Art Conservation

"Pride and Prejudice and Patina" is the "Praska Lecture" I delivered on February 9, 2015 at the Fine Arts Institute of the New York University. In "Pride and Prejudice and Patina" I discuss some aspects behind conservation decision-making that often are not often acknowledged, such as human perception thresholds, aesthetic custom or technical inertia. I suggest that these phenomena need to be taken into account in order to fully understand most conservation cleaning treatments.

One of the most significant goals in collecting and editing the conventional terms and expressions in a language is to share and convey the information both written and oral through focusing on particular subjects from one language to another. The glossary elaborated below is a collection of some daily and technical terms translated from English to Persian regarding to some key words based on practical literature in the libraries. We have tried to collect the most controversial words pictorially as in order to have an appropriate use to make a technical guide for studying the conservators of books and libraries more reasonably.

The concept of Original Artistic Intent is difficult to apply to Tibetan thangkas. Thangkas are composite objects produced by painters and tailors with differing intents, skills and training. Iconographic specifications, regional and doctrinal differences in style, changes in form from harsh treatment and altered mountings all complicate the issue. 2008

Fostering conservation as a discursive and contextual practice, this essay examines transitional media that necessitate new ways of thinking about continuity. It looks at two examples of artworks with the objective of unraveling the varying modes of their transition. An event score, event-performance, object, and film drawn from the artistic legacies of George Brecht and Nam June Paik illustrate that ideas of permanence and impermanence are linked with an understanding of artworks in time and duration. While conservation reveals itself as an intervention in the temporal dimension of artworks, the theories of duration allow us to better understand the reciprocal relations between materials and meanings. In doing so, these theories acknowledge and attempt to make sense of the performative materiality of these works.

Ceramic material is certainly a key element in the cultural heritage, particularly in historical buildings. This material involves specific problems when addressing preservation, as well as conservation and restoration interventions.
This course is coordinated by International Association YOUTH IN CONSERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE-YOCOCU Spain, co-organized by Geosciences Institute IGEO (CSIC, UCM), Spanish Society of Ceramics and Glass (SECV) and the Ceramic and Glass Institute (ICV-CSIC) and sponsored by ECerS, the JECS Trust and SECV.
The main goal of the course is to offer a training program of short duration focused on the ceramic material used in architectural heritage, including structural and decorative elements. Raw materials and technologies used for manufacturing, alteration and decay processes, characterization techniques for study and analysis, as well as new trends in conservation treatments will be addressed.

The 'Portrait of Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle' by Scipione Pulzone is a rarely seen sixteenth-century oil on copper panel painting in the Courtauld Gallery’s collection. In an effort to learn more about this impressive work and improve its physical state, art historical research has been combined with technical study and detailed physical examination. This paper is the result of a seven-month collaborative investigation conducted by one student pursuing a Masters in the History of Art and one student pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings, both at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

The initial goal of this project was to contextualise the painting within the lives of both Pulzone and Granvelle as well as learn more about the materials and techniques of the artist. Subsequently, the exact nature of the commission was investigated and broader themes relating to its intention and function were developed in relation to the panel. This paper summarises the various avenues of inquiry that were pursued and proposes various hypotheses about the panel in the hopes of illuminating its essentially undocumented and unpublished history.

Mural removal - art conservation services and consultation to save two 30' Mexican masterpiece murals from demolition in Austin Texas. See a quick video of the processes and a testimonial by the Project Manager. https://www.FineArtConservationLab.com/mural/ Questions call Scott M. Haskins or Virginia Panizzon, art conservators 805 564 3438 office, 805 570 4140 mobile, faclofficemanager@gmail.com

The " Passion Clock" is an oil painting which measures 83 cm (height) x 69 cm (width), including the stretched edges. It is unsigned and undated. The original frame's exterior measurements are  90.5 x 77 cm. The painting is a religious motif with the Crucifixion as the main motif, containing 13 miniature scenes, each portraying the suffering of Christ. An art and cultural history investigation suggests that the painting is one of several which were painted with the same motif and iconography. Today there are about 20 known versions in Norway, whilst in Denmark a lesser number survive. A survey of original materials and comparison of the other dated versions suggests that this painting was executed between the year 1730 and 1780 and that the painting has possibly been used in a religious and scholastic context. 
The "Passion Clock" is part of the collection at Glomdalsmuseet. When the painting arrived at the conservation atelier in January 2007 it was clearly visible that it had been treated before. The canvas was buckled and it was stretched onto a thin and unstable original stretcher. A secondary stretching on the original stretcher had been undertaken in the past with metal nails perforating the paint layers on the foreside. The previous repair of a hole and its over-paint was visible. The earlier restoration is suggested as being the main cause of flaking in the paint layers, such as its obvious glue impregnation. The paint layer was suffering from cupping and a substantial amount of paint had become detached, some of which had been lost. The surface of the remaining paint was exceptionally dirty. 
The investigation and documentation of the painting’s condition has included examination using: optical microscopy, ultra-violet light and x-ray photography. Small samples have been taken in order to undertake different analysis including SEM-EDX microprobe and FTIR.
The stretcher, the frame and the varnish appeared to be original.  Where possible it was considered important to retain these elements whilst providing the canvas with sufficient support. Following a discussion about possible treatment options it was felt that structural stability could only be achieved by replacing the stretcher. The original varnish was cleaned in order to make the script more legible and to make the motif more visually acceptable. This was considered to be important, as the original intention of the painting was to be read and understood. The decisions taken during the project and level of interventive treatment undertaken was based on professional ethical guidelines, including the justification of materials and techniques based on stability and retreatability.

CCI is developing a computer model of collection value, in order to clarify risk based decision making. A fundamental design issue is the accrual of value over time, and the weighting of the future by the “social discount curve.” In the process of exploring this problem, the history of ideas in utilitarian moral philosophy over the last 200 years was found to provide useful clarity and terminology. An Analytica™ model of collection value over time is presented, with a preliminary study of the role of discount rate and multiple values on preservation decisions.

In this paper, I focus on the question of whether authenticity is fully established in the process of the creation of an artwork: namely, at its initial point of existence. If our answer is affirmative (1), we commit to the idea that authenticity is determined by the work’s creator; thus, it is considered a given, exempt from historical flux. If our answer is negative (2), we take authenticity to be a combination of initial creation and temporal change; in
this sense the work is considered a ‘historical being’. These two conceptions come from opposite ontological perspectives on the identity of artworks. In examining them we will gain insight into how different conservation narratives can be considered and configured in conceptual terms. One’s interpretation of what makes an artwork authentic will greatly influence how to go about preserving or restoring it.

Until 1993 there were conducted first excavations in what promised to be the site of one of the most important buildings of Petra, the stunning capital of the Nabataean kingdom. Its construction, whose initiation century BC, several changes, reconstructions and landslides along its more than five hundred years of operation. But despite this still unknown for certain functions for which it was designed and that, regardless of the construction elements, materials have been located just still less inscriptions that shed some light on a mystery that will try here exhibit various theories that enable closer to resolution.

New techniques for cleaning acrylic emulsion paint surfaces continue to emerge in the practice of contemporary conservation. The discipline is currently in the process of identifying problematic first-generation practices, pursuing improved and alternative treatments, and framing a dialogue to guide future innovations. This paper will present four case studies that illustrate a new aqueous cleaning system for acrylic paint films on paper supports. It will also address this system’s potential to treat discolored paper and board. Driving this evolution in practice is acrylic works’ sensitivity to aqueous cleaning methods. Paint film swelling and surfactant or pigment disruption are two primary risks conservators regularly face when cleaning acrylic works of art on paper. The aqueous cleaning system discussed in this paper mitigates these risks by using pH and conductivity meters to test acrylic paint surfaces and to create customized aqueous cleaning solutions—a technique demonstrated...

The materials of which cultural properties are made are subject to the natural process of aging. In the environment, however, there are factors that intensify and accelerate the process, factors that can to a certain extent be influenced. A conservator-restorer must recognise the causes of deterioration and understand the mechanisms of their action. Only then is it possible to determine the necessary procedures and course of the conservation-restoration operation that is going to halt, slow down and prevent further deterioration of a cultural property.

This article deals with the impact on the environment on stone and plasterwork as the structural materials of cultural properties. There are other factors that also influence the life of these materials, and their effects are also tested. Using the example of the Peristyle of Diocletian’s Palace in Split (Croatia), various kinds of damage and soiling arising via environmental and other factors on the stone that is the basic structural material of this architectural unit are discussed.
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I wrote two more papers for this project: "The Causes of the Deterioration of the Peristyle of Diocletian’s Palace" and "Stone Restoration Techniques". Both are published on TRAINMONHER platform.
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What is a body? In both cybernetic theory and philosophies of sexual difference, there is a common preconception of the body as a physical, stable, material entity. However, the heterogenous experiences of corporeity on cyberspace challenges such preconceptions in that bodies are found to exist in changing, malleable states, produces by processes of writing. In this essay, I propose a reading of Shu Lea Cheang’s web-art work Brandon (1998) and its recent restoration, combined with a critical analysis of philosophical writing on bodies and virtuality by Jacques Derrida and Elizabeth Grosz in order to demonstrate that how the malleable and unstable nature of cyberbodies may help us re-think such notions more generally. In doing so, I propose a reading of bodiliness or corporeity as always-already virtual, made up of local ‘artifactualities’ that produce local realities in and outside cyberspace. This, ultimately, allows us to
begin to re-think and re-define an ethics of the body through the internet, one premised on survival instead of a life/death dichotomy.

eDialogos includes in each issue an article by some more or less renowned author on her or his favorite piece of heritage. "My favorite piece of heritage (and the Heritage Big Bang)" responds to this request, but it is also (and mainly) an exploration of the problems and limits of the notion of "heritage" as it is understood nowadays.

This work describes the workings of modern zoos and considers the core ethical challenges which face those who choose to hold and display animals in zoos, aquariums or sanctuaries. Using a number of normative ethical frameworks this thesis explores impacts of modern zoos. The impact of zoos include the costs to animals in terms of animal welfare, the loss of liberty and even impact on the value of animal life. On the positive side of the argument are the welfare and health outcomes for many of the animals held in zoos, increased attention and protection for their species in the wild and the enjoyment and education for the people who visit zoos. This paper concludes that zoos and aquariums are ethically defensible when they align conservation outcomes with the interests of individual animals and the interests of zoo operations. The impending extinction crisis requires large scale interventions which address human values and facilitate consideration of wildlife in decision making. Considering the long term relationship zoos have with animals, their extensive reach within communities and their reliance on animals to deliver positive experiences for people, it is appropriate that zoos pay back some of humanity's debt to wildlife by making a meaningful contribution to wildlife conservation.

ლექსიკონში წარმოდგენილია 11 მახასიათებელი მათ ტერმინთან ერთად, რომელიც დაზგური ფერწერის, კონკრეტულად კი ზეთის საღებავების დამაზიანებელ ფაქტორებთან არის დაკავშირებული. ამ მახასიათებლების განმარტებასთან ერთად წარმოდგენილი იქნება მათი ვიზუალური მხარეც.

Rather than preserving original objects, the conservation of contemporary art should be thought of as managing change. This raises the question of how to theoretically capture the variability of the work without losing the sense of its artistic identity. The researchers participating in the interdisciplinary project New strategies in the conservation of contemporary art propose to use a biographical approach to investigate and compare the histories of artworks, both before and after they enter museum collections. In this paper the authors claim that not only do decisive turning points in an artwork’s life occur at other moments than those conventionally recognised, but moreover, that they are made up of various and diverging timelines, to be mapped as a river’s trajectory.

Based on the author’s Ph.D. dissertation entitled L’authenticité du mobilier français de la période classique : interprétation, évaluation et préservation (Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV), the aim of this paper is to discuss the concept of authenticity of furniture in the context of conservation. After reviewing the meanings of authenticity and its semantic field, its evolving interpretation in the conservation world will be explored. Based on the discussions developed during the Nara Conference on Authenticity in 1994, evaluation criteria of the authenticity of furniture will be suggested. Selected case studies will illustrate the use of these criteria while underlining the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach in the understanding of the authenticity of furniture.