.
SCHS is located just outside of Albuquerque, in Bernalillo, and was established in 1977 to collect and preserve the history of Sandoval County. The collections include photo and paper archives, paintings, and maps. This slide show shows some images from the photo archives.
We were warmly received by SCHS with baked goods and coffee and after an orientation of the collections and the history of the Historical Society, we split into teams and began tackling different projects, including:
– Rolled Maps: unrolling and flattening of the maps and re-housing in map cases
– Painting storage: cleaning the shelves and wrapping the unframed paintings for additional protection
– Photo and paper archives: basic inventory of archive contents, hardware removal, re-housing fragile or unprotected items in archival sleeves and folders
In all of these activities, Angels Project volunteers worked alongside SCHS volunteers so that this work could be continued and maintained in the future. In addition, paper conservator Renée Wolcott spent some time speaking with the SCHS volunteers about conservation and basic preservation activities, and answered their questions about environment, pest management and other preservation concerns.
It was rewarding to see so many volunteers from the community that day who obviously care deeply about the Historical Society, its collections, and the importance of SCHS to the people of Bernalillo and the surrounding communities. Jason Church did a great job documenting the project-look for his photos on the AIC Flickr site.
In the second talk during the OSG luncheon, Suzanne Davis and Claudia Chemello explored the question “are archaeologists and conservators so far away from each other?”, inspired by the sentiment of the Dire Straits song “So Far Away”. Their talk was illustrated with historic photographs of archaeologists working in Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey in the 1920s, from the collection at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.
As a follow-up to last year’s annual meeting presentation, which summarized the responses of a survey of archaeological conservators, this year Suzanne and Claudia presented the results of a 2011 survey of archaeological dig directors working primarily in the US. The purpose of the survey was to examine how archaeologists are engaging with conservators, to gain an understanding of conservation needs from an archaeologist’s perspective, and to identify areas for outreach and education.
They made the survey using the online survey tool Qualtrics and after wide distribution, received a whopping 346 responses.
They plan to publish the complete results of the survey, but in their presentation, they summarized a lot of the data, such as:
Half of the respondents are employed in an academic environment and half are employed in non-academic organizations.
41% have employed conservators in their projects. The 59% who have not said that it was due to lack of funding.
Most respondents spent between 1-30% of their budget on conservation, and the most frequent amount spent was $10,000/season.
55% said that conservation is expensive or prohibitively expensive.
Of those who have employed conservators, 38% have not received conservation reports, which corresponds with the 25% of archaeological conservators surveyed who do not write conservation reports for the sites they work on.
74% have never heard of AIC.
13% have used AIC resources.
Suzanne Davis broke up their presentation of this data by leading the audience in singing a few verses of Dire Straits- So Far Away.
In general, the archaeologists’ responses showed that there is a confusion between the terms “curator” and “conservator”, and they expressed that they feel that many conservators don’t have sufficient field training, nor do they understand archaeological research goals but that they feel that conservation is a necessary expense for archaeological projects.
Based on this survey, what do Suzanne and Claudia recommend? In essence, they said, to paraphrase Mark Knopfler, lead singer of Dire Straits, “we need to stop making love over the phone.” They said that while conservators and archaeologists are not so far away from each other, conservators need to work on increased and sustained outreach to archaeologists and to develop more resources for the AIC website or on the AIC WIKI specific to archaeology, particularly regarding funding sources and site preservation. They also indicated a need to improve education to further integrate archaeological and conservation research.
We think that the results of this survey are so interesting and help to provide hard data on topics that are often speculated on by archaeological conservators. We hope that Suzanne and Claudia are able to publish the entire results of the survey and we look forward to hearing more about efforts to improve the relationship between conservation and archaeology, and to contributing to this effort as much as possible.
According to John Baty, he’s got a dream job: working side by side with conservators in a book and paper lab that bridges the gap between scientific analysis and bench work. You might call it practical science, or treatment-driven analysis. In either case, Baty argues that the Heritage Science for Conservation Laboratory–part of the Department of Conservation and Preservation in the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University–is a model the rest of us should follow. Plus, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded lab has developed some cool toys we can use in our own paper-based research.
For Baty, the collaboration between chemists and conservators is key. (How’s that for alliteration?) This meeting of the minds has led the HSC Lab from fundamental research into the degradation mechanisms for cellulose to the production of tools that can help other conservators and conservation scientists in their work–particularly if they are engaged in studies that make use of accelerated aging. During his talk, Baty introduced three of these tools and the data that support their usefulness.
The first technology he discussed was the range of common-ion effect buffers that can be used to maintain a given pH in paper. These buffers, which take advantage of the equilibrium between a weak acid and its conjugate base, establish a narrow pH range that resists change, even after accelerated aging. Research at the HSC suggests that phosphate buffers added to paper remain effective after 42 days of accelerated aging, even at higher temperatures. In aging studies, these buffers can be used to minimize the number of variables acting on the test papers as they age. In theory, such buffers could also be used to maintain a pH range that would slow the deterioration of ir0n-gall ink or prevent color shifts in pH-sensitive dyes and pigments.
The HSC has also developed a new vessel for accelerated aging, after noticing hairline cracks and other failures in the vessels currently in use. The new closed tube, which features a glass-on-glass seal, was developed in collaboration with conservator Bill Minter. It can withstand high pressures without losing moisture, and because it has no gaskets, its contents cannot be contaminated by residual polymer chemistry or offgassing from faulty seals.
Finally, Baty introduced a calibration kit that will allow scientists and conservators to calibrate their X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) or Near Infrared (NIR) spectrometers for nondestructive paper analysis. The kit contains paper targets uniformly coated with specific salt concentrations.
