TATE
Joseph Beuys' use of unconventional materials, such as felt, wax, and fat, characterise his artworks. Whilst museums strive to obtain artists' instructions regarding their objects' life-span and care, Beuys' preferences were largely unrecorded or inconsistent. The three case studies of Beuys works presented here explore museum decision-making when confronted with unclear artist attitudes to conservation intervention, and objects evincing material and conceptual decay.
In 2002, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opened Eva Hesse, a comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s works including sculpture, works on paper and paintings. The advance planning required for assembling such an ambitious exhibition afforded conservation staff at SFMOMA significant time for the examination of condition issues in the artist’s work, especially sculptural works made from ephemeral materials.
During the modern art conservation training programme, many reconstruction exercises are undertaken for educational and research purposes. With the assistance of the artist or a relevant material specialist (for example, a woodworker or blacksmith), to-scale reproductions are made using the same materials and imitating the working techniques employed to create the original artwork.
This paper describes a four-year project (2002 to 2006) funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research entitled Historically Accurate Oil Painting Reconstruction Techniques (HART) and hosted by the Netherlands Institute of Cultural Heritage (ICN). The aim was to make oil paint and ground reconstructions with as much accuracy as feasible in order to explore historical recipes and workshop practices. Recipe databases were created to ensure representative recipes were used, and the value of sourcing historically appropriate materials was explored. Such ‘historically accurate’ reconstructions of artists materials serve as reference sets for the visual interpretation of painted surfaces, as well as for chemical and instrumental analyses.
Constable (1776-1837) made one of his characteristic 'six footer' oil sketches in preparation for Hadleigh Castle which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829. The sketch has strips of canvas added at left and lower edges, the attribution of which has long been a subject of debate. A fresh technical study re-examines the evidence surrounding these compositional alterations.
This paper summarises the advantages and disadvantages of glazing options, focusing on works on paper. In light of continuous improvements being made to the physical and optical properties of glass and plastics, combined with improved museum practice and safer art transport, new products have been introduced and the suitability of glass as a glazing option is re-assessed. The author looks at the results of tests carried out on glazing at Tate and suggests that the performance and safety of any glazing is only as good as the quality of the framing, packing, handling and transportation to which the glazed work is subjected.
Soon after the opening of Tate Modern in 2000, a fragment broke off a work by Naum Gabo, Spiral Theme, 1941, in one of our displays. Though this has yet to unleash terror, it was, as far as I was concerned, a spontaneous and unexpected action certainly raising amazement and unease. However, from talking with colleagues in conservation, it appeared that the various plastics of which the sculpture is composed were pulling against each other, and the most fragile gave way.
This paper catalogues major changes in attitude during the last thirty years to conservation practice for the treatment of degraded painting canvases and outlines current practice at Tate. Changing aims and ethics of conservation provide new challenges and opportunities: the key to progress lies in a better understanding of the structural mechanics and degradation processes of stretched canvas paintings.
Some dramatic events have occurred to several sculptures by Naum Gabo in Tate’s collection. Quite suddenly they have changed from being relatively intact sculptures to being unstable and unusable items. This is because they are made from cellulose acetate. Gabo created many sculptures by cutting, bending and gluing sheets of transparent material, beginning with cellulose nitrate, which proved to be highly unstable...
This paper describes the first phase of a multi-disciplinary research project that Tate is currently undertaking to document plastic sculptures by Naum Gabo. The project is a case study for a much wider debate about replicating art works. The Tate has the world’s largest collection of Gabo’s early sculptures, thanks to donations from the artist and his family. Despite storage in controlled conditions and a programme of regular monitoring...
Acrylic emulsion paints have been widely used by artists since their development in the late 1950s. This paper reviews the conservation information that currently exists about them. Brief descriptions are given of their development and how they are analysed, but the focus of this review is on current conservation concerns about their physical properties, how they will age and the effects of cleaning.
For a number of years the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main MMK has been collaborating with artists that come to Frankfurt for a period of time to install their works of art or fulfil commissions. Many works originate on site and are at least partially affected by local conditions. In such cases we have a golden opportunity to accompany the artist’s activity for some time, which generally generates mutual trust.
Time-based media installations are works of art that incorporate audio, film, video, 35mm slides or computer based elements. This paper aims to develop a practical policy for the care and management of display equipment that forms part of these works. It explores how to identify time-based media installations most at risk from equipment obsolescence. In so doing it touches on key issues, such as how does the conservator balance the artist's and the museum's views about what is important to preserve for the future? What does a conservator do when faced with total loss to a significant component? How can our conservation training and attendant concepts of integrity and authenticity contribute to the development of a good decision or response?
This paper focuses on three concepts central to the theory of conservation: authenticity, change and loss. These terms are explored in relation to how they are viewed in traditional conservation practice and how they might usefully be interpreted in relation to time-based media works of art. Discussions about authenticity found in the philosophy of music suggest ways in which conservators might approach concepts of change and loss in relation to time-based media installations.
Drawing on a current research project at Tate on the conservation of modern paintings, this article, based on research carried out in 2003, presents the results of a preliminary scientific investigation into the physical, chemical and optical properties of artists’ acrylic emulsion paints and changes resulting from surface cleaning treatments and accelerated ageing
I am a conservator working for the interdisciplinary research project AktiveArchive. We have been commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture to investigate questions relating to the preservation, documentation and accessibility of electronic art and to convey our discoveries to the museum professionals who are involved with Swiss contemporary art collections.
The following illustrated texts flag up a number of works from the last ten years, some of which are still in production, that take as their starting point existing objects or artworks and deploy processes of reproduction or replication as an investigative tool. All of these projects engage (to a greater or lesser extent) in, and have been generated through a close collaboration with, the mechanisms and culture of the museum.
Strategies for the conservation of a complex installation by Gary Hill (born 1951) are discussed with special reference to the cathode-ray tube monitors and the system that controls the distribution of sound and images. The conservator's role and responsibilities in the care of time-based media artworks are explored, and particular aspects of this new area of conservation are related to traditional notions of conservation and collections care.
This paper reviews existing literature on nineteenth-century British artists’ materials. Sources of information, such as colourmen’s archives, artists’ diaries and surviving palettes, are discussed, and gaps in our current knowledge are highlighted. Particular attention is given to individual materials, such as supports and primings, pigments, paint and mediums, adulterants, varnishing practices and framing practices.
Early in 2006, in response to Tate, Nina and Graham Williams agreed that they would permit replicas to be made of some Naum Gabo constructions. The topic had been discussed with Tate on several occasions before this and previously Nina Williams, the major copyright holder, had refused absolutely to allow replication.