The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awards Tate a grant to investigate the replication of modern sculptures as a conservation strategy
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Tate a grant of £158,000 ($295,000) for a major multi-disciplinary investigation into replication of sculptures as a possible strategy for addressing the challenges posed by the deterioration of certain materials used by modern and contemporary artists. The grant will enable Tate to lead an international enquiry into the many aspects – technical, scientific, art historical, ethical and museological – associated with this question.
The issues posed by the disintegration and eventual loss of certain modern sculptures are urgent and of general concern. While these issues are not new in themselves, there is a growing recognition of the need to record and assess past practice internationally, and to look critically at the various strategies open to owners of works subject to irreversible material change. Placing special emphasis on the pioneering generation of modernist artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Gabo, László Moholy-Nagy, Antoine Pevsner, Vladimir Tatlin, Georges Vantongerloo and Victor Vasarely, alongside subsequent generations working with perishable materials, including, for example, Eva Hesse and Matthew Barney, the project seeks to generate conclusions that will have wide ramifications and applicability. The subject is of particular concern to museum curators and conservators, art historians, artists’ estates, collectors and gallery owners.
As an integral part of this research project, Tate’s extensive collection of sculptures made with plastics by the pioneering Constructivist artist Naum Gabo (1890-1977) will be the subject of special investigation. Some of Gabo’s plastic materials have proved inherently unstable and eventually will distintegrate. Led by Tate sculpture conservator Jackie Heuman, a team of conservators and scientists will analyse the works and research ways of documenting, and possibly replicating, the sculptures, drawing on the artist’s archives and using modern imaging technology. This work will be undertaken in the period 2006-7.
Drawing in part on this research, an international colloquium will be held at Tate in October 2007 to discuss the scholarly, curatorial and ethical consequences of the unforeseen degradation of certain modern sculptural materials and the possibilities of replication as a solution. An international steering group of leaders in the field is currently devising a format for the colloquium to ensure the fullest possible investigation of the issues. The members of the steering group are: Yve-Alain Bois, Professor, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Penelope Curtis, Curator, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Briony Fer, Reader in Art History, University College, London; Matthew Gale, Head of Displays, Tate Modern; Walter Grasskamp, Professor, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich; Stephen Hackney, Head of Conservation Science, Tate; Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Director, Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, Harvard University, Associate Director for Conservation and Research, Whitney Museum of American Art; Jennifer Mundy, Head of Collection Research, Tate; Derek Pullen, Head of Sculpture Conservation, Tate; with Angelica Z. Rudenstine, Program Officer, Museums and Conservation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, serving as advisor.
For further information about the project, please contact the project’s leader Dr Matthew Gale, Head of Displays, Tate Modern (matthew.gale@tate.org.uk).
Dr Matthew Gale, Head of Displays
Tate Modern
11 December 2006
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