if(typeof(jQuery)==”function”){(function($){$.fn.fitVids=function(){}})(jQuery)};
pmc_jwplayer(‘jwplayer_O25JzWLR_A5r0VCML_div’,’A5r0VCML’).setup(
{“vloc”:””,”playlist”:”https://content.jwplatform.com/feeds/O25JzWLR.json”,”ph”:2}
);
Art in America takes you behind the scenes of those working in the art world as part of our “Hands On” column. For this iteration, A.i.A. associate digital editor Francesca Aton and photo editor Christopher Garcia-Valle visited the conservation studio at Modern Art Conservation to catch up with paintings conservator Joanna Neville about her latest projects. Below, in an edited version of the conversation, Neville talks about conserving paintings by Géricault and Warhol, as well as a new database aimed at preserving works by African American artists.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
I am near the end of a treatment of a painting by Théodore Géricault, which is an oil study for his famous painting the Raft of the Medusa [1818–19], held at the Louvre in Paris. The study that I’m working on is owned by the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. When this painting came to us, it had a number of condition issues, such as large tears through the canvas, a very old and discolored varnish layer, and various campaigns of retouching that were not well-matched to Géricault’s paint either in color or tone. The treatment involved stabilizing the paint that was flaking and fixing the tears, as well as removing discolored varnish and old retouches. Then I did an aesthetic reintegration of the object by reconstructing the lost or damaged areas with reference to the final painting in Paris. The goal is to refocus the attention on Géricault’s work so that it can be viewed as a whole.
One of the challenges of repairing the Géricault study was putting myself in the shoes of the artist. I prepared by doing a lot of art historical research into the artist’s techniques and his materials. I had to do a lot of research into his pigments and consult a number of other oil studies and drawings that he did for the painting. Luckily, there was a huge amount of documentary evidence that I could consult. I also did a number of sketches and mock-ups myself. There were many publications that I could consult about how he used his materials in terms of the layering and pigment. I put all of that together before I started retouching in order to give the best opportunity to imitate his style. All of the paints that were used for the retouching, however, are conservation-grade reversible paints that can be removed in decades time should somebody need to alter them.
At Modern Art Conservation, we are fortunate to have an archive of Andy Warhol’s original materials given to us by the Andy Warhol Foundation. We have on hand a collection of samples and excess from roles that he painted out on canvas and didn’t use. We have parts of rolls for many different colored paints that he has used, and we’ve compiled them into binders with printouts of his paints. The pieces have aged just as his paintings have, which makes these fragments incredibly useful for testing, color matching, and taking impressions of the weave. There are a lot of Andy Warhol paintings that come through the studio, so it’s been an invaluable resource for us.
In addition to this work, I started making a database of conservation treatments that have been done on paintings by African American artists. It includes information on materials and techniques, as well as commonly encountered condition issues and past treatments. The project is still in the early stages, but I hope to formalize these efforts and share this knowledge with others in the field. Many of these artworks have been historically underappreciated, but are now being more widely collected and exhibited, particularly as major institutions work towards diversifying their collections. This project could help with the future care of these works.
Video credits include:
Director and Producer: Christopher Garcia Valle
Director of Photography: Jasdeep Kang
Interviewer: Francesca Aton
Footage of the Louvre, Paris via Getty
Source: artnews.com