Last spring, a rather enigmatic painting titled Portrait of a Man was brought to The Conservation Center in need of restoration. The owner, Andy Boyden, had purchased the piece from an estate sale while traveling in Liverpool, England. “I was attracted to the painting because it had the feel of an Old Masters painting. I loved the eyes, the sitting, the intense expression of this gentleman, and as an admirer of the works of Rembrandt van Rijn, I wanted to find out more about it.”
At The Conservation Center, we're passionate about caring for fine art and artifacts from around the country, right here in Chicago. So we thought what better way to show off what we do best by giving you a close-up look of "a day in the life" at our workspace through a photo essay, shot by two photographers in different styles. There are treasures and intimate moments everywhere to be found. C'mon in!
For a second year, The Conservation Center held an art competition amongst our talented staff--many of them trained or self-taught artists. With "Chiberia" and "Polar Vortex" engrained in our daily vocabularies nowadays, we thought it was only appropriate to incorporate the theme of winter and/or snow into their creations, whether comical or serious. We're delighted to share the winning entry from Alfredo Garcia!
What happened in 1961? John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States; “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles was a #1 hit; and the non-dairy creamer was one of the greatest inventions of the year. It was also the time when a budding young musician named Frank Zappa discovered his artistic creativity and painted Horny. More than five decades later, the painting made its way to The Conservation Center, where we restored the masterpiece to its original glory. More on the “Mother of Invention” and how we conserved his work.
The Conservation Center team was on call during EXPO CHICAGO weekend (September 19-23) to assist dealers with unexpected art or framing emergencies during the fair. Our educational booth this year--which featured a magnificent Ellsworth Kelly work on paper and an eye-catching James Rosenquist painting, both generously lent to us by private collectors--brought in many of our old friends along with new audiences. See you next year, EXPO CHICAGO!
The Conservation Center's private reception on September 12 welcomed such esteemed guests as Roxanne Decyk, Christie Hefner, Richard Hunt, Tony Karman, Steve Koch, Arlene Semel, and Joan Steel to help celebrate our three decades of achievements. We'd like to thank all who attended and made our event a huge success!
Three decades of art restoration and preservation for clients and collections around the country is a pretty big deal, so we’ve taken this opportunity to have our distinguished Advisory Board members and founder say a few kind words about The Conservation Center and why they’re proud to be involved with us.
John Warner Norton, a charter member of The Cliff Dwellers, became one of the most accomplished and sought-after muralists in Chicago and across the United States by 1920. Earlier, however, in 1910 as Norton’s career and The Cliff Dwellers were both newly beginning, one of his first commissions titled "Navaho" became one of the private club’s earliest acquisitions of art. "Navaho" was recently conserved by The Conservation Center.
At The Center, we treat items of great worth, historical artistic significance and shared cultural value. But perhaps some the most rewarding work we do is in preserving family heirlooms. These items very greatly from paintings to furniture and can be extremely valuable or purely sentimental, but all hold stories with meaning to the owners. We feel honored to assist families with preserving these items for future generations, and allowing their stories to carry on, and would like to share a recent story from one of our clients.
A delicate glass vase by French artist Emile Galle (1846-1904), owned by the Glessner House Museum was brought to The Center after it was accidentally damaged and shattered. The vase broke into discrete fragments with extensive associated losses along the break edges, including an area of significant loss around the rim. There were also two running cracks as a result of a fracture.
This past month, Hurricane Sandy devastated the Eastern seaboard leaving homes and businesses severely damaged, and basements, storage spaces, and first floors flooded by water. In some areas, the water line reached nearly five feet. The Conservation Center was called onsite to New York City on October 29th, where we assisted both businesses and home owners with damaged art, heirlooms, and unique items affected by the flood waters. The Center's onsite crews worked to carefully remove and triage over two thousand works of art in order to mitigate additional damage.
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