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.

A.M. Art Conservation, established in 2009, has had the privilege of working with a diverse clientele, including private collectors, artist estates, museums, and galleries. While we offer our expertise for individual projects, our most gratifying experiences stem from cultivating enduring relationships with our clients and making a lasting impact on the preservation of their collections. In this paper, we aim to spotlight one particularly significant collaboration: a seven-year ongoing endeavor focused on the research, exhibition, and guardianship of the artistic legacy of Michael Richards (1963-2001). This collaborative initiative brought together A.M. Art Conservation, curators Melissa Levin and Alex Fialho, alongside other art professionals, and the estate of the artist.

Michael Richards, an artist of Jamaican and Costa Rican heritage, left a mark on the art world with his nationally and internationally exhibited works. His portfolio encompassed multi-part indoor and outdoor sculptures, time-based media, installations, and drawings. He garnered recognition in museum collections, earned prestigious awards, and participated in numerous residency programs. Tragically, his life was cut short on September 11, 2001, after working overnight in his World Trade Center studio.

In 2016, during the curation of a survey exhibition marking 15 years since Richards’ passing, Levin and Fialho contacted Dawn Dale, Richards' cousin, who had become the custodian of his work. Despite Richards' meticulous packing and Dale’s dedication to his legacy, the artwork had endured the ravages of a storage facility fire, multiple relocations, and suboptimal conditions. The resurfacing of numerous prescient and impactful sculptural artworks, along with fragments, molds, studies, drawings, photos, slides, and ephemera from his life, led to a sustained commitment to and advocacy for Richards’ art and legacy.

A.M. Art Conservation's involvement tracked a conventional path of stabilizing and preparing the works for display, carefully managing both time and budget constraints. We approached the holistic body of work in a triage format, prioritizing actions to benefit the most vulnerable pieces within the allocated time frame. Over time, fresh insights into the work emerged through archival photos, discussions, and recollections from Richards' friends and colleagues.

As the collaboration progressed, additional artworks surfaced, and with the curators preparing for a traveling retrospective, we assumed a leadership role in establishing comprehensive museum practices and engaged fellow professionals to address the collection's requirements. Working with the curators we proposed treatments and budgets, and they ultimately secured a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation. The funding facilitated continued treatment, improved storage conditions, enhanced packing and transportation protocols, and the design of a collection management database. This paper will discuss the challenges and successes of managing an ongoing collaboration in a private practice context.

Since 2016, Michael Richards' work has been exhibited at five national venues including The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. Through our collaborative efforts, we have reduced the collection's risk and empowered the estate to better preserve the work while increasing the artwork's exposure to wider audiences.

Since 2004 the American artist Wade Guyton (b. 1972) has used Epson inkjet printers as one of his main artistic tools to create both small and large-scale abstract and figurative paintings. Guyton’s process involves the feeding of a primed linen canvas through an inkjet printer, allowing ‘mistakes’ such as low toner, misalignments, creases, and ink pooling to generate the final image.

The use of a primed canvas rather than a substrate created specifically to receive inkjet ink (e.g. coated inkjet paper or PET) creates on one hand the artist’s recognizable and loved style; on the other hand, it presents a variety of unique preservation and conservation challenges. For example, due to the pigment ink droplets not being absorbed into the material but sitting on top of the oil-based primer, the surfaces are not only water soluble but also extremely sensitive to the touch: any pressure causes irreversible change to the surface, making handling and packing of these works very challenging. Consequently, most surface changes are irreversible and treatment options are limited.

As the machine-made surface gives the illusion that we are faced with a durable and stable artwork, understanding that this inkjet-printed canvas is highly sensitive and prone to damages is an essential to the process of caring for these paintings.

I have worked closely with the artist’s studio since 2010, and throughout my career in private practice, I have had the opportunity to examine or treat more than 80 inkjet paintings. This long-lasting relationship with the artist has given me the possibility to collaborate with him, to observe his creative process and to conduct interviews specifically pertaining to conservation. Because the materials and the printing technique Guyton employs straddle a broad range of material specializations; discussions, and collaborations with professionals from other conservation specialties and disciplines have been crucial to my current treatment approach.

This presentation will illustrate the artist’s process and many of the treatment challenges specific to this manipulated material, as well as reflect on a theoretical framework of how to approach works composed of subverted materials.

The concept of “expecting the unexpected” is essential to the art conservator. We must carefully test and be prepared to adjust our treatments in accordance. However, we are also required to give cost and time estimates to the client before even touching an artwork. This leads to challenging situations particularly for complex, aged, technological artworks from the 1980s.

Sometimes, we find ourselves asking simple questions like “have they tried turning it on again?”, or “can we SAFELY turn it on again?”, or “what is it even supposed to do?”. Oftentimes records are scarce, so you gather what little information you can from residents or employees that have been around the longest. Once a treatment proposal has been established, there is always the issue of finding spare parts that are often not produced anymore. These challenges must be overcome since these artworks are truly starting to show their age and desperately require restauration [conservation].

Olga Zeldakova created “L’horloge” in 1983. It consists of painted steel pillars with an aluminum cube structure standing 30 feet high above an air vent. The cube contains four quadrants with light bulbs arranged in circular patterns. The artwork is part of the “one-percent initiative” and is located outside in a very busy area of Montreal. There were no videos available of the clock functioning, but the general information is that the clock would indicate time with red lights and chimes. However, the noise apparently bothered the residents, so it was turned off decades ago. The cube containing the electrical parts of the clock is only accessible through a trap door and carefully built scaffolding. We were called to propose a treatment without knowing the current condition of the artwork. Obviously, this led to a lot of surprises, such as the extent of the corrosion beneath the layers of paint, the reality of just how busy the area around it is and the actual functional state of the clock itself.

André Mongeau created the “Horloge solaire” in 1983 to be integrated into a building. This artwork, also part of the “one-percent initiative”, is composed of glass fiber optical cables running through the wall of the building that capture the light outside and shine through a plexiglass disk located in a now abandoned staircase. An additional element to the artwork is a laser canon located inside the building across the street that was intended to shine a red laser beam into the glass exterior captor, which allegedly turned the light specks red at night. Again, no videos of this artwork in action were available. Accounts from the artist say the laser beam never worked properly. Examination of the artwork after deinstallation revealed the fiber optics were fractured and had shrunk. In addition to this, the laser canon had caught fire. Now the challenges we faced were “where can we find glass fiber optic cables?”, “can we reinstall a new safer laser canon?” and “will it work?”.

Couriers are a vital part of the cultural heritage ecosystem, ensuring the safe movement and installation of artworks across multiple locations. The additional skills and experience conservators bring to the courier role tangibly benefit the lender, borrower, and cultural heritage object. From a business perspective, adding this service offering provides the conservator with an additional income stream and can be a valuable tool for expanding their network. The Bookend Courier Model, a form of contract or third-party courier, is particularly relevant in the light of the global climate crisis as it significantly reduces the environmental impact of loans.
Recent research suggests that lenders are reluctant to use contract couriers because it is difficult to find trusted people to fill the role. In seeking a way to overcome this issue, the authors have identified three primary barriers to finding a suitable bookend courier: a scarcity of training opportunities for private practice conservators, a lack of recognition that private practice conservators can serve as independent couriers, and the unreliability of personal networks in a desired geographic region.
This talk will focus on addressing training opportunities and highlighting this service offering by private practices. The authors will discuss a workshop they have developed based on internationally accepted registrarial standards to train independent conservators to successfully act as contract couriers and integrate this service into their business model. Concurrently, the authors have been raising awareness of the Bookend Courier Model through presentations to allied professionals. To further support both conservators who would like to offer this service and those looking for trusted professionals to serve in that role, the authors are working on the development of a Collections Courier Network (discussed during the Toward Art in Transit 2.0 symposium). The network will address the need for a database of collections care professionals who can serve as independent couriers.

The National Park Service (NPS) is responsible for the conservation, maintenance, and preservation of over 50 million artifacts, 36 million of which reside in the 82 Parks and Historic Sites that are part of the Northeast Region. The region’s area extends from Virginia to Maine and includes historic structures and collections that represent countless facets of American history. While conservation as a field is highly specialized, navigating the many rules and regulations surrounding government work and government contracting also requires a specialized skill set. This talk seeks to demystify some of the complexity surrounding federal work and to ensure that independent conservators are able to navigate the solicitation process.

The Historic Architecture, Conservation, and Engineering Center, based in Lowell, MA, is home to the regional conservation lab where conservators with a variety of specialties work on materials ranging from 15th century works on paper to 21st century bronze monuments. Even with a robust group of conservators carrying out both bench work and administrative work, the needs of the NPS collections easily outnumber the capacity for in-house work. As such, NPS often requires outside conservation assistance, most commonly when an unexpected or detrimental event occurs.

Working for and with the federal government to ensure that our nation’s cultural resources are “preserved unimpaired… for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations” in accordance with the NPS mission statement, is both a great challenge and a great responsibility, but can also be lucrative and professionally rewarding. Understanding the expectations of and requirements for government contracting enables both NPS and independent conservators to successfully work together to ensure that our nation’s historic artifacts are preserved and protected for generations to come.