Tag: MoMA

The David Booth Fellowship in Painting Conservation (New York, NY, USA) – PASSED DEADLINE

*** APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS PASSED – PLEASE DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS POSITION ***

September 2018 – August 2020

The David Booth Conservation Department at The Museum of Modern Art is pleased to offer a two-year fellowship in painting conservation, starting September 2018. The fellowship provides an opportunity to acquire comprehensive training in paintings preservation, conservation, and restoration in a museum setting. Working as part of the paintings conservation team, the fellow will assist conservators with all facets of the preservation, conservation, and restoration of paintings, including acquisition, exhibition, treatment, collection care, and research. Fellowship activities will involve collaboration with Museum departments, including curatorial, Exhibition Design and Production, Exhibition Planning and Administration, Information Technology, and Collection Management and Exhibition Registration. Besides developing and refining advanced techniques in paintings conservation, the fellow will have the opportunity to collaborate with MoMA’s conservation scientists; to develop and carry out research projects; and have their disseminated or published through blogs, conferences, and peer-reviewed journals.

REQUIREMENTS

Education
Graduate from a recognized training program; candidates with equivalent training will be considered.

Experience
Internship in the treatment of paintings. No more than three years experience past graduation.

Qualifications

  • Examination and treatment of paintings at an advanced intern level.
  • Some experience with treatment of modern and contemporary works preferable.
  • Familiarity with condition digital-imaging documentation, including ultra-violet, infrared, and photomicrography.
  • Use of analytic instruments, including microscopes, X-ray equipment, and other instruments for the examination and technical analysis of works of art and their constituent parts.
  • Excellent speaking, reading, and writing skills in English.
  • Proficiency with computer software, including image editing and Adobe Photoshop.

Responsibilities

  • Conducts examinations and writes condition reports on works of art. Recommends and executes treatment of works of art and their optimal storage and exhibition conditions in consultation with paintings conservators, scientists, and other higher conservator titles, and curators. Records full photographic and written documentation of original condition and all stages of treatment of works of art.
  • Assists in advising curatorial, registration, and exhibitions staff on conservation requirements to ensure protection of works of art during exhibition, packing, and shipping. Assists in advising curators on the condition of works of art as related to exhibition, loans, and acquisition.
  • Examines and interprets the physical structure of works of art and liaises with scientists on the interpretation of scientific data.
  • Participates in courier trips of loaned works as required.
  • Assists in supervising seasonal (three-month) interns and conservation program trainees as requested.
  • Investigates, evaluates, and tests new materials used by contemporary artists. Researches, develops, and tests materials and techniques for conservation use. Keeps abreast of new technical and material developments in the art historical and conservation fields through attendance at meetings and readings of conservation, technical, and art historical literature.
  • Actively produces blogs posts and publishes research, and is encouraged to speak at related professional conferences.
  • Adheres to the AIC Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
  • Performs any other duties reasonably related to the functions described above.

REPORTS TO: Painting Conservators and other higher conservator titles

Stipend: $45,000 plus benefits and vacation, with $3,775 for research and travel.

Candidates must submit a statement of interest, a current CV, and a list of references to jobs@moma.org no later than March 1, 2018. Please reference the position title in the subject line.

The Museum of Modern Art is an equal opportunity employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, sex, age, national origin, creed, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or political affiliation.

The Museum of Modern Art’s Conservation Fellowship Initiative is made possible through the David Booth Conservation Center Endowment Fund.

42nd Annual Meeting – Paintings, May 30, "Piet Mondrian: Technical Studies and Treatment" by Ana Martins, Associate Research Scientist, MoMA, and Cynthia Albertson, Assistant Conservator, MoMA

NYC’s Museum of Modern Art owns sixteen Piet Mondrian oil paintings, the most comprehensive collection in North America. From this starting point, conservator Cynthia Albertson and research scientist Ana Martins embarked on an impressive project, both in breadth and in consequence—an in-depth technical examination across all sixteen Mondrians. All examined paintings are fully documented, and the primary preservation goal is returning the artwork to the artist’s intended state. Paint instability in the artist’s later paintings will also be treated with insight from the technical examination.
The initial scope of the project focused on nondestructive analysis of MoMA’s sixteen oil paintings. As more questions arose, other collections and museum conservators were called upon to provide information on their Mondrians. Over 200 other paintings were consulted over the course of the project. Of special importance to the conservators were untreated Mondrians, as they could help answer questions about the artist’s original varnish choices and artist-modified frames. Mondrian’s technique of reworking areas of his own paintings was also under scrutiny, as it called into question whether newer paint on a canvas was his, or a restorer’s overpaint. Fortunately, the MoMA research team had a variety of technology at their disposal: X-Radiography, Reflectance Transformation Imaging, and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy and XRF mapping were all tools referenced in the presentation.
The lecture discussed three paintings to provide an example of how preservation issues were addressed and how the research process revealed information on unstable paint layers in later Mondrian paintings. The paintings were Tableau no. 2 / Composition no. V (1914), Composition with Color Planes 5 (1917), and Composition C (1920), but for demonstration’s sake only the analysis of the earliest painting will be used as an example here.
Tableau no. 2 / Composition no. V (1914) was on a stretcher that was too thick, wax-lined, covered in a thick, glossy varnish, and had corrosion products along the tacking edges. Research identified the corrosion as accretions from a gold frame that the artist added for an exhibition. The painting has some obviously reworked areas, distinguished by dramatic variations in texture, and a painted-over signature; these changes are visible in the technical analysis. The same research that identified the source of the corrosion also explained that Mondrian reworked and resigned the painting for the exhibition. XRF mapping of the pigments, fillers, and additives provided an early baseline of materials to compare later works to, as the paint here did not exhibit the cracking of later examples. Ultimately, the restorer’s varnish was removed to return the paint surface to its intended matte appearance, and the wax lining was mechanically separated from the canvas with a specially produced Teflon spatula. Composition no. V (1914) was then strip-lined, and re-stretched to a more appropriate-width stretcher.
It is possible to create a timeline of Mondrian’s working methods with information gleaned from the technical examination of all three paintings. His technique had evolved from an overall matte surface, to variations in varnish glossiness between painted areas. XRF analysis demonstrated a shift in his palette, with the addition of vermillion, cobalt, and cadmium red in his later works. XRF also revealed that the artist used registration lines of zinc and lead whites mixed together and used on their own. Knowing the chemical composition of Mondrian’s paint is vital to understanding the nature of the cracking media and identifying techniques to preserve it.
The underpinning of all this research is documentation. This means both accounting for un-documented or poorly documented past restorations, as well as elaborating upon existing references. Many of the MoMA paintings had minimal photographic documentation, which hinders the ability of conservators to identify changes to the work over time. The wealth of information gathered by the conservation and research team remains within the museum’s internal database, but there are plans to expand access to the project’s data. Having already worked in collaboration with many Dutch museums for access to their Mondrian collections, it’s clear to the MoMA team how a compiled database of all their research and documentation would be groundbreaking for the conservation and art history fields.