Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 Art Conservation and Restoration Introduction: What is Art Conservation/Restoration?

Whosoever conserves and restores is called a conservator or a restorer, regardless of extent and depth training (The Conservator-Restorer, 1984). In recent years, the profession has been examined, training requirements have been established, and it has been distinguished from other related professions in an attempt to fully define what a conservator-restorer is (The Conservator-Restorer, 1984). These requirements have been defined more clearly since this article was written, and many conservators today have big jobs that entail much experience and intuition. Art conservators attempt to slow the inevitable effects of time by keeping works of art in the safest possible conditions (Getlein, 2010). Not all conservation attempts involve simply keeping the artwork comfortable though, many conservators today and in the past 30 or so years have had the strenuous job of reconstructing artworks based on what they once supposedly looked like. This is one of the key areas where intuition comes in for the restorers. Starting in the early 1900s through today there have been many different organizations that have been founded in the hopes of teaching the arts of preservation and spreading knowledge. One of the first of these groups was the Fogg Art Museum in the very early 1900s. Some of the more well-known organizations today include: the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property (NIC) which is now known simply as Heritage Prevention since the late 1990s (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). The subject of art conservation and restoration has been a fairly heated one for many years because some circumstances and techniques do more harm than good to works of art.

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 Works of art can be damaged by light, atmospheric conditions, microbes, and pollutants. These things can cause pigments to darken and fade, paint to flake, and much more (Getlein, 2010). Irony at its finest suggests that even the presence of humans alone can affect works of art: our breath, the warmth of our bodies, and oils left from touch (Getlein, 2010). In attempts to preserve works of art for as long as possible, many measures are taken to ensure that they last. In this paper, I will discuss how art restoration has evolved over the past century, some of the precautions that are used today to preserve artwork, and some famous examples of art restoration at its prime. How has Art Conservation/Restoration evolved? The years between 1925 and 1975 in the United States marked a period of pioneering progress and expansion in art conservation and restoration (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). The Fogg Art Museum in the 1920s contained a special group of historians, scientists, and restorers; one pivotal member of this group was Edward Waldo Forbes (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). This group realized how ambiguous the current process of retouching paintings could be and encouraged new techniques to be developed, including X-rays and technical examinations (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). In the 1950s, this group dispersed for financial reasons, and many of them moved on to begin new laboratories or conversation associations. For example, Rutherford Gettens founded the technical laboratory at the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). These early 1900 years were more about founding the

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 organizations and associations, while the later years of the 1900s produced more technological advances. Along with new equipment, came a new sense of knowledge and education when it came to conserving paintings and other works of art. An example of this is the Rothko Chapel Paintings: when the conservators first looked at the paintings and tried to identify what they were looking at and how to best restore them, they also learned a lot about the paintings and the artist (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). Their experiences provided them insight into Rothkos creative processes, and why he chose to employ the materials he did (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). Not only do the conservators work to restore paintings to keep them looking great, but they also restore them to learn the history of the artwork. These methods started changing more frequently when the physical techniques started changing as well. The years of 1975 to 2000 brought about a significant number of changes to the domain of art conservation and restoration (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). With these times came the realization that in most countries, cultural heritage, whether movable or immovable, was the property of the individuals or communities that ensured its conservation (de Guichen, 2009). This heritage has been passed from a mainly private sector of life to a very public sector, and the responsibility for studying, conserving and restoring it has been delegated to specialists who exhibit it to be enjoyed by the public (de Guichen, 2009). Many more of these groups were founded in this time period and the areas of art conservation were separated into nine specialty groups: architecture, book and paper,

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 electronic media, objects, paintings, photographic materials, research and technical studies, textiles, and wooden artifacts (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). In this later time period, many new techniques, tools, and technologies became available for using in conservation and restoration, particularly for paintings (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). This is when a less is more approach came about, because we became aware of the fact that certain things, such as multiple x-rays, can actually be very harmful to a painting (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). Experts began teaching different methods for lining paintings, different humidity treatments, and many new techniques from people they designated the pharmacists of conservation that produced new spatulas, retouching supplies, and many cleaning gel ingredients (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). This was a very productive time period for art conservation and restoration, and led to the tools and techniques that we frequently use today in preserving all different kinds of art. Art Conservation/Restoration Today Art Conservation has made tremendous advancements over the years; it has been a very productive past hundred years for a field that has been around ever since art has been around. Today, art conservation isnt only about making a work of art look as it used to; its also about understanding the artist and the work of art alike. Since the 1990s, the number of conservation scientists has increased substantially, the inclusion of sophisticated scientific data in papers and publications has become standard, and conservation methods have been greatly improved

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). There are many people involved in art conservation and restoration today that care deeply, and want to help as much as possible. They dedicate their lives to art conservation and to doing anything that will benefit their cause. It is now believed that conservators of the 21st century must thoroughly know their specialties, including current philosophy, history, literature, ethics, and the material properties and methods of analysis; collaborate with scientists and be able to understand scientific terms and methods; cooperate with allied professionals; understand the processes of life cycles, insects, and much, much more. This makes the job of conservator-restorer even more challenging than it used to be. Art conservation and restoration isnt simply about the actual task of preserving though: conservators today have to be able to write papers, give presentations, and in the current economic situation (in regards to cutbacks), be able to charm politicians, foundation heads, and reporters (Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). The job requirements have increased substantially since the early 1900s, and today art conservators should be progressively well-rounded and educated. Famous Examples of Art Conservation There are two very well-known art conservation projects that have been going on for the past several years that I will discuss: The Lascaux cave paintings in southwestern France, and Last Supper, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. These are some of the most famous art conservation projects, and are very tedious jobs. Many people have worked on the teams responsible for the restoration of both the caves and the Last Supper.

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 The Lascaux Caves were left undiscovered for over 17,000 years and survived the ravages of history this way (Graff, 2006). It may have escaped history completely had four boys not stumbled upon the caves entrance where a tree had fallen one day in 1940 (Graff, 2006). The Lascaux caves became famous almost immediately, and later became known as the Sistine Chapel of prehistory because its broad galleries might indicate a magical or religious function for the drawings (Graff, 2006). Since 1963, the caves have only been allowed about 5 visitors per day for about 30 minutes at a time because the presence of so many warm-blooded individuals flooding the caves was doing severe damage to the climate-controlled environment inside (Getlein, 2010 & Graff 2006). This severe limitation was an attempt to preserve the cave paintings that had been left untouched and perfectly preserved for thousands of years. Eleven years ago, in 2001, Lascaux encountered a fungal infection that threatened to destroy what thousands of years had left largely unscathed (Graff, 2006). This fungal infection erupted after a new air-conditioning system was installed to automate the air movement process and improve on it by using two massive fans (Graff, 2006). This was a tremendously expensive ventilation system that undid years of hard work to keep the climate of the caves moderated, and it had disastrous results. The sad fact is that visitors to Lascaux today come to look not for wonder, insight or inspiration. They come to look for fluffy tufts of mold, (Graff, 2006). The newly-positioned apparatus was apparently not up the task of maintaining Lascauxs equilibrium because of the appearance of mold soon after it was put into place. The new machinery may not be what introduced the fungus to the cave, it could have been there inside the cave all along; all the fungus needed was a slight modification in climate to take off (Graff, 2006). Since the rise of the

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 fungus and mold, a team of highly educated and informed people have been working to restore it using chemicals on the walls and floors, removing tufts of mold by hand, and trying to fight off bacteria by any means they could (Graff, 2006). It has been fairly successful and they are considering reopening the cave for short amounts of time within the next year or so. Hopefully they can reopen them very soon for at least short periods of time because they are a phenomenal part of cultural histories, and hopefully they arent lost forever. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is an example of a great painting from history that could not stand the test of time, and that restorers have been trying their hardest to preserve. Conservators have been working on the Last Supper to slow the inevitable effects that time has created; beginning only a few short years after this painting was completed. Da Vinci, in this painting, had experimented with a new technique of his own devising, and the results began to deteriorate not long after he completed his painting (Getlein, 2010). In 1977, however, the group of restorers, under authority of Dr. Pinan Brambilla Barcilon, started to take a different approach. This approach consisted of laboring to determine which flecks of paint had been placed there by da Vinci himself, or by the many restorers that had worked on this painting in the past. When they had thoroughly removed all of the traces of paint that didnt come from Leonardo da Vinci, they filled in those areas with a light, watercolor based paint that would be easily distinguishable from the original paint. This watercolor paint has to be retouched every few years, but it is worth it to be able to identify right off the bat which of the paint was done by the original artist, and which paint was put there by the restorers (Getlein, 2010). Conclusions and Students Position

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 Art Conservation is a great domain to work in; people are passionate, improvements are constantly made, and history is preserved and restored. It takes extreme intellect and intuition to work in conservation and restoration, and art conservation has constantly improved over the past hundred years. I think it would be an exceptionally difficult career to work in, but also very fulfilling and rewarding to know that you helped preserve a piece of our earths history, of an ancient cultures history, etc. Another thing that makes art conservation so exciting are the endless possibilities we can look forward to in the future: new, better technology, 3D reconstitution and reconstruction, and even more (de Guichen, 2009). The survival of our heritages depends on art conservation and restoration, and the awareness that the public (especially considering the will of the decision-makers) to keep our art preserved and alive for the future to see (de Guichen, 2009). As you can see, conserving and restoring is a big job. Individuals in this career are handling priceless original works of art, often extremely unique and of great religious, artistic, or some historical value, on a daily basis (The Conservator-Restorer, 1984). Today, training and education will be one of the most important factors to consider in this profession. Those interested need to be up to date in all technologies, need to be highly educated in almost every area as discussed previously, and need to have good intuition and care about what they are doing(Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis, 2005). If all these facts are taken into consideration, art conservation can only improve as time goes on, and our cultural art will continue to live on the way it was meant to.

Rachel Stagg Living With Art November 2012 References The Conservator-Restorer: A Definition of the Profession. (n.d.). Retrieved from International Council of Museums- Committee for Conservation website: http://www.icomcc.org/47/about-icom-cc/definition-of-profession/#.UDAT6KllSmN de Guichen, G., & d'Ieteren, C. P. (n.d.). Raising Awareness for Better Conservation. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization: Museum International. Getlein, M., & Gilbert, R. (2010). Living with art (9th ed., Vol. 9). New York, NY: McGrawHill. Graff, J. (2006, June 19). The Battle to Save the Cave. Time, 167(25). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (2005). (Sackler NAS Colloquium) Scientific Examination of Art: Modern Techniques in Conservation and Analysis.