Conservation

Lori Wong, Getty Conservation Institute, USA. "Use of portable, non-invasive instrumentation for the study of the wall paintings in the tomb of Tutankhamen".

Brian Baade, University of Delaware, USA. "What are our true detection limits? The use of historically representative paint media to evaluate the sensitivity of XRF analysis including a comparison between laboratory-based and hand-held XRF instruments"

John Delaney, National Gallery of Art. "A novel macro-scanner imaging system for collection of hyperspectral X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and visible to near infrared reflectance image cubes of paintings". Panel Discussion: Chair: C. McGlinchey, MoMA. A. Bezur, E.S. Uffelman, J. Mass, L. Glinsman and J. Giaccai. Panel.

Nicholas Barbi, CEO of PulseTor. "A new portable X-Ray spectrometer designed for XRF analysis in cultural heritage applications".

Maria Kokkori, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA. "Materials and Meanings: analyzing Kazimir Malevich's painterly realism of a Football Player -- Color Masses in the 4th Dimension"

Jennifer Mass, University of Delaware, USA. "pXRF and IR Fluorescence Imaging Studies of CdS Alteration in Paintings by Edvard Munch and Henri Matisse in Oslo and Copenhagen ".

Kate Seymour, Melissa Daugherty, and Marya Albrecht. Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg, Netherlands. "CSI Aachen: Unraveling the history of two fifteenth century Spanish panels using forensic methodologies"

Paola Ricciardi, Fitzwilliam Museum, UK. "Painted on parchment: technical study of a 13th century illuminated Psalter".

Bruno Brunetti, Centro di Eccellenza SMAArt and Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Perugia, Italy. "In situ non-invasive studies of paintings: the example of the European mobile laboratory MOLAB"

Austin Nevin, Institute of Photonics and Nanotecnologies, Italian National Research Council, Italy. "Advances in the In Situ Analysis of 19th Century Paintings using Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging"

Gwendoline Fife, Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg, Netherlands & Tyler Meldrum, The College of William & Mary. "Evidence for the accumulative effect of organic solvent treatments on paintings and what to do about it: A case study of 2 'identical' 17th century paintings with single-sided NMR".

Haida Liang, Nottingham Trent University, UK. "Optical Coherence Tomography for the non-invasive examination of paintings -- present and future"

Philip Klausmeyer, Worcester Art Museum, USA. "The use of laser shearography to quantify and map induced strain in canvas paintings".

David Saunders, Keeper of Conservation and Scientific Research, British Museum, UK. "Strategies for analysis: balancing the desirability of non-invasive methods with the advantages of sampling".

Study for the Apotheosis of Washington in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building, about 1859-62, Constantino Brumidi, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum, 2012.15. Video produced by Video Art Productions. Made possible with generous support from James F. Dicke II. (c) 2013 Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Reenacting the Masters: Historically Accurate Reconstructions of Paintings from the Kress Collection How are historically correct reconstructions of paintings developed and defined? Join Brian Baade, painting conservator, researcher, and instructor on historic reconstructions of paintings, and Kristin deGhetaldi, Andrew W. Mellon painting conservation fellow, National Gallery of Art, as they describe the process used to create reconstructions, examine the historic recipes and techniques used by the artists, and explain how reconstructions are used to educate the public about the original works of art.

Conservators Amber Kerr-Allison and Brian Baade present findings of their recent study and analysis of six of Tanner's works in the permanent collection, including the newly conserved Flight into Egypt. Learn how Tanner's documented painting recipe, preserved in the Archives of American Art, contributed to their understanding and analysis of this artist's technique that produced some of the most vibrant paintings at the turn of the 20th century.

The three-dimensional objects treated in this lab are made of a variety of materials and often times a combination of materials. Conservators working here are trained and equipped to handle different types of stone, wood, metal, bone, shell, ceramic, leather, rubber, and synthetic materials. Treatments vary depending on the size, shape, and composition of the object, from the tiniest miniature locket to multi-ton sculptures. Like all conservators, an objects conservator's responsibilities include research, monitoring environmental conditions, and evaluating preservation concerns for objects on loan, on exhibition, and in storage.

Before treatment begins, paintings come to our lab for examination and documentation. If physical deterioration or damage has occurred on any one of the complex layers of a painting, the structural part of a conservation treatment is done here. Conservators try to intervene as little as possible but serious damage does need to be treated so that the artist's work is not lost. In this lab, conservators carefully work to mend tears, secure flaking paint, relax buckling canvas, rejoin cracks, and remove unstable materials.

In this studio conservators restore the surface of paintings to a condition that most closely resembles an earlier unaltered or undamaged state. The two most common procedures that take place here are cleaning and inpainting. During cleaning, conservators carefully remove layers of accumulated grime; darkened varnish; and old, discolored retouching from the surface of paintings. To restore areas of lost paint, conservators fill the areas of loss with gesso, and inpaint them to match surrounding areas of original paint. They use easily reversible materials and take great care not to cover any of the original paint that had been applied by the artist.

Here in the Paper Conservation Lab conservators examine, document and treat a wide variety of works on paper for exhibition, acquisition and collections storage. The collections include prints, drawings, watercolors, and photographic materials, all of which have their own unique physical and aesthetic characteristics. Typical conservation treatments and preventive measures include surface cleaning, removing harmful attachments such as pressure-sensitive tape and poor-quality matting materials, reducing discoloration and staining, flattening paper distortions, and housing artworks in chemically-stable, acid-free materials.

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Lunder Conservation Center, visitors have the unique opportunity to see conservators at work in five different laboratories and studios. The Center features floor-to-ceiling glass walls that allow the public to view all aspects of conservation work--work that is traditionally done behind the scenes at other museums and conservation centers.

Lecture 1: John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator for Media Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Permanence and Change: "The Art & Ideas of Nam June Paik". Lecture 2: Jon Huffman, Curator, Nam June Paik Estate and John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator for Media Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Explorations in Paik's Exhibition Practices and Post Paik Interpretations".

Speaker: Lori Zippay, Executive Director, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). "From Digital Experiments to Analogue Assemblage: Preserving the Single-channel Media Works of Nam June Paik".

Speaker: Richard Bloes, Senior Technician, Whitney Museum of American Art with Reinhard Bek & Christine Frohnert, Consulting Media Conservators, Whitney Museum of American Art. "Preserving the CRT: Paik’s Magnet TV and Vyramid".

Speaker: John Hirx, Chief Objects Conservator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Resurrection of Nam June Paik’s Flag Z and the Conservation of the Paik Video Wall".

Speakers: Michael Mansfield, Associate Curator of Film and Media Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Hugh Shockey, Objects Conservator, Smithsonian American Art Museum. "The Collaboration between Curator and Conservator in Preparing and Presenting the Nam June Paik Exhibition".

Speaker: Joanna Phillips, Associate Conservator of Contemporary Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Lecture: "Negotiating the Original: The Conservation of Analog Media Art".

Speaker: Ann Goodyear, Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. "Initiatives in the Preservation of Time Based Media Art".