AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Monumenta Art Conservation and Finishing LLC holds the contract with the New York State Office of General Services to care for and maintain the sculptures in the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection (ESPAC). of particular historical and artistic significance is the monumental outdoor sculpture collection that has occupied the plaza for more than half a century which includes works by George Sugarman, Louise Nevelson, Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, and Clement Meadmore. The contract, representing the largest financial commitment to art conservation in the history of the collection, includes treatment of 15 large-scale and monumental sculptures that require major structural and surface remediation. These generational treatments are enormous undertakings led by Monumenta conservators and fabrication staff, who have the unique opportunity to collaborate with the original fabricator of many of the sculptures: Lippincott’s LLC.

ESPAC is certainly unique among fine art collections generally, but more importantly it was meant to be distinct from other municipal art collections from its inception. Formed as part of Rockefeller’s vision of New York’s capital city, the collection was an ambitious mid-century architectural urbanscape, built to act as the central work-force location for state employees of New York State. The plaza environment was the State’s large-scale “blank canvas,” designed to be activated by monumental sculptures. Lippincott Inc. was at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist interest in ever-larger sculpture as the fabricator of choice for many artists represented in ESPAC’s holdings.

ESPAC’s collection, rooted in a municipal mindset, differs in condition from that of outdoor sculpture of the same period held in private or museum settings. Competition for State funding, shifting priorities of elected officials, and poorly documented interventions by State-employed tradesmen have directly affected the current state of preservation of these works. The conservation decision-making process is further complicated by many years of insufficient traditional curatorial and registration oversight, which has resulted in the loss of critical information about artist intent for the sculptures' appearance and display. In some cases, even the most fundamental aesthetic questions (such as identification of original paint color) cannot be answered by traditional art historical investigation in the collection records. Now, in the midst of major conservation treatments, the inclusion of Lippincott in the conservation process has been instrumental in informing the path for treatment.

Of the eleven outdoor sculptures treated to date, five works were originally fabricated by Lippincott's. Their treatments were directly informed by Lippincott’s firsthand experience with their fabrication. From advising on the construction and disassembly of sculptures to helping to triangulate the appearance of original painted surfaces, Lippincott’s has provided key archival information as well as a working knowledge of fabrication during Monumenta-led conservation treatments. Lippincott’s involvement has brought greater understanding of the artist’s intent to both conservators and curators.