Roberta Piantavigna
Electronic Media Review, Volume Seven: 2021-2022
ABSTRACT
As one of the first American institutions collecting color photography, SFMOMA has long been concerned with the proper handling of this material, specifically chromogenic prints and RC papers, which are inherently prone to deterioration. Over the last two decades, curators and conservators at SFMOMA have worked in tandem with several artists to reprint photographs of the collection deemed unexhibitable due to changes in their appearance. As more and more artists have approached the museum to discuss the possibility of reprinting their work, in 2014, SFMOMA embarked on a Mellon-funded research project to investigate the matter in-depth, with the objective of developing a policy to help guide the decision-making process in the future.
Designed to have a holistic and collaborative approach, the SFMOMA research project brought together curators, conservators, and collection experts, incorporating the artists’ voice into the study and taking into account the viewpoints of colleagues from other institutions, printmakers, producers, art historians, and the market. All the experiences and perspectives were summed and shared at the SFMOMA Symposium on Reprinting held in May 2019. SFMOMA team is currently working towards three goals: implementing a museum-wide policy on reprinting; reviewing and studying all SFMOMA reprinting projects, addressing the existing terminology issues associated with reprinting by proposing a common vocabulary list to share with the conservation community.
The research project has provided us with a deep understanding of the challenges, implications, and opportunities that the practice of reprinting can offer to museums and artists’ legacies. Working on a museum-wide policy for reprinting that ensures transparency and the participation of all necessary stakeholders in the decision-making process has certainly offered a unique opportunity to define its steps and actions while recognizing and valuing museum staff’s different areas of expertise. The process hasn’t been devoid of challenges. As cultural institutions face a dramatic financial and ethical crisis, conservators are pushed to analyze and review their practices and re-frame them through the lens of their museum’s diversity action frameworks. The challenges and solutions adopted to make SFMOMA museum policy on reprinting a more neutral “preservation tool” will be presented.
AUTHOR
Roberta Piantavigna
Photography Conservator
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco, CA, USA