The Merchandise Mart, towering 25 stories at its highest point and occupying four million square feet, rests along the Chicago River as the epicenter of downtown Chicago life, culture, media, and business. Finished in 1930 and massive in its construction, The Mart serves as a monument to early 20th-century merchandising and architecture. Even after more than 80 years, this Art Deco landmark continues to be a leading retailing and wholesale destination, attracting people from all over the world.
Sometimes an artwork is not merely an expression of the artist—rather, it is a legal document, or perhaps a blueprint, or even a map. At The Conservation Center, we enjoy coming across pieces that are not only beautiful, but also informative. This was just the case with a piece recently treated for Battle Creek-based private collector, Greg Allen. The said piece is by John Farmer (1798–1859), who is recognized for his cartography of early 19th century Michigan. What makes his maps so incredible is that they serve as primary sources of history for this region.
Traditional Chinese culture places strong emphasis on happiness and good fortune. The character 福, which is pronounced “Fú,” is frequently associated with Chinese New Year and can be seen mounted on the entrances of many Chinese households worldwide. However, luck wasn’t on Mary Ellen Hall’s side when disaster struck her house last spring—which damaged many of her cherished belongings, including a bronze “Foo Dog” she had acquired through an antiques dealer. Fortunately, The Conservation Center was able to save this family treasure.
Hunting may be a fall sport—but art conservation is a year round activity. Whether he was drawing, etching, or painting his famous hunting scenes, Henry Thomas Alken (English, 1785–1851), judging by the amount of work he produced during his career, was always, like us, working. The Conservation Center is always thrilled to treat high quality works by artists such as Alken. Not only can we appreciate his skilled artistry, but we can also admire the humorous point of view through which he saw his subject matters.
When Marshall Kath, a private collector in Dallas, took note of a 2009 Sotheby’s Fine European Furniture and Antiques auction in New York City, he was looking for a piece that would spark conversation. Mr. Kath eventually purchased an attention commanding, 10 ft by 9.5 ft historic 17th-century tapestry that does just that. Titled A Brussels Old Testament Tapestry Depicting the Joseph Interpreting the Pharaoh’s Dreams, From a Series of The Story of Joseph, the tapestry was commissioned by either a royal family as a way of depicting a peaceful, serene life, or a church as a visual representation of significant elements of a particular faith; in this case, Jewish or Christian.
Blue skies and warmer temperatures had giddy Midwesterners basking in sunshine lately after one of the cruelest winters in recent memory. But spring has also brought stormy weather to the Chicago area, and mother nature unleashed a different kind of misery on local residents: flooding. Many Midwestern cities, including Chicago, have been on guard for excess water that lead to issues such as clogged storm drains. The Conservation Center's Disaster Response team is once again on the ground, reacting to many emergency incidents that have affected personal collections. On a recent triage, more than 15 Conservation Center staff members collaborated to save hundreds of family heirlooms from water damage.
A whimsical painting recently appeared at The Conservation Center and caught the attention of our staff members. Titled Galloping Unicorn with Rainbow, this playful work (artist unknown) features exactly what it portrays: a joyful unicorn riding on an infinite rainbow. Through the conservation process, we uncovered a beautiful story behind this piece.
Sometimes in life, a piece of artwork takes you by surprise and before you know it, you can’t live without it. Such is the case for Mark, a private contemporary art collector in Chicago, who is also a friend of The Conservation Center. Mark began collecting art in the early 1980’s while living in New York City. He recently brought his very first acquisition from “way back when” to The Center to be reframed—and the piece Mark brought us has such a heartfelt story behind it we couldn’t resist sharing.
On any given day, taking a walk through The Conservation Center’s 25,000 square foot facilities, with a 10,000 square foot storage space, is always quite an experience—because you’ll never know what kind of artworks and cultural objects you might encounter. Since our dedicated staff members are all art enthusiasts here at The Center, we love geeking out at the amazing items we work on every day. This spring, we have had the pleasure of either conserving or preserving some unexpected pieces. We’ve compiled a series of visual highlights documenting what makes The Conservation Center such a delightful place to work.
With 34 days of measurable snow and a record number of sub-zero temperatures, winter has been unbearably harsh this year in the Midwest. Glacial conditions have set the stage for broken pipes, floods, and fires. Consequently, The Conservation Center's stellar Shipping and Installation team has endured a hectic and demanding schedule lately providing disaster relief services. With winter finally slowing down and spring (hopefully) approaching, we caught up with Paul Kirk, The Center's Director of Transportation and Operations, in which he shared his team's experiences, challenges, and accomplishments during the past few months.
In the 1890’s, an English woman named Lilias Trotter sketched and wrote entries in her journals nearly every day for the last 40 years of her life. These small masterpieces documented her time spent in North Africa on missionary work. Three of those journals were recently discovered in Surrey, England and have been restored and digitized by The Conservation Center for future generations. Provided is a narrative of Trotter’s life and the challenge of tracking down these journals and sketchbooks as told by her biographer, Miriam Rockness.
More on Lilias Trotter >
More than 150 esteemed guests filled Springfield Art Association’s M.G. Nelson Family Gallery on February 11—one day before Lincoln’s Birthday—to unveil the Lincoln “Courting Couch,” which was newly restored by The Conservation Center. Erika Holst, Springfield Art Association’s Curator of Collections, gave a lively presentation of the loveseat’s history before guests got up close and personal with the sofa that sparked romance between Abraham and Mary Todd.
Crash the SAA party and view pics >
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.
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