Recently treated at The Center, a Franz Kline masterpiece; a white field with broad, black, very expressive brush strokes. The painting came to the our conservation studios because of concern for the stability of the paint layer in particular areas. The primary concern was tiny (in comparison with the 62 ¼” x 80 ¾” size of the painting) delaminations of black “drips” from the white paint.
The print collection at Albion College is an enormous and important teaching tool. With great art history lessons to offer, this collection can give students, scholars, collectors, as well as the interested public, so many examples of printmaking techniques and styles. This print by Albrecht Durer is a good example.
Each time The Chicago Conservation Center is involved in a disaster relief situation, be it small or large, we are presented with new challenges in art handling and conservation. The Veterans Memorial Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa proved to be one of those situations in which ingenuity and quick-thinking was required to save their collection from the recent flooding of the Cedar River. In less than two days, and with crucial help of local volunteers lead by Michael Jager of Cedar Rapids, The Center’s Disaster Response Team was able to inventory and pack the entire collection of 425 military artifacts housed in the now toxic environment.
As a consequence of the massive flooding of the Cedar and Iowa rivers that occurred in Iowa last June, The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids was surrounded by 15 feet of water, well above any historical level. As soon as the water started to recede and the building was safe to enter, The Conservation Center sent a five person disaster response team to assess and recover the textile collection that was located on the first floor of the museum and thus totally immersed during the flood. This portion of the textile collection encompassed approximately 1,000 traditional Czech and Slovak costumes and garments, many with detailed colored embroidery, glass beading and metallic thread decorations.
This decorative hand-painted Esther scroll arrived tightly wound inside a beautiful metal case. In its fragile condition, the scroll could sustain even more damage if continuously rolled and unrolled from its case. Therefore the preservation challenge was to find a way to appreciate the scroll, but not damage the document itself. Digital reproduction was recommended as a solution to this problem, so the original could remain in the case with less handling, and therefore experience less deterioration over time.
Recently I had the pleasure of viewing and repairing a beautiful antique Persian Quran. Each delicate page was beautifully hand-written, and the traditional Islamic leather cover with foredge flap was decorated with intricately painted flowers and vines. The multi-colored floral panels combined with the vibrant red borders make for a bold, yet delicately styled book. Several pages at the front and rear of the textbook were loose, and the interior and exterior hinges required some repair. In keeping with the client’s priority that the least invasive approach be taken, the loose pages and hinges were secured using Japanese tissue. The tissue used for the outer hinges was tinted to make the repair as inconspicuous as possible. The minimally invasive repairs succeeded in strengthening the original pieces of this lovely book so that it may be carefully handled without further damage to either the text block or the covers. A particularly distinctive feature of the traditional Islamic style of binding is that the foredge flap rests under the front cover, not over it.
The Chinese Tariff Map came to The Conservation Center from a private collector who clearly understood the physical limitations of its condition. Our initial observations of the map made it clear that this would be an enormous and complicated treatment challenge. The best description of the paintings layers would be: paper on paper, then adhered on fabric. These very old layers beneath a much older painting or primary support helped us immediately understand that the panorama painting’s condition problems had a long history.
When owners and caretakers of artwork want to properly house their treasured works, their collection may pass through The Center’s Custom Framing Department. Works on canvas, metal, wood, plastic and everything in-between are treated at The Chicago Conservation Center. Each work is individually assessed in order to determine the most appropriate type of housing, based upon the medium, the stability of the piece, the style and the client’s display concerns. A wide variety of housing options are available: traditional framing, custom mounts, and vitrines are the most common.
We successfully treated two paintings: both of which had experienced moisture damage to the extent that shrinkage of the canvas occurred, causing injury to the paint layer. In both cases, it was necessary to re-stretch the canvas in order to begin the restoration. There are several techniques to stretch canvas. However, when loosening of the paint and/or ground layers along cracks where the layers lift upward into peaks (a process called “tenting”) is evident, the most effective technique or method to us is the “Dutch Method”.
Vastly under appreciated for over half a century, the Arts and Crafts period is gleaning second looks from historians, collectors, and art enthusiasts- those who had previously discarded much of the original frames from that period in favor of the more popular, and often reproduction, French and English inspired frames. I think it is likely that many of the Artisans from the Arts and Crafts period would have been mortified to find their paintings in the very style of frame to which their frame had been created as a form of revolt! Today, this resurgence of interest in the Arts and Crafts ‘revolt’ has sparked a flame of curiosity and an endeavor to reunite paintings with original frames, or reproduction frames made to closely resemble the originals. Since so many of the original Arts and Crafts frames were routinely over-painted, stripped and refinished- or simply discarded- few original period frames of quality are extant. Therefore, to find an example of an original frame in a condition of any note is a rare find.
At the time of Hurricane Katrina, the Chevy Chase Sideboard lay in a warehouse, broken down for shipment and secured on pallets, awaiting transportation north. This journey was scheduled to occur in mere days when the contents of the entire building were inundated by a flood that swamped the entire ninth ward, as well as most of the city of New Orleans.
David Chandler, Chief Conservator of Works of Art on Paper, recently treated an etching by American contemporary minimalist sculptor and artist Richard Serra. The work, titled Oteiza, was bought to The Center with a rather large and unsightly scrape of grey latex paint across the upper left of the piece. The paint compromised both the printed and white paper areas.
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