The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter Volume 17, Number Conservation

Transcription

1 The Getty Conservation Institute Newsetter Voume 17, Number Conservation

2 The Getty Conservation Institute Newsetter Voume 17, Number Barry Munitz Timothy P. Whaen Jeanne Marie Teutonico Katheen Gaines Luke Giiand-Swetand Kristin Key François LeBanc Jeanne Marie Teutonico The J. Pau Getty Trust President and Chief Executive Officer The Getty Conservation Institute Director Associate Director, Fied Projects and Conservation Science Assistant Director, Administration Head of Information Resources Head of Pubic Programs & Communications Head of Fied Projects Chief Scientist (acting) Jeffrey Levin Angea Escobar Joe Mooy Coor West Lithography Inc. Conservation, The Getty Conservation Institute Newsetter Editor Assistant Editor Graphic Designer Lithography The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) works internationay to advance conservation and to enhance and encourage the preservation and understanding of the visua arts in a of their dimensions objects, coections, architecture, and sites. The Institute serves the conservation community through scientific research; education and training; fied projects; and the dissemination of the resuts of both its work and the work of others in the fied. In a its endeavors, the Institute is committed to addressing unanswered questions and to promoting the highest possibe standards of conservation practice. The GCI is a program of the J. Pau Getty Trust, an internationa cutura and phianthropic organization devoted to the visua arts and the humanities that incudes an art museum as we as programs for education, schoarship, and conservation. Conservation, The Getty Conservation Institute Newsetter, is distributed free of charge three times per year, to professionas in conservation and reated fieds and to members of the pubic concerned about conservation. Back issues of the newsetter, as we as additiona information regarding the activities of the GCI, can be found in the Conservation section of the Getty s Web site. Front cover: A seection of modern paint materias. The artists paint market underwent a dramatic change in the 20th century with the deveopment of synthetic paints. Created for the burgeoning house paint market, paints containing synthetic resins aowed for more rapid drying and dispayed ess yeowing with age than paints made with oi the traditiona binding medium. Synthetic paints were eventuay formuated for the artists market. By the 1960s one of these acryic emusion paint was becoming among the most widey used paint materias. Photo: Tate, London The Getty Conservation Institute 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 700 Los Angees, CA USA Te Fax J. Pau Getty Trust

3 Contents Feature 4 Modern Science and Contemporary Paintings Preserving an Evoving Legacy By Michae Schiing, Susan Lake, Eizabeth Steee, and Suzanne Quien Lomax Paintings produced in earier eras used a reativey circumscribed range of artists materias. Today artists are not imited to these traditiona materias but may aso choose from a variety of commercia paint media such as acryics, nitroceuose, and akyds as we as a profusion of synthetic pigments. Given that research into artists materias and their use pays an important roe in conservation, the tremendous increase in the number of avaiabe materias creates new chaenges for conservation professionas. Diaogue 11 Time and Change A Discussion about the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art Those charged with conserving modern and contemporary art confront a variety of practica and phiosophica considerations. Conservators Jim Coddington and Caro Mancusi- Ungaro and art historian Kirk Varnedoe shared their thoughts on a number of these compicated but intriguing issues with the GCI s Jeffrey Levin. News in 18 Modern Paints A New Coaborative Research Project Conservation By Thomas Learner, Michae Schiing, and René de a Rie Knowedge regarding how we modern paint media wi withstand the passage of time remains extremey imited. A new integrated coaborative project initiated in 2002 by Tate in London, the Nationa Gaery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Conservation Institute wi address some of the questions we have regarding the character of modern paint materias. The project wi conduct research in three main areas: ceaning of modern paintings, chemica anaysis, and physica characterization. 21 Conserving the Buddhist Wa Paintings at Mogao By Francesca Piqué Since 1989 the Getty Conservation Institute and the Dunhuang Academy have coaborated on conservation at the Mogao grottoes, an important site of Buddhist worship aong China s Sik Road, today inscribed on the Word Heritage List. Beginning in 1997, one aspect of the coaboration has focused on the conservation of wa paintings. The wa paintings project is deveoping approaches that wi have wide appication not ony at Mogao but aso at simiar sites on the Sik Road. GCI News 24 Projects, Events, and Pubications Updates on Getty Conservation Institute projects, events, pubications, and staff.

4 Feature Modern Science and Contemporary Paintings tthroughout THE 20TH CENTURY, artists continuay redefined our conception of what constitutes art, a process that incuded a proiferation in the empoyment of materias not previousy known or used. As never before in history, artists have had at their disposa a tremendous assortment of natura and synthetic materias and the icense to use them. Modern artists have whoeheartedy embraced this profusion of products. New materias now incorporated into art incude pigments with never-before-seen shades and hues, a variety of synthetic paint media, exquisitey transparent pastics, suppe fabrics, exotic meta aoys, quick-setting adhesives, and eectronic devices, to name merey a few. Even the ong-estabished fied of painting has seen a change. Paintings created in earier eras refected a reativey imited suppy of artists materias. The ony avaiabe paint media were waxes, pant gums, egg, mik, anima hides, vegetabe ois, and pant resins. Pigments came from minera deposits or were extracted from pants, insects, and animas. Today, however, artists are not imited to these traditiona materias but may aso choose from a variety of commercia paint media such as acryics, nitroceuose, and akyds as we as a profusion of synthetic pigments. Given that research into artists materias and their use pays an important roe in conservation, the tremendous increase in the number of avaiabe materias has created new chaenges for conservation professionas. Conservation Research Examination and anaysis of artists paints yieds information about artistic techniques and materias that heps guide decisions about care and conservation treatment. Conservators of modern art aso take a keen interest in art as a process, carefuy researching the ideas behind the specific techniques that the artist used to create the work. The chaenge is finding conservation soutions that preserve a painting without disregarding the artist s intent. How can we earn more about the compex formuations of contemporary artists materias formuations that are routiney Preserving an Evoving Legacy By Michae Schiing, Susan Lake, Eizabeth Steee, and Suzanne Quien Lomax changing? For exampe, an artist may have used the same brand of acryic paint over a 10-year period, but the manufacturer may have modified the formuation severa times during that period. Because product formuations are compex and may change rapidy, a singe formuation may not be representative of an entire cass of paint medium; this fact creates difficuties for conservators and conservation scientists. (Formuation changes can aso make it difficut for an artist to deveop a consistent set of refined working techniques.) Conservators of modern and contemporary art have access to many sources of information not avaiabe to coeagues who preserve works of art from earier times. Product abes or ibrary hodings (for exampe, those of the Getty Research Institute) are such sources; sometimes records of product formuations can be obtained from manufacturers. Archiva coections of artists materias are aso important sources of information. For exampe, Yae University, Tate, the Netherands Institute for Cutura Heritage (ICN), and the Nationa Gaery of Art, Washington, house invauabe coections of pigments, paints, varnishes, and media that scientists can study. In addition, interviews with artists provide a unique source of information that may permit conservators to earn what products were empoyed in making a particuar work of art, how the materias were used, the origina intent of the artist, and the artist s attitude toward future conservation treatments. In 2000, 11 European museums, coordinated by the ICN and Tate Modern, estabished the Internationa Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA). Athough sti in its infancy, the INCCA Web site ( aready contains a weath of information. Another exampe is the Artists Documentation Program, in which artists are interviewed on fim in front of their works. The program was initiated in 1991 with support from the Andrew W. Meon Foundation and the Meni Foundation by Caro Mancusi-Ungaro, now director of conservation at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and director of the Center for the Technica Study of Modern Art at Harvard. 4 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Feature

5 Right: Wiem de Kooning in his studio with his painting Untited in May Scientific anaysis of seected de Kooning paintings from the 1960s and 1970s confirmed anecdota reports that the artist had experimented with paint formuations. This information wi assist conservators in improving care for his paintings from this period. Photo: Rudoph Burckhardt. Permission courtesy Tibor de Nagy Gaery, New York. Beow: Wiem de Kooning, Untited, Oi on canvas, 80 in. 70 in. Photography by Lee Stasworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, The Wiem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Partnerships in Contemporary Art Preservation For many years, artists and art materias manufacturers have conducted testing on art materias to determine their aging quaities. The American Society for Testing and Materias (ASTM) subcommittee on artists materias has been working on ightfastness standards for over two decades, and the high quaity of today s artist oi and watercoor paints is primariy due to its efforts. Currenty, the committee is deveoping a ightfastness standard for coored pencis, as we as a standard for pastes. The study of artists materias has aways been an activity of the conservation professiona, as the search for new treatment materias pursues the repacement of oder, ess-effective ones. On rare occasions, spin-offs resut that improve an artist s options. One exampe is Gamvar varnish a nonyeowing substitute for natura resin varnishes deveoped by René de a Rie at the Nationa Gaery of Art and marketed by Gambin Artists Coors. Recenty organizations have provided funding to promote the preservation of contemporary art, incuding feowships at Tate and at the Nationa Gaery of Art (see Modern Paints, p. 18). In addition, the Andrew W. Meon Foundation has sponsored a number of important meetings in which conservators, curators, and conservation scientists have discussed research needs and approaches. Finay, manufacturers of artists materias such as Goden Artist Coors, Gambin Artists Coors, Senneier, Sinopia, and Winsor & Newton are now providing information on their products via the Internet. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Feature 5

6 Sti, even with these resources, much work remains to be done in identifying the vast number of materias used by contemporary and modern artists and in deveoping a better understanding of the properties of these materias. Conservation science can pay a significant roe in this effort. There are now a number of scientific anaytica techniques to aid in identifying artists materias and techniques and athough most were refined and deveoped to study works of art made with more traditiona materias, they can aso be appied to 20th-century artworks and their materias. From minute sampes of paint, pigments are identified with poarizedight microscopy (PLM), X-ray fuorescence (XRF), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Organic binding media may be identified with gas chromatography (GC), iquid chromatography (LC), and mass spectrometry (MS). Another too, Fourier-transform infrared microspectrometry (FTIR), is usefu for identifying pigments and media. Identification of the materias and their properties in contemporary objects is being pursued at severa major institutions. At Tate, for instance, Thomas Learner deveoped a technique for identifying modern paint media using pyroysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Scientists at the Canadian Conservation Institute constructed a transportabe FTIR spectrometer that has been used to differentiate traditiona materias such as Japanese acquer from imitations made from cashew oi or akyds. And at the Carnegie Meon Research Institute, Pau Whitmore deveoped a device for assessing, in a microscopic-sized spot, the ightfastness of contemporary coorants eary in an object s ife. Many modern and contemporary paintings have not yet undergone major conservation treatments, a process that can sometimes remove components from the origina paint media. As a resut, natura aging processes are the predominant factors in the ateration of the composition of materias in modern and contemporary paintings. They are, therefore, idea candidates for scientific study of the materia aging processes. The appication of scientific anaytica techniques to more recent works of art has increased our understanding of artists materias and working methods, thereby enhancing our abiity to preserve these paintings. These techniques were recenty appied in research on paintings by two 20th-century U.S. artists Wiem de Kooning and Jacob Lawrence which was conducted in the aboratories of the GCI and the Nationa Gaery of Art. This research iustrates how modern science can revea new insights about contemporary works of art, which utimatey can aid in the conservation of these works. Wiem de Kooning, Woman, Sag Harbor, Oi and charcoa on wood, 80 in. 36 in. Photography by Lee Stasworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, The Wiem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Wiem de Kooning, Woman, Oi on wood, 80 in 36 in. Photography by Lee Stasworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, The Wiem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 6 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Feature

7 Wiem de Kooning Throughout his ong career, Wiem de Kooning routiney expoited unconventiona materias for his paintings. A weath of historica and anecdota records report that the artist reguary mixed house paint, saffower cooking oi, water, egg, and even mayonnaise with his artists paints to achieve desired visua and textura effects. Despite the extent to which his methods and materias have been described by his contemporaries, there has been considerabe confusion as to de Kooning s actua practices at specific times in his career. Additionay, there is concern that the idiosyncratic paint formuations that he reportedy used wi have a negative effect on the ong-term stabiity of his paintings. The paintings executed during the 1960s and 1970s, in particuar, are probematic for conservators, with passages that remain soft and sticky. Such paint surfaces are easiy deformed when touched, and they readiy pick up surface dust. To address these issues, a study was undertaken to anayze the binding media and pigments of a seection of de Kooning s paintings from the period of Due to simiarities in composition between traditiona oi paint media and the media de Kooning reportedy used, it was possibe to use GC-MS procedures deveoped for traditiona paints to test sampes from his paintings. The resuts of the study provided vauabe insights into de Kooning s choice of medium. First, no evidence was found in any of the sampes anayzed to support the caims that de Kooning painted in egg tempera medium or with mayonnaise. Eary in his career, de Kooning did use house paints extensivey, often in combination with artists ois. In paintings from the eary 1960s, he abandoned his use of house paints and turned to artists tube paints made from inseed, castor, and poppy ois. The eariest evidence of his use of saffower oi comes in paintings from 1964 or 1965, and it appears that saffower oi, mixed with water, artists tube paints, and a sovent, became his medium of choice unti the midde 1970s. These anaytica findings support anecdota reports that de Kooning, increasingy frustrated with the fast-drying properties of the newer house paints, searched in the 1960s for a paint formuation that woud meet his requirements for a medium that coud be reworked over extended periods of time. This more fuid paint faciitated the compex and varied brushwork that is the hamark of his paintings from this period. In two untited paintings from 1977, de Kooning appears to have abandoned his saffower-and-water paint mixture entirey, turning to artists tube coors excusivey after he earned of the dangers posed by nondrying ois. From a carefu review of the findings, it is cear that de Kooning s addition of water to his paintings evidenced by air bubbes found in the paint has had itte effect on the extent of breakdown of the oi media. Linseed oi paints were degraded to a greater degree than were paints made with sower-drying media, which runs counter to norma experience. Another important finding of this research is a greater appreciation for the infuence of pigments on the stabiity and ong-term tackiness of oi paints. The paints that remain soft generay are the fu-strength cadmium coors or those containing synthetic organic dyes. By contrast, paints with significant amounts of white pigment have formed hard fims. These anaytica resuts provide vauabe information that wi assist conservators in improving care for de Kooning s paintings from the 1960s and 1970s. Utimatey, the wisest course is preventive. It is recommended that these paintings be framed under gass, if possibe; when this course is not practica, it is recommended that they be dispayed and stored in as dust-free an environment as possibe. When these paintings trave, they must be housed in frames to ensure that nothing wi come in contact with their surfaces. Utimatey, if a painting must be ceaned, the anaytica findings make it possibe for informed choices to be made on how aggressivey seected passages of the painting may be treated. Because the pigment not the binding medium was found to have the greatest infuence on the stickiness of the paint, it is possibe to use the pigment as a parameter for predicting vunerabiity. Wiem de Kooning,...Whose Name Was Writ in Water, Oi on canvas, in in. Photography by David Head, The Soomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York The Wiem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Feature 7

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9 Jacob Lawrence Jacob Lawrence s eary training in the 1930s at the Utopia House and at the Works Progress Administration Arts Workshop in Harem, New York, introduced him to the materias that he woud use throughout his career tempera paints, various papers, iustration board, and hardboard. The use of matte, opaque, waterbased paints woud predominate in his work. Unfortunatey, the precise kinds of aqueous media that Lawrence used have often been misidentified. Tempera, casein, gouache, and watercoor can be easiy mistaken for one another, particuary when thinned to a wash consistency, and many of Lawrence s works have incorrect media attributions as a consequence. To better identify the aqueous media used by Lawrence, a seected group of his paintings from 1938 to 1975 was studied. In testing the paint sampes, pigments were identified using PLM, and FTIR was used in conjunction with GC-MS procedures deveoped for traditiona paint media. The knowedge produced by this research of the medium in each Lawrence painting knowedge grounded in fact, not specuation doesn t just provide accurate information for schoars and historians and for museum records. It aso sheds ight on common deterioration probems associated with some of Lawrence s paintings, such as faking paint or efforescence formation, and it can guide their conservation. The word tempera comes from the Latin temperare, meaning to mix or to reguate. The cassic recipe, as recorded by Cennino Cennini in I ibro de arte in the ate 14th century, cas for emusifying egg yok with water, and is considered by purists to be true tempera. However, in the first haf of the 20th century, many new water-based paints were deveoped to meet a demand from the growing advertising industry for fast-drying, opaque, matte paints. Recipes changed in response to avaiabiity and cost of raw materias yet paint manufacturers cassified most as tempera. Whie a shared characteristic of these paints was the abiity to be thinned with water, the binding media may have incuded such combinations as gum and gue; starch and gue; gue and egg; egg and oi; egg, resin, and oi; and casein and gue. Bind Beggars (1938) is among Lawrence s first recognized works executed with a commerciay produced tempera. Anaysis reveaed that the red paint is composed of iron oxide red and transparent minera fier, and the binding medium was identified as a mixture of gum and gue. Athough Bind Beggars is in good condition, the presence of gue in the binder may be among the causes of instabiity in the paint ayers in many of Lawrence s eary tempera works. Awareness of this characteristic in some of his paintings shoud aert museums and coectors to the need for carefu reguation of the reative humidity in which these paintings are exhibited. Knowedge of the components of the paint fim wi enabe conservators to make better choices of adhesives, materias, and techniques for the treatment of these paintings. Opposite page, top eft: Jacob Lawrence, Bind Beggars, Tempera on iustration board, 20 in. 15 in. The Metropoitan Museum of Art, Gift of the New York City W.P.A., ( ). Photograph, The Metropoitan Museum of Art. Gwendoyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendoyn Lawrence Foundation. Opposite page, top midde: Jacob Lawrence, The Checker Payers, Tempera on gessoed pane, 50.8 cm 60.9 cm. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, Gift of Saundra B. Lane in memory of her husband, Wiiam H. Lane, and purchased through the Stoddard Acquisition Fund. Gwendoyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendoyn Lawrence Foundation. Opposite page, top right: Jacob Lawrence, Vaudevie, Egg tempera on fiberboard with penci, in in. Photography by Lee Stasworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, Gwendoyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendoyn Lawrence Foundation. Opposite page, bottom: Jacob Lawrence, Magic Man, Tempera and penci on fiberboard, 20 in. 24 in. Photography by Lee Stasworth. Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fokerson, Gwendoyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendoyn Lawrence Foundation. Jacob Lawrence working on the maquette for Games in his Seatte studio in March The use of matte, opaque, water-based paints dominated Lawrence s work. Unfortunatey, because aqueous media can easiy be mistaken for one another, the paints in his works were often misidentified. Scientific investigation of a seection of Lawrence s paintings has provided more precise information on the media of these works. This knowedge wi be used to address common deterioration probems associated with some of his paintings. Photo: Mary Randett. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Feature 9

10 In the ate 1940s, Lawrence made his own egg tempera using a recipe which he recas obtaining from a friend that caed for equa parts egg yok and water, pus a few drops of formadehyde as a preservative. Anaysis of the binding medium on Lawrence s Checker Payers (1947) confirms it to be composed of pure egg. In contrast, anaysis of the medium in Vaudevie (1951), another egg tempera painting, indicates that it is a commerciay prepared medium incorporating ois and pasticizers into the paint. One probem with some egg temperas is the formation of efforescence on the artwork s surface, an aging phenomenon. Generay associated with dark hues, a white crystaine substance was noted on the surface of many works examined for this study. A sampe of this white crystaine exudate taken from Magic Man (1958) was identified as a free fatty acid deposit. The best means for removing efforescence from the surface of a painting is currenty under consideration by conservators; approaches range from removing it with a soft brush or a sma vacuum to using a cotton swab dipped in sovent. Coud the commercia preparation of the egg tempera be the cause of the efforescence? Works by Lawrence executed with a medium consisting soey of egg yok do not seem to exhibit the white exudate. The anaysis conducted on Lawrence s paints adds to the growing body of scientific knowedge of the causes and treatment of efforescence in paint fims. In a ater work on paper, Street to Mbari (1964), more than one medium may be present. Like so many Lawrence pictures dating from the 1960s onward, the medium had been assigned as gouache. However, anaysis of one coor sampe identified gue as the principa binder, which indicates a tempera medium. From the 1950s through the 1970s, it appears that Lawrence bought different types of water-based paints. It seems probabe that at many points in Lawrence s career, he simpy had an aqueous media paette, and that he didn t distinguish among media but, rather, bought paints for their coors. Given the abundance of newy avaiabe, commerciay prepared aqueous media in the 20th century, it shoud be no surprise to find many different types of paint in a singe work of art. This increased understanding of the extent of Lawrence s use of commercia paints is important for the utimate conservation of his work. Commercia paint tubes often contain additives to preserve the contents, whereas paints mixed by artists from simpe recipes generay do not; utimatey, these compositiona variations coud ead to different pathways of deterioration for commercia versus homemade paints, and hence they require different approaches to conservation and preservation. A Mutidiscipinary Chaenge Modern and contemporary paintings present a variety of new chaenges to conservators. Today s artists can choose from an incacuabe variety of commerciay avaiabe products. Yet neither the ong-term aging behavior of these materias nor safe methods for conserving the vast majority of them are known. Given the magnitude of the task, mutidiscipinary coaborations on nationa and internationa eves are essentia for preserving modern and contemporary paintings. Fruitfu partnerships have been estabished between manufacturers of artists materias, conservation science aboratories, and organizations that set standards, such as the American Society for Testing and Materias (ASTM). Research priorities have been discussed at meetings of conservation professionas, and based on the enthusiasm expressed by the participants in these meetings, on the commitment of institutiona resources, and on the extent of the partnerships, it can be said that the future of modern and contemporary paintings conservation ooks bright. But it is cear that curators, conservators, and conservation scientists wi need to work cosey together in order to preserve the diverse, evoving egacy of today s artists. Michae Schiing is a senior scientist and head of the anaytica research section at the GCI. Susan Lake is the head of conservation at the Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden. Eizabeth Steee is the conservator at the Phiips Coection. Suzanne Quien Lomax is an organic chemist at the Nationa Gaery of Art, Washington, D.C. 10 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Feature

11 Time and Change A Discussion about the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art Those charged with conserving modern and contemporary art face a variety of practica and phiosophica chaenges. We asked three individuas whose professiona work has required confronting these chaenges to offer their thoughts on what constitutes the major issues in this area of conservation. Jim Coddington is the Agnes Gund Chief Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where he has been a conservator since During that time he has ectured and pubished on a number of topics, incuding the theory and practice of modern art conservation, digita imaging, and image processing in the conservation and structura restoration of paintings. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro hods a joint appointment as director of conservation at the Whitney Museum of American Art and founding director of the Center for the Technica Study of Modern Art at Harvard University Art Museums. She has written on Mark Rothko, Jackson Poock, and Barnett Newman, and she continues to engage in research documenting the materias and techniques of iving artists, as we as other issues reated to the conservation of modern art. Kirk Varnedoe is professor of art history in the Schoo of Historica Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. From 1988 to 2001, he was chief curator of painting and scupture at MoMA. Prior to that, he taught at New York University s Institute of Fine Arts and at Coumbia University. Recipient in 1984 of a MacArthur Foundation Feowship, he has authored numerous books and cataogues on 19th- and 20th-century art. They spoke with Jeffrey Levin, editor of Conservation, The GCI Newsetter. Jeffrey Levin: Is there a distinction that one can make in terms of the conservation of modern or contemporary art, as opposed to the conservation issues of oder works of art or is it pretty much the same set of issues? Kirk Varnedoe: Isn t this a trick question? If you had the same set of probems with ephemera materias, they woud have resoved themseves centuries ago. The artists who buit Stonehenge may have done performance pieces or worked in beeswax or other things that contemporary artists are doing it s just that time has destroyed it a, so we don t know. The preservation of oder works of art, de facto, has got to be different from deaing with contemporary works of art, simpy because they ve survived. It doesn t necessariy mean that the conservation questions posed, had we encountered them in 1500, woud be radicay different from those we encounter today. Jim Coddington: A art, at some time, is contemporary art. It often pushes the boundaries of known materia preservation. There is a natura fitering process that the second aw of thermodynamics takes care of for us. Everything tends to chaos. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I think, though, that conservation does step in here, in that some materias ike paint on canvas, for exampe, as opposed to paint on pane or on stone presented issues of preservation that perhaps hadn t been addressed before. When painting on fabric became a widespread technique, then conservation rose to the occasion and figured out a way to preserve the innovation. Jim Coddington: There s a second question here, and that is Is there something fundamentay different about the way a conservator of modern art thinks about the work of art than a conservator working on an oder piece thinks? I woud say in genera, no, in that we have genera sets of standards and working guideines. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I agree, but I aso think that when we restore a representationa work of art, we can go about it in a more ocaized way, aowing the eye to join areas that might be missing or might be Diaogue Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue 11

12 corrected. It s quite different if we re working with a monochromatic piece, where a more overa approach is required. From my perspective, treatments on monochromatic works that have faied have been ones that have been approached as if the painting were a representationa work that coud withstand a ocaized treatment. Jim Coddington: But you can have arge monochromatic passages in representationa works that present the same optica probem. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: That s true, and we ve seen those successfuy and unsuccessfuy done. But there s something about having a broad, expansive coor that I think requires a different kind of approach. Jeffrey Levin: Have artists in modern times acked some of the knowedge of materias science that artists in earier ages had? Your answers to the first question suggest that, with regard to knowedge of materias, there s aways been a earning curve. Kirk Varnedoe: My feeing is that in Renaissance Forence, you were intimatey invoved with the peope making your paint if you weren t making it yoursef. You d have a pretty intimate knowedge of the nature of what you were working with, just because you weren t far from the site of production and because the eve of speciaization wasn t as extreme as it is now. In most cases, artists now are radicay detached from the makers of the materia that they work with. That s a big difference. Even in the 19th century, any scuptor who farmed out his work to a bronze foundry sti understood quite we the process of bronze casting. I m not sure that an artist today who sends his work out to be done in stainess stee or in titanium by some technician is going to be as cosey invoved. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I think that s right. But I aso think that athough an artist may not be as informed about the constitution of the materia, or the making of the materia, that ack of information doesn t necessariy affect his or her reationship with the materia and his or her use of it. The intimacy is sti there. Kirk Varnedoe: Yes. If you take an artist ike Eva Hesse, for exampe, she found properties in materias that the peope who made them didn t suspect were there. She had an intimate knowedge of what those materias woud do that their makers might have regarded as inadvertent consequences of the properties of the materia but which, for her, had a poetic vaue. Jim Coddington: I think that there is a imit to how far we can go with this. If you take it to the extreme, it is that the contemporary artist is essentiay ignorant of his or her materias which is surey not the case. I am peased that Richard Serra knows enough about his materias to keep those stee scuptures standing. It may be more of Courtesy Jim Coddington A art, at some time, is contemporary art. Jim Coddington an engineering probem, but that is essentiay what the artist asks of the materia that he s chosen. Kirk Varnedoe: But, Jim, that s a perfect case, because Richard has to go to peope who are normay fabricating ship hus or nucear reactors. They think this materia does one thing, and Richard says, I think this materia can do something ese it can bend in ways that no practica purpose requires, but my artistic purpose requires. He has one understanding of the potentia of the materia, they have another understanding of the imitations of the materia, and it s a give-and-take between the two. Jim Coddington: I woud say that Serra brings to the materias enough knowedge of their properties so that his choices are informed choices and not random ones. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I can t hep but think of Jackson Poock in this instance. Here s a person who used industria paints for their quick-drying properties and fexibiity. The materia provided him with what he needed in order to paint the way he did; it enabed the process. He said, The method of the painting is the natura outgrowth of the need. The intimacy of the artist with the materia was definitey there. Kirk Varnedoe: We, Poock initiated an entire schoo of contemporary art where the properties of the materia became the determining factor in the ook of the work. The fact that industria paint fe the way it did, that it had that kind of gravitationa property, that kind of viscosity, was everything to Poock s compositions. And 12 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue

13 simiary, the piabiity of certain kinds of resins gave Eva Hesse s work a feeing for a kind of bodiy infection on minimaist properties. The gooeyness, the resistance, the very nature of materias became the speaking voice. In the 1950s, with de Kooning and others, your signature was the gesture with which you pushed the materias around. But in the 1960s and 1970s, your signature became the materia that you chose, because the expressive properties were expoited directy from the inherent properties of the materia itsef. Jeffrey Levin: But when we tak about properties, don t we have to distinguish between the properties of the materias with respect to the effect that the artist wants to achieve, and the properties of the materias in terms of their ong-term stabiity? Or is that something we don t need to be concerned about? If artists can achieve what they want to achieve, at east initiay, with particuar materias, then ong-term stabiity be damned. Kirk Varnedoe: Hesse is a perfect exampe because of the extreme fragiity of some of her pieces now. Some of the resinous materias that she used ost their fexibiity when they decomposed and began to get britte. Then the works ost everything that Hesse oved about them. That s a rea probem. Jim Coddington: When this question was posed to her that these materias might not ast a that we she said she was conficted. She wasn t certain as to what her utimate opinion was about the ongevity of her work. And yet she finay opted to stick with these materias. Had she ived onger, her position might have evoved over time. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: We have to recognize, though, that a materias change over time, incuding traditiona artists materias. Certainy the case of Hesse is extreme in that the properties that she was going for are, in fact, gone. But that phenomenon is seen in different degrees with different artists, and we ve aways had that to contend with in conservation. Jeffrey Levin: Which eads us to the issue of the needs of conservation being inserted into the artist s creativity. Is that something we even want to tak about? Or do we just have artists do their work, and then, whatever the consequences are, conservators have to dea with them? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: The artist shoud use the materia that the artist needs to use, and the conservator needs to understand the how and why and try to preserve that intent. Jim Coddington: Yes, my simpe answer is that we shoud not get invoved. Kirk Varnedoe: I d ike to dissent. If I coud ve tod Duane Hanson, when he started working with fibergass, that he was going to get cancer if he didn t take certain precautions, it woudn t have been to stop him from working with the materia. It woud be asking him to make certain choices and take certain precautions. If you saw an artist using the improper amount of fixative in his photographic mix, woudn t you say, Listen, these prints are going to fade in five weeks because your chemicas are wrong. And if you coud ve said to Hesse, If you just add a certain rubber base into this fibergass, it won t change the property you re using, but it wi ensure its fexibiity for 20 years onger, woudn t you? I woudn t hesitate to make that knowedge avaiabe to them. Jim Coddington: I ve fieded many a phone ca from an artist saying, I ve made this painting, now I want to varnish it. And I ask, Why? And they say, Because that wi make it ast onger. And I say, Wait a minute. It might not. That s just a different version of the diaogue you re taking about, Kirk taking to them about what they want to achieve, and is there another way to get there that makes it ast onger, if asting ong is something they re ooking for. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: That s absoutey true. My favorite days at the Whitney, I have to admit, are going to artists studios when they ca and say, I have a probem. Can you come take a ook at this? What I object to is putting forth a definitive ist of materias that we think shoud be used. Jeffrey Levin: What is the appropriate way of educating or informing artists as they do their work? Kirk Varnedoe: My od mentor, A Esen, was in the forefront of getting the Coege Art Association (CAA) to take a strong stance on the toxic properties of materias. The companies weren t advertising the stuff, and the CAA became kind of ike the FDA, going after these materias. Now there s nothing so extreme here, but it seems to me that the annua CAA meetings where artists get together, newsetters, and artist magazines are perfect venues for conservators to disseminate this kind of information that artists need to make informed choices. Jim Coddington: In the case of CAA, this has been done. The American Institute for Conservation has done a coupe of CAA sessions where artists can come. We ve got conservators and scientists there and about a dozen peope typicay show up. Aso, there is a subgroup of the American Society for Testing and Materias that sets standards for paints and canvases, and they meet annuay at CAA. Again, those are sparsey attended meetings. It s maybe caous to put it this way, but how do you get somebody interested enough to say, My career is advanced by attending this meeting and knowing about these materias. I don t have the answer to that. Somehow or other, there Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue 13

14 needs to be a consciousness-raising that attending these meetings is important to your career. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: There s certainy a ot of research that s done within our fied that pertains to this question, and I m curious about how that can best be disseminated. Maybe it shoud be transated into a form that is understandabe such as a coumn, perhaps, in a journa ike ARTnews or Artforum. This information in a monthy coumn coud be very hepfu to artists. Aso, conservation is becoming more and more a part of the curricuum for art history students and artists. Perhaps it shoud be within the purview of conservators to put this information forth, rather than trying to go through art departments. Jim Coddington: It s anaogous to our efforts doing art historica research shouder to shouder with art historians. This ought to be done shouder to shouder with studio art teachers, not one in front of the other. By shifting our focus over the next coupe decades, perhaps we can make progress on teaching studio art professors and students about the importance of this. Kirk Varnedoe: If art schoos that train young artists were responsibe in this regard, there d be a standard course of cautionary taes to raise peope s consciousness if you re interested in preserving your work, ook at what happened to these guys. Jim Coddington: Some of the paint manufacturers peope ike Mark Goden and Bob Gambin work with the conservation fied to do the best possibe job in terms of ongevity of the materias. Mark Goden s got chemists on his staff, and he works cosey with artists trying to answer the particuar questions they have in ooking for certain working properties, keeping the ongevity of those materias in mind. Jeffrey Levin: If an artist intentionay makes the choice to use ephemera materias understanding that it s not going to ast is it appropriate to make any attempt to preserve it over a onger period of time? Jim Coddington: I woud first want to be absoutey sure what we mean by intentiona and ephemera. Kirk Varnedoe: We, et me take one exampe, Jim. Picasso and Braque chose to use newsprint, right? We re very concerned to preserve those works of art that have the newsprint in them, even acknowedging that the newsprint doesn t ook the way it ooked when they originay made it. We sti want those things with the newsprint in them, and we do a ot to make sure that they stay around. You d have to say that newsprint is an ephemera materia. On the scae of things, it s not the same as using spit, for exampe, which is not going to ast neary as ong. But there re a thousand shades of gray in this question. Jim Coddington: Yes, and that s why you woud want to be sure that the artist was aware of whatever degree of ephemeraity it had and that it was chosen intentionay. Let me choose another exampe that points out how many shades of gray there are. It s been reported that van Gogh said that if some of his coors faded or changed over time, you coud just scrape away some of the impasto and you d have the origina coor back. That was his soution to the ephemera in his art. But I m sure no one is prepared to take him up on this. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: It s important to understand from the artist what s most crucia to preserve. If the coor of the newsprint ceary wasn t the most important thing in these works, then it makes sense that we accept that change. Most artists accept change. But getting back to Hesse again if it affects the actua facture that was the work, then it s a different question. It s very important to try to understand from the artists, whie they re aive, what their feeing is about this. Sonja Ahäuser had a piece at Harvard made out of chocoate and popcorn that was ony intended to ast three months. That was her intent. She made it very cear that the work ends when the materia in this case, the chocoate oses its nature. She said she eft nothing for the conservator to do. Jim Coddington: One of the things that was first noted and vaued about those Picassos and Braques was that these guys were using these ephemera eements and it was sort of shocking. We no onger find this shocking at a. And yet, as Kirk has pointed out, we vaue them for the way they ook now. We ve assigned a historica vaue to them, or an aesthetic vaue to them, and that s why we don t intervene to remove them or fix them. Kirk Varnedoe: And part of the aesthetic vaue that we assign to those things has something to do with the fact that they have aged. There s something specia for me about the history of art in the primary object. Take, for exampe, the Joe Kosuth chair that we have at MOMA the chair and the photostat on the wa. I get something out of seeing that chair and that dim photostat that was made 25 years ago that I don t get out of seeing remade things. There s something authentic or compeing about the passage of history across these things. Jeffrey Levin: You re taking about the history in the art, as we as the history of the art. Jim Coddington: This is why this whoe bunde of questions is a moving target. There are so many different meanings within a work of art even the materiaity of a work of art and we emphasize different ones at different times. One of the interesting things about 14 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue

15 the symposium that took pace at the Hesse exhibition was that some of the schoars argued that the changes that had occurred in these works of art and some works had discoored dramaticay essentiay have become the art itsef. The way they ook now and have ooked over the ast decade or so has infuenced a generation of schoars and artists and therefore become the work of art and to even restore it woud be, somehow, inappropriate. And this thinking eads you Kirk Varnedoe: Down that path where you get the grimy Sistine Chape ceiing, doesn t it? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: Yes. Jim Coddington: You get a paraysis that I don t think does the artist a service. And so what we re doing is continuay sicing a of these issues finer with each particuar exampe. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I think about artists ike Degas, who was very cear that time was a payer in his work. Time woud change the work, and that was understood. He might not have iked it, but that was part of it. But that s not what Sonja Ahäuser is saying. What I m saying is that artists differ, and we need to understand that. And whie we may be comfortabe with seeing the fat and ard in Joseph Beuys s works ook oder and darker, that may not have been his intent at a. Kirk Varnedoe: But it s never anybody s intent to die either. The fact is that change and mortaity get a hod of everything and everybody. One of the most moving things that we observe in ife is the strugge against that and yet the fact of it. That someone shoud intend to escape from it is an important part of human nature. But the inabiity to do it is aso an important part of being human. You know, Rauschenberg painted a set of white paintings and he repainted them again. Shoud we just keep repainting them? Suppose I m in a museum and I think they re getting a itte tatty so I just throw them in the barn. I know they re the ones that his assistant did whie he was aive, but that doesn t make any difference, he s dead, the assistant s dead. I m just going to get my assistant to whip up a new set of white canvases and put them on the wa. I m not happy with this. Jim Coddington: To pay devi s advocate here, why not? What is it about those re-creations that you don t ike that Rauschenberg didn t see them to say that they are good? Or is there something in the touch that you woud find inauthentic, even though the touch may be three times removed now? Kirk Varnedoe: Somehow when I see them age, I know that that gesture that act of wi was made at a certain moment in history by a certain human being. Courtesy Caro Mancusi-Ungaro I think about artists ike Degas, who was very cear that time was a payer in his work. Time woud change the work, and that was understood. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: But it may not refect what was done at that time. Kirk Varnedoe: In what sense? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: Now it s not white. It s beige and has yeow spots here and there. Kirk Varnedoe: The question is to what degree do you want to restore it? It is not a back-and-white question. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: Right. It is never a back-and-white decision. If Rauschenberg s white panes have turned a itte beige or tan, that s okay. But if there s a big spot on them, we have to dea with that. We re constanty making judgments about keeping a certain amount of aging, but we can t aow it to get to a point where it s no onger reated to what it might have been originay. Jim Coddington: There is a very practica question here. Let s say Kirk is reay dissatisfied with these particuar Rauschenbergs. Is someone going to say, okay, these works wi never again see the ight of day either restored or as re-creations? In some retrospective, somebody s going to bring them out and, who knows, they coud be foxed a over the pace and ook bad. And somebody wi construct a rationae as to why that is a vaued ook. Kirk Varnedoe: Suppose you had an eccentric scuptor who had produced a work that had inherent vice, and over the years, the work coapsed. The scuptor no onger wanted it shown in the coapsed form, but wanted to remake it into a form that he found acceptabe. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue 15

16 Courtesy Kirk Varnedoe We re much more conscious of our faibiity. Kirk Varnedoe Now here s your diemma. You can t restore it to the way it used to ook, and the artist desires to remake the work himsef. It s his work, and he s never going to aow it to be shown in its current state. Your ony hope is that he take it and remake it into a work that he wi aow to be shown. What is your recommendation to the curator as conservator in that case? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: Assuming there s a fair amount of time that s passed here for the work to have coapsed, you stand the risk of getting a competey different work from this artist, even if he s trying to rework it. I think you re commissioning a new piece. Kirk Varnedoe: Fifty years down the road, woud peope who are interested in this artist rather have the coapsed wreck of the thing that woud te them something or woud they rather have it redigested into a new, ate work? Jim Coddington: The standard conservator s response to any question is, We, it depends. And it reay does. Even in the case of coapsed scupture, there may be, even in that coapse, some statement of what the origina was about. Jeffrey Levin: You a seem to be saying that it s difficut to draw any hard-and-fast rues. You have to ook at each piece individuay and evauate what you think you know about the artist s intent. But what we haven t addressed is that the artist s intent at the age of 27 may be different from his or her feeings about it ater, at the age of 53 or 72. Kirk Varnedoe: You said a mouthfu. That s absoutey true. Jim Coddington: Right. That s why I said that if Eva Hesse had not died young, perhaps her opinions on her work, which inform the decisions we make, may have changed. But it s the best information we have to go on, and it s darn good information. Caro, not that ong ago a great dea of effort was expended by you and others to get peope to accept some eve of change in contemporary art. In a sense, it was no different from od masters, where change was accepted. But now we re seeing a compete acceptance of change, and even identifying the work with a of that change thus preventing, maybe, a conservator from stepping in. Are you noticing that? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: To a degree. I think what you re asking is if we are accepting too much change. Jim Coddington: Yes and even beyond conservators, hearing art historians, curators, and schoars saying, Oh, yes, we, that s just a function of change. Don t worry about it. Kirk Varnedoe: What Jim is describing is true, and et me give an exampe from another fied. When I went to the Maya ruins of Tika in Guatemaa, many of the things that we ooked at had been rebuit from rubbe. But the thinking now is that if an arch that had been standing ever since you d been there you have photographs of it fas down tomorrow, you don t put it back up. Even if you know exacty how it woud go back up. That s the mora injunction of this hands-off, change-happens ethos. That s exacty how it was expained to me. Jim Coddington: But I think that gives a certain amount of credit to the person who goes there to use their imagination and to envision it. And having gotten a photograph, they coud then say, Gee, it woud occupy space in this way. Kirk Varnedoe: There s a big difference between waking over a pie of rubbe and waking under an arch. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I think that eaving a pie of rubbe goes counter to our whoe profession. We re here to preserve, in some measure, what we have. Jim Coddington: Yes, but what about reconstruct? There s a difference between preserve and reconstruct. Kirk Varnedoe: Ah, there is a ine that I d hate to parse. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: A right, reconstruct with the same materias and you have photographs and you know how it was. Yes, I woud consider that a restoration. Jeffrey Levin: And that woud be okay? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: For me, it woud. 16 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue

17 Kirk Varnedoe: A restoration as opposed to a reconstruction? Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: Yes. Jim Coddington: The history of architectura restoration is rife with ots of potent and opposed points of view. One guy just fat-out reconstructs a cathedra, and the other guy says, You can t possiby reconstruct these things. You don t have the mind-set of somebody from the medieva era to be abe to reconstruct that. Vioet-e- Duc refects the first approach, and Wiiam Morris the second. Morris, and others, aestheticized ruins in order to provide a further basis for etting them stay as is. Kirk Varnedoe: Yes, and I think I was approaching something periousy cose to that when I taked about the idea of not iking remade things, but iking the dings and scratched-up things because they tod a tae of history that had gone aong with it. Jim Coddington: And that is a egitimate vaue to assign to it. Kirk Varnedoe: The troube is that when you mention the word origina, I hear the cash register ring. Sometimes the decisions are made by peope who have huge financia investments in the acceptance of a work as being the work of that artist, despite the amount of reconstruction or restoration that s gone into it. The pressures on a of these decisions by our society s vauation of authenticity is the ghost that s been fitting around this conversation. Jim Coddington: You know, after ots of works in an artist s oeuvre have been restored to varying degrees, et s say you come up with one in pristine condition, truy untouched. It s going to ook ike the oddba the one that doesn t ook authentic. Kirk Varnedoe: If we found an origina piece of Greek scupture with its poychromy sti on it boy, woud it ook weird. Jim Coddington: Exacty. And this eads me to documentation, which is one of the great needs in the fied. Documenting the intention, to whatever extent we can. Documenting the materias. Technoogy gives us the abiity to do a much better job of documenting coors and the three-dimensionaity of things. In trying to resove some of the debates that we are having now How far do you restore it to? we can at east give some toos to future generations by addressing these issues specificay. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: I absoutey agree. The best we can do is to make sure that our documentation is as precise as possibe to give some notion of how the work of art appeared, at east in our time. Kirk Varnedoe: Technoogy does aow us to be more exact about any number of things that formery escaped the net of reference. Being abe to describe the surface of a painting in terms of its depth and reief which you can now do with scanning is a very usefu thing to pass on to someone in the future so that they can measure change. Exactitude is within our grasp, making it possibe for the future to make better-informed choices than we re abe to make. Jim Coddington: Part of this is the kind of conversation where you tak about why you made a decision. We routiney incude that sort of information in our conservation treatment reports now. Why we didn t do something may be just as important as why we did do something. Kirk Varnedoe: We re much more conscious of our faibiity. The imperative now is to make reversibe decisions, so that in 20 years, if someone thinks that you shoudn t have overpainted an area, they can get that overpaint off. That s a kind of prudent humiity that we ve adopted, which I find atogether appropriate and generous to our successors. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: Reversibiity is very important, especiay for those of us working with unknown or industria materias. I recenty had access to a conservator s records of many years ago, and I was astounded at the vaue of his handwritten notes and notes on conversations that he d had with the artist. It peases me that in our treatment reports, there is now more about judgment I m thinking of doing this or I chose to do this because... That s very important information for the future. Kirk Varnedoe: We a know of cases where restorers thought of themseves as achemists in the od guid sense, and no one was aowed to know what technique was used. Those days are past, thank God. It s become a much more ethica business. We have a keeny deveoped historica sense, in terms of an awareness of past mistakes, a sense of our faibiity, and a need to provide the maximum amount of information and fexibiity to those who foow us. Jeffrey Levin: And that represents a historic shift? Kirk Varnedoe: It seems to me that it s a new consciousness that s evoved within my ifetime. Jim Coddington: Yes and it is probaby a resut of a series of historica phenomena, not the east of which is the rise of museums. Caro Mancusi-Ungaro: And aso organizations of conservators sharing ideas and recognizing, as a profession, that sense of faibiity. Jim Coddington: Yes. However, a recognition of faibiity shoud not be used as a reason never to intervene. It just means that one needs to intervene with a kind of sef-consciousness, rather than a sureness of one s infaibiity or maybe with a sureness of faibiity. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Diaogue 17

18 Modern Paints A New Coaborative Research Project By Thomas Learner, Michae Schiing, and René de a Rie News in Conservation EVER SINCE THE SUCCESSFUL MODIFICATION of ceuose nitrate into a form that coud be used as a paint binder in the ate 1920s, modern and contemporary artists have benefited from the avaiabiity of the vast range of commercia paints introduced throughout the rest of the century. Acryic soutions, acryic emusions, viny emusions, akyds, and nitroceuose are a few of the many important types of synthetic resins to have been used in artists paints, as we as in househod and other industria paint formuations. Interviews and other documentary sources confirm that a of these synthetic paint types have been utiized by many 20th-century artists, incuding those as infuentia as Francis Bacon, Richard Hamiton, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Pabo Picasso, Jackson Poock, Bridget Riey, Mark Rothko, Frank Stea, and Andy Warho. Nevertheess, knowedge regarding how we any of these modern paint media wi withstand the passing of time remains extremey imited. It is improbabe that any artists materia wi be competey resistant to deterioration. Research is therefore needed to determine the ikey extent of this deterioration and whether it coud be cassed as catastrophic (such as the powdering of eary ceuose pastics) or as toerabe (as in the oxidation and subsequent cracking of oi paints). By starting to research these questions now, the art community has an exceent opportunity to assess many of the potentia probems before they appear on works of art and, consequenty, to deveop the necessary preventive measures to keep our modern coections in a near-pristine state. Designing the optimum means for the preservation and restoration of works of art is an extremey compex task that requires a comprehensive understanding of a the materias with which they were made and of the way in which these materias react with one another, with environmenta conditions, and with conservation treatments. This information can be obtained ony by thorough monitoring of objects and extensive programs of anaysis and examination of test materias subjected to artificia aging and/or tria treatments. A new integrated coaborative project initiated in 2002 by Tate in London, the Nationa Gaery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) wi work to answer some of the many questions that we have about the character of modern paint materias. This project brings to bear extensive scientific expertise and equipment in the areas of materias identification and ceaning, with each organization concentrating on research for which it has appropriate experience and faciities. Throughout the course of the project, occasiona exchanges of staff among the institutions wi foster new ideas and make efficient use of avaiabe resources. The project wi focus on three main areas: ceaning of modern paintings, chemica anaysis, and physica characterization. Ceaning usuay meaning the remova of surface dirt and/or a picture varnish from the surface of a paint fim is arguaby the most routine treatment carried out on painted surfaces. Athough much is now known about the reative efficiency and safety of various ceaning techniques for traditiona oi paints, an equivaent awareness of their effects on modern and contemporary works of art, especiay those executed with synthetic paints, does not yet exist. Research into ceaning modern paints is therefore urgenty required, in particuar to find effective methods for removing surface dirt (the majority of modern paintings are not varnished) and to evauate the possibe consequentia ong-term damage to the paint fim as a resut of ceaning. As part of the coaborative project, a comprehensive study on the ceaning of modern paints, incuding an assessment of the efficiency and safety of a methods and techniques currenty used by conservators of 20th-century paintings, wi be conducted at Tate, initiay supported by funding for two three-year feowships from the Leverhume Trust and the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation. One goa of this study is to estabish rationa criteria for the seection of specific ceaning processes. Aqueous and dry ceaning techniques wi be highighted, but some nove treatments currenty under deveopment wi aso be considered, incuding the use 18 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number News in Conservation

19 Left: Thomas Learner, a paintings conservator and conservation scientist at Tate Modern in London, examining dried sampes of modern paints that he has brought to the GCI abs to be anayzed. Photo: Marceo Coeho. Right: GCI senior scientist Michae Schiing preparing a sampe from a dried acryic paint medium, to be anayzed for its water-extractabe components. The testing is done using a high-resoution mass spectrometer, aso seen here. Photo: James Druzik. Beow: Detai of a sampe being appied to the mass spectrometer s temperature probe. Photo: James Druzik. Beow: Jackson Poock, Summertime: Number 9A, 1948, and a detai (above) of the painting. Oi, ename, and house paint on canvas. The GCI has anayzed sampes from other paintings by Poock to identify the binding media. Poock was known to use both artists tube paints and ordinary house paints. The GCI studies were abe to estabish which of the two types of paints were present in the paintings studied. Photography Tate, London The Poock- Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. of asers, enzymes, and iquid carbon dioxide. Potentia changes to optica properties (goss, coor, and surface texture), physica properties (strength, hardness, and britteness), and chemica properties (remova of components) of various modern paints by seected ceaning methods wi be measured. The NGA, with funding for a feowship from Goden Artist Coors, wi work cosey with Tate on the ceaning study and wi initiay examine the ikeihood and nature of materias that coud be extracted from modern paints during these ceaning processes. For exampe, modern acryic emusion paints may contain 10 or more components (often caed additives) that may be retained in the dried paint fim. Remova of these components may affect the stabiity of the paint, its strength, or its tendency to crack and deform. In addition, changes in the composition and properties of the paints as a resut of aging and ceaning wi be investigated. At the GCI, suppementa studies of sovent extracts wi be carried out with high-resoution mass spectrometry (MS), a research too capabe of detecting a broad range of materias. Another component of the coaborative research project focuses on chemica anaysis. The abiity to estabish the type of paint on a work of art is essentia to an understanding of how it might ater in response to age, environmenta conditions, or conservation treatments. The Conservation Department at Tate has been at the forefront of internationa research efforts to Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number News in Conservation 19

20 A sampe of assorted artists materias in the Nationa Gaery of Art s reference coection, aong with paint-outs of materias, for testing purposes. To date, over 15,000 products have been cataogued in the reference coection. Photo: Michae Skaka, Nationa Gaery of Art, Art Materias Coection and Study Center. improve identification of the components of paint media used in modern and contemporary works of art. Major advances have been made in the deveopment of anaytica techniques for identifying synthetic paint media, such as pyroysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (PY-GC-MS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). These anaytica toos can te researchers what materias are present in mixed paint media. But to determine the proportions of each substance, one must rey on quantitative anaytica techniques. Because it is unikey that any singe quantitative test wi be equay effective on a types of modern paint media, an aternative approach to quantitative anaysis is to appy a suite of test methods, each of which is designed for a specific cass of paint medium. Initia research at the GCI wi focus on deveopment of a quantitative anaysis procedure for oi-based modern paints, such as akyd formuations, natura ois, and water-miscibe oi media. GC-MS protocos deveoped at the GCI for identification of traditiona paint media wi be evauated for use on modern oi-based media, and modifications to PY-GC-MS procedures wi aso be considered. In subsequent phases of the research, tests for the other major casses of paint media wi be deveoped. A third eement of this coaborative project is to deveop a more comprehensive understanding of how paint fims respond to fuctuations of temperature in their environment. Synthetic paint media may expand, soften, and even become sighty sticky upon heating and, conversey, turn extremey britte at ower temperatures. Such changes in a paint s physica properties may strongy infuence phenomena such as rates of soiing, extent of cracking, and cupping of its surface; changes are probaby aso affected by the presence and nature of pigments and diuting agents, exposure to ight, and the age of the materia. Research into these phenomena wi be conducted at the GCI and Tate utiizing therma anaysis instrumentation, a set of toos that provides in-depth information about poymers, pastics, and other organic materias. The combined resuts from each component of the project wi assist conservators in seecting appropriate ceaning methods and techniques for modern paints, increase our understanding of the probems that may deveop over time as a resut of the additives in some commercia paints, and hep guide treatments of paintings composed of modern oi-based media. In coming years, the project may adapt the techniques used in this research to deveop a simiar understanding of other kinds of paint media, such as nitroceuose and viny emusions. Works from the 20th century represent the artistic egacy of our time. In order to pass aong these works to future generations, it is essentia to understand as comprehensivey as possibe the factors that coud contribute to their deterioration. By beginning this kind of research now, we are in a better position to anticipate deterioration probems with the materias used in the art and that knowedge, in turn, can hep us promote measures to preserve and protect the work we into the years ahead. Thomas Learner is a paintings conservator and conservation scientist at Tate Modern in London. Michae Schiing is a senior scientist and head of the anaytica research section at the GCI. René de a Rie is the head of scientific research at the Nationa Gaery of Art in Washington, D.C. 20 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number News in Conservation

21 Conserving the Buddhist Wa Paintings at Mogao By Francesca Piqué Detai of the wa paintings in Cave 85 of the Mogao grottoes, where the GCI is coaborating with the Dunhuang Academy on a wa paintings conservation project. The rock tempes of Mogao were created by carving into the soft congomerate rock ciff face and pastering the was with a mixture of oca cay, sand, and hemp fibers. To prepare the surface for painting, a second ayer of finer cay paster was appied, and over this, a thin white coored ground was added. Line drawings were made over the ground to outine the figures; minera and organic coors were added ater. Photo: Francesca Piqué. FAR TO THE WEST OF BEIJING, in northwest China, ies the oasis of Dunhuang, for a thousand years a major stop on the Sik Road. For traveers headed west, it was at Dunhuang that the Sik Road spit in two. One route curved north and the other curved south, both moving aong edges of the arge and stark Takamakan Desert. From the 4th century to the 14th century, Dunhuang was an important pace for traveers to pray for a safe trek aong this unforgiving desert or to give thanks for having successfuy arrived. Aong the Sik Road moved not ony coveted goods but aso ideas among them Buddhism, which spread throughout China and Mogao, on the outskirts of Dunhuang, became a site of Buddhist worship. Beginning in the 4th century, hundreds of cave tempes were carved into one and a haf kiometers of ciff face at Mogao, ranging from sma decorated niches to arge ornate chambers. The was of the chambers were adorned with wa paintings, and many housed poychrome scuptures. By the 14th century, safer and faster trave by sea as we as poitica instabiity aong and routes caused traffic aong the Sik Road to decine, and eventuay the Mogao site was abandoned. Toward the end of the 19th century and into the eary 20th century, the grottoes were discovered by exporers from the West and Japan. Today the site is managed by the Dunhuang Academy, estabished a haf century ago and dedicated to the preservation and study of the grottoes. The cave tempes are now the focus of nationa and internationa tourism, attracted by Mogao s artistic, historic, and reigious importance (see Conservation, vo. 14, no. 2). The site a kind of archive of medieva Buddhist art incudes amost 500 painted caves with over 45,000 square meters (484,000 square feet) of wa paintings and over 2,000 scuptures. Having survived for centuries in Mogao s dry cimate, this art nevertheess continues to require constant attention and research in order to address inevitabe and ongoing deterioration. Since 1989 the Getty Conservation Institute and the Dunhuang Academy have coaborated on conservation at Mogao, initiay focusing on genera site-reated conservation issues. That effort resuted in improved conditions at the site, incuding a dramatic reduction in the amount of sand being bown into the caves from the ciff face above (see Conservation, vo. 9, no. 1). Beginning in 1997, one aspect of the coaboration has concentrated on the conservation of wa paintings. The objective of the current wa paintings project is to deveop approaches that woud have wide appications not ony at Mogao but aso at simiar sites on the Sik Road. An Integrated Approach The most effective approach, especiay in a site the size of Mogao, is preventive conservation which addresses the causes of deterioration in addition to remedia conservation, which simpy repairs damage. This approach requires an understanding of the causes and nature of ongoing deterioration, deveoped through a thoughtfu integration of science and conservation. Cave 85 at Mogao was seected as the coaborative project s mode site for wa paintings conservation. This arge 9th-century Tang dynasty cave was constructed for reigious purposes and as a shrine to the oca and powerfu Zhai famiy. Within the cave are approximatey 350 square meters of painted surface. The paintings Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number News in Conservation 21

22 have extraordinary artistic, cutura, socia, and historica vaue, and they provide an iustrated encycopedia of everyday ife during the Tang dynasty. The cave was seected because its wa paintings suffer from many of the typica probems found throughout the site. An essentia and critica step in the project has been to assess the condition of the wa paintings through a detaied study of the cave to identify and record the type and distribution of deterioration. The identification of ongoing (or active) deterioration was heped by comparing historica photographs of the cave, taken by the Dunhuang Academy in the past 50 years, with the current condition of the wa paintings. Visibe changes indicated areas of recent and, most ikey, active deterioration. The assessment of the cave s condition shows that the detachment of the painted paster from the congomerate rock is an active and considerabe probem, often resuting in the coapse and destruction of a portion of the paintings. Understanding the causes and the mechanism of this ongoing deterioration requires interdiscipinary diagnostic investigations. These incude the coection and study of conservation, anaytica, and environmenta information that is used to formuate hypotheses regarding the deterioration and to deveop recommendations for interventions. Diagnosis at Cave 85 began with the study of the active deterioration, the form it takes, and its distribution throughout the cave. Scientific investigations were necessary to understand the physica and chemica composition of the origina materias and of the materias affecting the painting in Cave 85, these were soube sats in the rock and paster and, in certain areas, poyviny acetate used in previous conservation interventions. Environmenta monitoring carried out over the years provides an understanding of the fuctuations of humidity and temperature surrounding the paintings and at the site. Causes of Deterioration Since 1997, GCI and Dunhuang Academy staff have worked in their aboratories and in Cave 85 to coect information and carry out tests to formuate and confirm hypotheses on the causes of deterioration. Whie the project is not compete and some resuts need to be confirmed a mechanism has been theorized as responsibe for the ongoing deterioration in Cave 85. The active detachment is concentrated mainy on the cave s west wa and the west portion of the north and south was and ceiing. Anaytica study showed that, as expected, the distribution of deterioration corresponds to earthen paster zones with arge amounts of soube sats in the paster, mainy sodium choride, naturay present in the congomerate rock was. The areas affected by deterioration contain amost 10 times more soube sats than areas in good condition. Athough the environment at the site is generay quite dry, when it rains, the humidity rises and the sats in the was absorb moisture in the air through a phenomenon caed hygroscopicity. The resuting sat soution can move through the porous earthen paster. When the cimate returns to its typicay dry condition, the sats crystaize, causing detachment of the painting or the formation of osses in the paint ayer (depending on where in the painting stratigraphy the crystaization occurs). The physica history of the site ends support to this hypothesis, because most recent paster osses, in this and in other caves, have occurred foowing periods of rain. This hypothesis is reated to atmospheric humidity. Another sat activation mechanism may be inked to the migration of moisture vapor from the body of the rock. To remove or to significanty reduce this cause of deterioration, the team has been working on a sat extraction process, combined with conservation intervention. Obviousy the soube sats present in the congomerate rock cannot be competey removed; in addition, pouticing of sat can be dangerous to the earth-based and water-sensitive paintings. The team is aso working on improving the seaing or cosing of the cave entrance, in order to reduce fuctuations of the cave environment reated to the rain by preventing humid air from entering the cave. The GCI and Dunhuang Academy team is currenty studying this intervention and its consequences. Understanding the causes and mechanism of deterioration is critica for deveopment of effective conservation treatment. In particuar, it is important to know if the causes of deterioration can be competey eiminated or ony mitigated. For exampe, the intervention of grouting defined as the introduction of materia with adhesive and buking properties into a void was designed with a consideration of the substantia quantities of sats present in the paster and the congomerate rock. The reattachment of the earthen paster rich in soube sats must be done with materias compatibe with the origina, using minima amounts of water, an 22 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number News in Conservation

23 Left: A recent paster oss. Detachment of the earthen paster has been a ong-term probem at Mogao. In the past, cross bracings of meta or pastic strips were used to hod the paster in pace. This method, however, did not sove the probem, and osses continued to occur. Photo: Francesca Piqué. Beow: Two views of Mogao project team members injecting adhesive grout to reattach wa paintings. Specia presses hod the paster in pace as the grout sets and dries. The grout, deveoped through extensive aboratory and in situ testing, is composed of oca earth (the same type used to create the paintings) and ightweight components to prevent further weight-reated stress on the paintings. The addition of sma amounts of egg white increases the adhesion property of the grout, as we as its fuidity and ightweight properties. Photos: Nevie Agnew and Francesca Piqué. appropriate appication method, and, most important, an absorbing system to capture the sats mobiized by treatment. In addition, the set grout must have characteristics compatibe with those of the origina earthen paster. After extensive aboratory and in situ testing, the project team deveoped a grout with the desired properties that has been used since Apri 2002 to reattach the paintings. Foowing emergency stabiization of the paintings with Japanese paper and supporting presses, an important aspect of the treatment process has been the deveopment of an absorbent system that extracts sats mobiized by the water and ensures that as itte as possibe remain in the paintings. Testing has incuded the use of simuated paster panes artificiay contaminated with sats to evauate different absorbent systems and to assess the distribution of soube sats before and after grouting combined with pouticing. Appicabe Resuts Athough not competed, the coaborative project on the wa paintings at the Mogao grottoes has aready provided important preiminary diagnostic resuts on the causes and the mechanism of deterioration, as we as on the stabiization treatment of the paintings. The combination of soube sats in the paster and rock and the humid air formed during rain events appears to cause the deterioration of the wa paintings. This mechanism is probaby common to numerous sites on the Sik Road, and mitigation measures wi therefore have wide appicabiity. Simiary, the methodoogy adopted to deveop the adhesive grout mixtures for the sat-aden pasters in Cave 85 may be generay appicabe to other simiar sites. This project is an exampe of the importance of combining conservation and science for diagnostic investigation with the panning of interventions. Unfortunatey, a characteristic of in situ conservation is that the causes of deterioration cannot aways be eiminated ony reduced. With deterioration sti active, it is cear why, in the fied of in situ conservation, a project is never reay considered competed; reguar monitoring and maintenance are required. The preiminary resuts of the project wi be presented at the internationa conference Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Sik Road, to be hed at the Dunhuang Academy in August On this occasion, Cave 85 wi be open so that deegates may visit the conservation site, examine its probems, and view at cose range the remarkabe wa paintings that te us so much about ife in a distant time. Francesca Piqué is a project speciaist with GCI Fied Projects and the head of the project conservation team at work at Mogao. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number News in Conservation 23

24 GCI News 24 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number Project Updates Joya de Cerén Management Pan In the summer of 2002, the Getty Conservation Institute and the Consejo Naciona para a Cutura y e Arte (Concutura) of E Savador competed the management pan for the Word Heritage Site of Joya de Cerén, a pre-hispanic Maya farming community buried by vocanic eruption about 1,400 years ago. In Juy 2002, the GCI and Concutura presented the pan to the vice president of E Savador and to the mayor of San Juan Opico, the municipaity in which the site is ocated. Aso attending the ceremony were members of the oca community and representatives from Savadoran nationa agencies. The vice president of E Savador addressing those gathered for the presentation of the Joya de Cerén management pan a four-year coaborative effort of the GCI and Concutura. Photo: Lucia Vaero Martin. GCI News The management pan is the resut of a four-year coaboration of the GCI and Concutura to adapt a methodoogy deveoped by the Institute to a specific pan for Joya de Cerén (see Conservation, vo. 16, no. 1). Created using a vaues-driven process, which incuded the participation of a wide range of interest groups, the pan s approach is intended as a mode for the management of other sites in the region. In addressing the specific needs and potentia of the site, the pan considers four major programs: investigation, conservation, andscape (both the site s physica aspect and its surroundings), and human deveopment (community impact, education, and tourism). The resuting document is an integrated and sustainabe conservation management pan that approaches the site s condition in reation to its natura and socia context. It integrates a future activities at the site and constitutes a framework for reconciing private and institutiona interests thereby ensuring conservation of the vaues and significance of the site, as we as optimizing the appropriate use of a human and financia resources. The Institute wi continue working on the conservation strategy for Joya de Cerén, incuding defining parameters for its protective sheters.

25 China Principes Project at Chengde The ake and paviions within the Imperia Summer Mountain Resort at Chengde. Photo: Martha Demas. The Wenjin Library at Chengde. Photo: Nevie Agnew. Chengde s officia name, the Imperia Summer Mountain Resort, beies the important poitica functions it served for two centuries, as we as its roe in China s internationa reations in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was to Chengde ying beyond the Great Wa of China 115 mies north of Beijing that the Manchu emperors of China s Qing dynasty retreated during the hot summer months. Founded in 1703 by Emperor Kangxi, it was competed by his grandson Qianong in The coossa site is ringed by a sevenmie wa, within which is a mountainous area and a argey artificia andscape of akes and parkand, with compexes of paviions ocated at the emperor s favorite scenic spots. Immediatey outside the wa are eight tempes, incuding a scaed-down version of the Potaa in Tibet. In the eary 20th century when the 300-year-od Qing empire coapsed, Chengde was abandoned. Decades of turmoi, occupation, and civi war foowed. Chengde remained in disrepair unti the 1970s, and few visitors to China knew of its existence. Now on the Word Heritage List, sections of the resort have recenty undergone extensive restoration. As tourism to China continues to expand, Chengde is in need of a pan to guide its future use and conservation. The GCI and the Chengde Cutura Reics Bureau (CCRB) are appying the China Principes nationa guideines for the conservation and management of cutura heritage sites in China at two significant buiding compexes at the resort. The China Principes, deveoped by China s State Administration for Cutura Heritage (SACH) and the GCI, in coaboration with the Austraian Heritage Commission (see Conservation, vo. 16, no. 2), were formay approved at Chengde in September 2000, under the auspices of China ICOMOS and with the approva of SACH. The buidings seected for impementation foowing the Principes methodoogy are the Wenjin Library and the Shuxiang Tempe. The Wenjin Library is ocated within the was of the resort. This roya ibrary, one of seven in China, housed books compied under the supervision of the court. Currenty, parts of the compex are used as studios by oca artists. The Shuxiang Tempe, constructed in 1774, is based on the Manjusri Tempe in Mount Wutai, Shanxi Province. It was the ony tempe at Chengde to house Manchu amas, and it was aso known as the famiy tempe of the Qing court. Ony three of the origina buidings remain: the gate, the main tempe, and a sma paviion (recenty restored by the CCRB) behind the main tempe. Preiminary work was done in 2001 on a draft master pan for the site as a whoe. In May and October 2002, the CCRB, the GCI, and the Austraian Heritage Commission deveoped the pan further. Using the anaytica assessments and decisionmaking process of the China Principes, the coaborative team is determining the approach to conservation, restoration, visitor management, future use, and the technica and research issues that need to be addressed. Upon fina approva by SACH, the CCRB wi progressivey impement the pan over a 10-year period. As part of the strategy to ensure widespread adoption of the China Principes, the approved master pan for the Summer Resort of Chengde wi be disseminated by SACH to provincia and municipa bureaus to serve as a nationa mode for the preparation and structure of site pans. The project is expected to be competed by 2005, when China ICOMOS hosts the Internationa Congress of ICOMOS. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News 25

26 Mosaics Experts Meeting Latin American Consortium Participants from the experts meeting examining a mosaic at the archaeoogica site of Paphos, Cyprus. Photo: Martha Demas. Last June, in conjunction with the GCI s Mosaics In Situ project, the Getty Conservation Institute and the Archaeoogica Research Unit of the University of Cyprus organized a meeting of internationa experts on the conservation of ancient mosaics. Hed in Nicosia, Cyprus, the fourday meeting was attended by 23 professionas from 11 countries. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together professionas with an interest in the conservation of ancient mosaics to discuss existing needs in the fied, as we as current initiatives and opportunities for fostering research and estabishing coaborative projects. Structured around four major themes inventory and documentation; characterization and causes of deterioration; maintenance, treatments, and protective interventions; and training and awareness the meeting provided an opportunity for professionas and organizations invoved in mosaics conservation to expore forging stronger reationships and working in a more integrated way. At the meeting, participants drafted a statement for dissemination that incuded the foowing: Mosaics represent one of the few poychromatic artistic achievements to survive from antiquity. There exists a consensus among professionas that they shoud be conserved in situ whenever possibe; however, despite their apparent durabiity, mosaics are vunerabe to decay once exposed to the envi- ronment. Insufficient attention has been paid to the specia conservation and ongterm maintenance needs of excavated mosaics and as a consequence, mosaics are rapidy deteriorating and many are in danger of tota oss. To address these concerns, the meeting participants urge government authorities and others with responsibiity for the protection and care of mosaics to consider the foowing actions: Excavation of further mosaics shoud ony be sanctioned in circumstances where their immediate and ongoing conservation can be assured. Basic documentation of mosaics, incuding a condition and risk assessment, shoud be undertaken at a nationa eve. Maintenance shoud be given the highest priority, and consideration shoud be given to the reburia of mosaics that are not being activey maintained. Training for those invoved in the management or conservation of mosaics shoud be improved, and awareness of the importance and rapid oss of mosaics shoud be heightened among government authorities and the pubic. Further research shoud be undertaken into the causes of deterioration and methods of conservation of mosaics. The GCI s Mosaics In Situ project, which addresses a number of important issues reated to the conservation and management of ancient mosaic pavements in situ, wi base its future activities on these recommendations and wi work coaborativey with other individuas and institutions to pursue these common goas. In June 2002, the GCI and the Pontificia Universidad Catóica de Chie hosted a reunion of the Emergency Pans working group of the Latin American Consortium (see Conservation, vo. 15, no. 2). The goa of the Consortium is to enhance preventive conservation by strengthening the existing capabiities of member institutions in designing and impementing training in this area. The June meeting was a foow-up to a June 2000 workshop coorganized by the GCI entited Future Instructors in Emergency Pans, hed in Santiago, Chie, as part of the Emergency Pans working group. At that workshop, 24 participants representing five Consortium member countries Argentina, Brazi, Chie, Coombia, and Cuba received training in the emergency panning process, in the use of didactic materias, and in interactive teaching methodoogies. At the concusion of the workshop, members agreed to continue working coaborativey to deveop and share didactic materias and to impement training and advocacy activities in their respective institutions, regions, and countries. The main objectives of the four-day June 2002 meeting were to aow members to present work undertaken since the 2000 meeting, to discuss chaenges to their work and the soutions deveoped to overcome them, to present and review didactic mate- 26 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News

27 Training in Tunisia A participant in the Tunisian technician training program sponging newy appied ime mortar to revea the aggregate (or sand) within the mortar, creating a better overa appearance. Photo: Esa Bourguignon. rias, and to set in pace measures to support the group s work in the ong term. In the two years since the initia workshop, group members have undertaken a number of emergency panning initiatives. These incude oca activities such as impementing the emergency pans process in cutura institutions; estabishing inks with important pubic-sector resources such as fire departments; and incorporating emergency preparedness activities, incuding fied exercises, into preventive conservation training programs. At a regiona and nationa eve, members activities incude courses for cutura heritage professionas, artices and conference presentations on emergency pans, production of safety brochures, coaborative efforts to incude cutura heritage buidings in nationa fire safety egisation, and impementation of an emergency pan process for the wooden churches of Chioé, Chie. Sixteen of the Chioé churches are on the Word Heritage List. To promote the continuation of the Emergency Pans working group, coordination of the group was transferred from the GCI to the Facutad de Restauración de Bienes Muebes, Universidad Externado de Coombia, Bogotá. The GCI wi remain an active member of the Latin American Consortium and the Emergency Pans working group. This past spring, a fourth campaign of training in the maintenance of in situ archaeoogica mosaics was hed at the site of Thuburbo Majus, Tunisia. A joint effort of the GCI and the Institut Nationa du Patrimoine (INP), Tunisia, the training program is designed to address the need for mosaics maintenance at archaeoogica sites in Tunisia by training technicians to perform the everyday stabiization and maintenance work that in situ mosaics require. This training is part of a nationa strategy to safeguard Tunisia s archaeoogica heritage through the creation of maintenance teams based at sites in different regions of the country. The first three training campaigns, which bended cassroom instruction and hands-on practice, were hed in 2001 at the site of Utica. In these sessions, the trainees earned the steps in the conservation process from documenting the condition of the mosaics to panning treatment and executing the stabiization of the pavement (see Conservation, vo. 17, no. 1). In May the training moved to the site of Thuburbo Majus. This fina campaign for this group of trainees was aimed at reinforcing what had aready been earned through work at a different site that posed new probems. Here the trainees gained additiona experience in a number of techniques introduced briefy in previous sessions, such as grouting with ime mortar, and reburia, and they were given guidance in soving the most difficut maintenance probems at the site. They aso reviewed and inspected the work that they had previousy carried out at Utica tasks that introduced them to the important maintenance activity of periodic inspection and condition assessment. In recognition of the trainees competion of the course, a group of archaeoogists, architects, and administrators from the INP were invited to the site to view their work and to discuss with the trainees and the instructors a variety of mosaic and site conservation issues. The GCI remains committed to working with Tunisia to achieve its goa of creating regiona teams of maintenance technicians. To this end, in October 2002, the GCI and the INP began a second technician training course at the Roman and Byzantine site of Makhtar. At the competion of the training, this new group of trainees wi carry out the maintenance of in situ mosaics in archaeoogica sites situated in the centra region of Tunisia. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News 27

28 Upcoming Events Fifth Word Archaeoogica Congress The Word Archaeoogica Congress (WAC), a wordwide organization of practicing archaeoogists, wi hod its fifth internationa congress June 21 26, 2003, in Washington, D.C. For this congress the first in North America the GCI is working with a consortium of conservation and cutura heritage institutions to deveop conservation-reated programming, with the aim of strengthening the reationship between the professions of archaeoogy and conservation. The theme of the programming is Of the Past, for the Future: Integrating Archaeoogy and Conservation. Participating with the GCI in this initiative are the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC); Engish Heritage; the Internationa Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cutura Property (ICCROM); the Institute of Archaeoogy at the University of London; the Internationa Counci on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and two of its nationa bodies, US/ICOMOS and Austraia ICOMOS; the Nationa Monuments of Chie; the State Administration of Cutura Heritage of the Peope s Repubic of China; the Word Monuments Fund; and the Word Tourism Organization. Conservation-reated topics wi be addressed in a series of penary presentations and pane discussions throughout the congress. The emphasis wi be on goba issues crucia to the surviva of archaeoogica heritage in today s word. Among these are poicy-based and socia issues that counterbaance the traditiona scientific and technica domains of expertise in archaeoogica conservation. Foremost among these are methodoogica site management panning and impementation, incuding management of archaeoogica Word Heritage sites, as we as increased participation by indigenous peopes, communities, and stakehoders in decision making, in interventions on sites, and in determining the disposition of excavated objects. Other issues to be addressed incude deveopment and tourism, which present an ever-greater threat to the word s archaeoogica record in many countries. There wi aso be a pane on the impact of deveopment on the archaeoogica heritage and conservation in China. Hed every four years, the WAC congress offers discussion of new archaeoogica research, as we as of archaeoogica poicy, practice, and poitics. For further information on the Fifth Word Archaeoogica Congress, incuding registration detais and descriptions of the conservation sessions, pease visit the congress Web site or contact: WAC-5 Organizing Committee Department of Anthropoogy American University Washington, D.C USA Fax: Emai: wac5@american.edu Tribute Caroyn L. Rose On August 29, 2002, after a ong iness, Caroyn L. Rose passed away in Washington, D.C. She was 53. Caroyn had a ong and distinguished career in conservation. At a recent George Washington University (GWU) ceremony where she was awarded the President s Meda, GWU President Stephen Joe Trachtenberg described her as a onewoman graduate schoo, a reference to the fact that she had taught or impacted the ives of many ethnographic and archaeoogica conservators. Caroyn s career began in 1971, with a degree in art history from Sweet Briar Coege, and continued at George Washington University, where she earned her master s degree in Her invovement with GWU continued through its Museum Studies Program, which she estabished in association with the Smithsonian Institution s Nationa Museum of Natura History, where she became senior research conservator in 1990 and chairman of the Anthropoogy Department in She received Exceptiona Service Awards from the museum from 1996 to The GCI benefited from Caroyn s expertise through her participation in various Institute advisory, panning, and training committees; through her contributions to Conservation; and through her support of Art and Archaeoogy Technica Abstracts, as both an adviser and a vounteer abstractor. 28 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News

29 Pubications Panning and Engineering Guideines for the Seismic Retrofitting of Historic Adobe Structures By E. Leroy Toes, Edna E. Kimbro, and Wiiam S. Gine The Use of Oxygen-Free Environments in the Contro of Museum Insect Pests By Shin Maekawa and Kerstin Eert In keeping with her commitment to the profession, Caroyn was active in numerous organizations and committees. She served as chair of the Nationa Institute for Conservation (now Heritage Preservation) from 1985 to 1989 and as chair of the Membership and Objects Speciaty Groups of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC). In 1997, AIC awarded Caroyn the University Products Award for distinguished achievement in the fied of conservation. Caroyn was aso president of the Society for the Preservation of Natura History Coections (SPNHC) from 1994 to 1995, and in 2001, she was awarded the SPNHC President s Award for distinguished service. In addition to teaching, overseeing interns, organizing workshops and conferences, and reviewing grants, Caroyn aso contributed to numerous books, conference proceedings, and journas. A companion voume to Seismic Stabiization of Historic Adobe Structures: Fina Report of the Getty Seismic Adobe Project, this book offers guidance for panners, architects, and engineers in the retrofitting of historic and cuturay significant adobe structures. The text outines the fundamenta conservation principes and preparatory steps in the design of a pan. Additionay, it describes the types of earthquake damage typicay encountered in historic adobe buidings and presents detaied technica procedures for appying the appropriate retrofit measures. The book aso incudes a directory of pertinent government agencies, possibe funding sources, an abstract of the Caifornia seismic safety code, an artice describing historic adobe, and excerpts from the Secretary of the Interior s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. E. Leroy Toes, a structura engineer with ELT & Associates, was principa investigator for the Getty Seismic Adobe Project (GSAP). Edna E. Kimbro is an architectura conservator and historian speciaizing in the preservation of Hispanic-era buidings and materia cuture. Wiiam S. Gine is a senior scientist at the GCI and was project director of GSAP. GCI Scientific Program Reports 160 pages, x 11 inches 100 b/w iustrations ISBN , paper, $40.00 Museums throughout the word face the chaenge of finding nontoxic methods to contro insect pests. This book focuses on practica rather than theoretica issues in the use of oxygen-free environments, presenting a detaied, hands-on guide to the use of oxygen-free environments in the eradication of museum insect pests. This voume discusses the use of nitrogen as the inert gas used to repace oxygen, as we as the use of a few specific types of containers as treatment chambers. An initia chapter expains the genera advantages anoxia offers museum conservators. Subsequent chapters discuss methods and materias, sma-scae anoxia using an oxygen absorber, arge-scae anoxia using externa nitrogen sources, and protocos for insect eradication using nitrogen anoxia. Appendices incude a ist of manufacturers and suppiers of materia and equipment used in nitrogen anoxia. Shin Maekawa, coauthor of Inert Gases in the Contro of Museum Insect Pests and Oxygen-Free Museum Cases, both from Getty Pubications, is a senior scientist at the GCI. Kerstin Eert is a research feow at the University of Granada, Spain. Toos for Conservation series 224 pages, x 11 inches 6 coor and 50 b/w iustrations 25 ine drawings ISBN , paper, $60.00 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News 29

30 Staff Profies Word Rock Art By Jean Cottes François LeBanc Head, Fied Projects Dennis Keeey Athough cave paintings from the European Ice Age have gained considerabe renown, for many peope the term rock art remains fu of mystery. Yet it refers to perhaps the odest form of artistic endeavor, spendid exampes of which exist on a continents and from a eras. Rock art stretches in time from more than 40,000 to ess than 40 years ago, and it can be found from the Arctic Circe to the tip of South America, from the caves of southern France to the American Southwest. It incudes anima and human figures, compex geometrica forms, and myriad mysterious markings. Iustrated in coor throughout, this book provides an engaging overview of rock art wordwide. An introductory chapter discusses the discovery of rock art by the West and the importance of andscape and ritua. Subsequent chapters survey rock art sites throughout the word, expaining how the art can be dated and how it was made. The book then expores the meaning of these often-enigmatic images, incuding the compex roe they payed in traditiona societies. A fina chapter ooks at the threats posed to rock art today by deveopment, tourism, poution, and other dangers and discusses current initiatives to preserve this remarkabe heritage. Jean Cottes, author of more than 15 books and 300 artices on prehistory and prehistoric art, is one of the word s eading experts on rock art. Matthew Nanni Genera Services Assistant, Administration Dennis Keeey Conservation and Cutura Heritage series 144 pages, 8 x 10 inches 150 coor and 5 b/w iustrations ISBN , paper, $29.95 A GCI books can be ordered onine by visiting 30 Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News

31 François LeBanc has been the head of Fied Projects for the GCI since 2001, overseeing projects in China, Honduras, E Savador, Itay, and Tunisia, as we as initiatives in documentation and earthen architecture conservation. Raised in the suburbs of Montrea in a French-speaking home the son of a bank accountant and a French tutor François at an eary age dispayed an interest in drawing. His mother and aunts payed piano, so music was aso a part of his chidhood, and at 14 he took up the saxophone. In coege he earned money paying with a rhythm and bues band that utimatey made a coupe of commercia recordings. But it was his interest in drawing that ed him toward a career in architecture. After graduating from Montrea University with a B.A. in architecture in 1971 shorty after marrying and having the first of two chidren he was hired by Parks Canada, where he was part of the organization s first preservation team. In 1975 he was appointed the chief of engineering and architecture for Quebec Region Historic Parks and Sites. Four years ater the president of ICOMOS Canada (for whom he d worked at Parks Canada) suggested that he appy for the directorship of ICOMOS in Paris. Hired in 1979, François spent four years with the organization, estabishing the first forma set of guideines for ICOMOS evauation of nominations to the Word Heritage List and deveoping a more extensive advisory roe for ICOMOS with UNESCO. Subsequenty returning to Canada, François took a position as vice president of the Heritage Canada Foundation. There he concentrated on conservation programs, in particuar the Main Street Canada program, which used commercia deveopment to enhance architectura preservation in more than 100 sma communities. But by 1992, he was eager to return to architecture and to trave ess. That year he joined the Nationa Capita Commission in Ottawa as chief architect, managing a number of architectura projects, many of which were nationa historic sites. After eight years with the commission, he came to the GCI out of a desire to be part of more internationa work devoted to conservation. Since taking over as head of Fied Projects, he has found particuary exciting the site management panning effort at Joya de Cerén in E Savador, the technician training initiative in Tunisia, and his advisory roe with the current conservation initiative at the Taj Maha. In his spare time today, he pays biiards, frequenty participating in amateur competitions. Matthew Nanni is the GCI s genera services assistant, providing genera office support for the staff, incuding the purchasing and stocking of suppies. Matthew s father an Itaian eectronics engineer met Matthew s mother an American working in Hoand for a record company in 1960, and together they went to the United States the foowing year. Matthew was born three years ater on Kwajeein Ato in the Marsha Isands, where his father was then working as a contractor at the ato s U.S. miitary tracking station. In Matthew s eary chidhood, the famiy ived in the United States, Britain, France, and Itay, coming home to stay in Massachusetts in Music has aways been a major part of his ife. He remembers seeing the Beates fim Yeow Submarine in Mian when he was four, which inspired an eary ove of music. His home was fied with music his father iked opera and cassica music, his mother oved jazz. Matthew took up the vioin briefy in eementary schoo, and then, in the 8th grade, he bought an eectric bass after istening to a ot of rhythm and bues and reggae. He started his first band shorty thereafter. In the mid-1980s, Matthew attended the Berkee Coege of Music in Boston, and in the summer of 1988, he toured Tuscany with a band formed at schoo. Returning home, he worked at oca music venues and private events. In 1992 he was hired as the bass payer for an estabished group and again went on tour, this time to Spain and Norway. Back in Boston, he once more payed with oca bands, deveoping an interest in jazz and fusion. By 1994 he wanted a change, and he moved to Los Angees, where he quicky found work with the GCI. His invovement with music did not end, and in his first few years in L.A., he payed with a number of bands at a variety of oca venues. Between 1998 and 2002, he had a more reguar group, which performed bues, rock, and jazz. Matthew enjoys the baance of GCI work and music. He takes an interest in the progress of the Institute s projects and in the variety of peope at the GCI reguar staff and visitors. At the same time, as part of his ongoing studies, he continues to spend a ot of time istening to music and transcribing recorded jazz and other styes of music for eectric bass. He recenty formed a jazz trio. Conservation, The GCI Newsetter Voume 17, Number GCI News 31

32 Feature 4 Modern Science and Contemporary Paintings Preserving an Evoving Legacy By Michae Schiing, Susan Lake, Eizabeth Steee, and Suzanne Quien Lomax Diaogue 11 Time and Change A Discussion about the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art News in 18 Modern Paints Conservation A New Coaborative Research Project By Thomas Learner, Michae Schiing, and René de a Rie 21 Conserving the Buddhist Wa Paintings at Mogao By Francesca Piqué GCI News 24 Projects, Events, and Pubications