Letter from the President

Megan Emery

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Annual Meeting is quickly approaching! I, along with my colleagues at

the Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC), am truly looking forward to

entertaining you for a few days in Minneapolis, MN! The conference will

be held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, with receptions at the Walker

Art Center and the MACC labs. The schedule has been finalized and can

be found both in this newsletter and on the MRCG website. Thank you to

all who submitted abstracts and are planning to present at this year’s

meeting. It is going to be a very exciting and interesting one-and-a-half

days of talks with something for everyone. As the weekend of October 17

-19 approaches, stay tuned to the website as additional information will be

regularly added and please note that the last day to guarantee the

reduced rate discount at the two conference hotels is September

17th! We would also appreciate it if you would register for the conference

in advance so we can get a good sense of numbers for planning our recep-

tions! You can register online or by check through the mail.

At this year’s meeting there will be a networking and mentoring event for

our members who are Emerging Professionals. If you are just getting

started in the conservation world or are within the first few years of your

career, this is for you. For the rest of us, this is our time to get to know

our newest members! Please join us on Saturday to offer advice and

mentoring.

Thank you to all who participated in the MRCG Happy Hour at the past AIC

meeting in San Francisco. I was sorry to miss it, but have heard wonder-

Midwest Regional Conservation Guild

Fall 2014 Newsletter

September 2014 Volume XXXIII, Number 2

MRCG Officers for 2012

President

Megan Emery

memery@preserveart.org

Vice-President

Daniela Leonard

dleona@artic.edu

Secretary

Suzanne Davis

mrcg.secretary@gmail.com

Treasurer

Jodie Utter

jodie.utter@cartermuseum.org

Register Online with PayPal!

(See bottom of Page 2)

Contents Page

Letter from the President 1-2

Free Paper/Photography Lab 2

MRCG on the Web 2

Fall 2014 Annual Meeting 3

News from the Regions 4-8

Welcome to Minneapolis! 9-10

Highlight a Conservator 11

The MCP at the AIC 12-14

Depression Correspondence 15-16

Green Pigments in Egypt 17-19

2014 Registration Form 20

ful things about the gathering. We look forward to offering other opportunities to network and increase the visibility

of MRCG at future AIC meetings and throughout the year. Have suggestions? Let us know what you would like to

see (contact information listed on page 1).

At the meeting last year in Cleveland an MRCG Disaster Response Committee was officially formed, with Andrew

Huot as chair. At AIC in San Francisco, Andrew passed around a short survey on the needs and desires of the MRCG

community when it comes to Disaster Response. The committee is now narrowing its focus and planning projects for

next few years. At this time, Andrew is looking for other MRCG members to join the committee. Please join us at

our business meeting in October to learn more.

At the Minneapolis meeting we will be holding an election for both the MRCG Vice President and Treas-

urer positions. Are you interested in holding an officer position or know of someone who would be a great candi-

date? If so, please send us your nominations by October 10th. I also want to thank our current Vice-President

Daniela Leonard and Treasurer Jodie Utter for all of their hard work over the last few years. The organization has

grown in size, and financial stability, and there have been many website and newsletter improvements. THANK YOU

BOTH and please know how much you will be missed.

Warm regards,

Megan Emery

President MRCG

Page 2 Volume XXXIII, Number 2

MRCG on the Web

There has been a slight uptick in the number of posts submitted to the MRCG website and it is hoped that, over time,

members will utilize this resource more and more as a means for communicating timely news within the MRCG com-

munity. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to follow our blog at themrcg.wordpress.com

and/or ‘like’ our Facebook page (not to be confused with the MRCG page that is automatically generated through

the MRCG Wikipedia page). More importantly, submit content to share by contacting the Vice-President!

Remember that you can now pay your dues and meeting fees online via PayPal, either through your own ac-

count or simply with a credit card. Click on the PayPal button on the right hand menu bar of the MRCG website to

pay your membership dues using this new service.

Instructions for paying the registration fee for the 2014 Annual Meeting can be found here.

Free Paper/Photography Lab!

Christine Young (cypapercon@gmail.com)

It is my intention to retire sometime in the next 12-18 months. I hope to transition with a minimum of stress and in

a way that will provide continued benefit to the practice of conservation in this part of the country. With a select few

exceptions, it is my desire to transfer the full contents of my studio to a newly minted paper and/or photo

conservator. Equipment, supplies, and library would be free but for the cost of shipping, however, the recipient

would be expected to take it all.

I very much want to find someone with a desire to open a practice in the Midwest, and so I am beginning my search

with you. Hopefully one of you knows someone nearing graduation, on a post-grad fellowship, etc who fits the bill.

If you do know of someone who might be interested, please contact me or pass my information on.

Annual Meeting 2014* Friday October 17 5:00 – 7:00 pm Opening Reception at the Walker Art Center

Saturday October 18 All Saturday and Sunday activities will take place at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts 8:30 – 9:00 am Registration 8:55 Welcome – MRCG President Megan Emery 9:00 – 10:30 What we still don’t know about Artist Paint

Mark Golden, CEO and Founder Golden Artist Colors 10:30 –10:50 Coffee Break 10:50 – 11:10 The Artist’s Mystique: A Materials Study of Chuck Wood’s Casein “Oil Paintings” Kate Aquirre, Pre-program Intern, Kuniej Berry Associates, LLC 11:10 – 11:30 Mixed Media: Conservation of the Communications Collection at The Henry Ford Jessica Lafrance-Hwang, Project Conservator, The Henry Ford 11:30 – 11:50 Recovering Old Techniques for Cultural Heritage Conservation Rocio Prieto, Conservator 12:00 – 1:30 Lunch 1:30 – 1:50 Report on Condition Survey and Risk Assessment of Agnes Etherington Art Center of Queen’s Uni-

versity Collection of Canadian Costume Patricia Ewer, Textile Objects Conservation, LLC 1:50 – 2:10 Documenting Public Art in the 21st Century Arianna Carini, Post-Graduate Fellow, Richard McCoy and Associates 2:10 – 2:30 Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Woman: Mapping Condition Issues, Cleaning, and Inpainting Dean Yoder, Conservator of Paintings, Cleveland Museum of Art 2:30 – 2:50 Pros and Cons of a New Portable CT Scanner to 3-D Scan Artworks at the Detroit Institute of Arts John Steele, Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Detroit Institute of Arts 2:50 – 3:10 Using 3-D Laser Scanning in the Reproduction of Taliesin’s Sculpture Flower in a Crannied Wall Nicole Grabow, Objects Conservator, Midwest Art Conservation Center 3:15 – 4:00 Tour of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design 3D Printing Lab

4:00 – 5:00 Networking event for Emerging Professionals 5:00 – 8:00 pm Reception at the Midwest Art Conservation Center Sunday October 19 9:00 – 9:20 Volatile Binding Media: Exploring Alternatives for Archaeological Block Lifting Katherine Langdon, Buffalo State College Class of 2014; Dr. Aaron N. Shuga, Andrew W. Mellon Professor at

BSC; Lucy-Anne Skinner, Andrew W. Mellon Teaching Resident in Conservation Education at BSC 9:20 – 9:40 Where Does Restoration Go Too Far and Conservation Not Far Enough: Case Studies of Civil War

Flags Jennifer Hein, Historic Collections Preservation Conservator, Indiana War Memorial Military History Museum 9:40 – 10:00 Through “Hell” and Back: Max Beckmann’s Work on Paper in the Collection of the Saint Louis Art

Museum Yelizaveta(Liz) Sorokin, Graduate Intern in Paper Conservation, Art Institute of Chicago 10:00 – 10:20 The Adopt A Painting Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Erika Holmquist-Wall, Assistant Curator and Provenance Specialist, Paintings Department 10:20 –10:40 Coffee Break 10:40 – 12:00 MRCG Business Meeting *The schedule provided on this page may be subject to change. Please check our website for any updates!

Fall 2014 Newsletter Page 3

Page 4 Volume XXXIII, Number 2

The Midwest Art Conservation Cen-

ter is getting ready to host MRCG! We

can’t wait to have you visit our labs and

see some of the local museums. If you

haven’t registered yet, please do so

soon! See you in October!

Also at MACC, your MRCG President

Megan Emery has been getting her hard

hat on while spending time in Des Moines

at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gar-

den on the conservation of several outdoor

sculptures. The Botanical Garden is going

through a major renovation of the outside

gardens and the sculptures located on the

grounds are being installed in their new

locations.

MACC welcomes new Office Manager,

Jenny Wollner, who recently graduated

from Macalester College with a degree in

Classical Archaeology and History and

started at MACC as an intern in the Ob-

jects Lab. Jenny replaces Business Man-

ager Jon Erickson, who after 14 years at

MACC has moved on to other pursuits.

At the Science Museum of Minnesota,

Rebecca Newberry is getting loaned

artifacts ready for the next big ex-

hibit, Journey to Space, opening in

February 2015. SMM will be displaying a

variety of artifacts from the history of the

space program, including a pair of pres-

sure gloves worn by Neil Armstrong made

from natural rubber (so scary!) The ex-

hibit will tour the US for 7-10 years. Re-

becca is also working with members of the

Conservation Committee of SPNHC

(Society for the Preservation of Natural

History Collections) to write Best Practices

for Food in Cultural Institutions. They

publicized an online survey this past

spring to find out how different institutions

handle food, food vendors, and catered

events, and had over 350 people respond

from 21 countries. They will be writing up

a report on the survey, as well as the best

practices document which they aim to

publish them through the SPNHC website

(www.spnhc.org) by next May. They have

also submitted abstracts to talk about the

project at the annual meetings for AIC and

SPNHC next year.

The Science Museum welcomes con-

servation technician (and new MRCG

member!) Melissa Amundsen, who

is preparing objects for the American In-

dian exhibit We Move and We Stay. The

museum has greatly expanded the space

for the exhibit and Melissa works with the

objects in a visible lab in the gallery. A

few of the projects so far have been carv-

ing ethafoam forms for textiles, reassem-

bling various bone tools from archaeologi-

cal sights, bead cleaning, and making

mounts. Welcome, Melissa!

At the Minnesota Historical Society,

Tom Braun has been preserving two Pro-

hibition-era one-gallon glass jugs of

(pretty awful smelling) perfume. They

were both found behind a secret door in

St. Paul's Ancker hospital just before it

was demolished in 1967. It turns out they

were both made by Nipola Corporation

sometime before 1930. In 1930, Nipola

Corp. was federally indicted for diverting

industrial alcohol for use in alcoholic bev-

erages. Tom is hoping to have small sam-

ples of each analyzed with GC-Mass Spec-

trometry to see what the contents are.

Paul Storch completed the treatment of

seven bird mounts for a new exhibit at the

Putnam Museum of Natural History, Dav-

enport, IA, this past Spring. The treat-

ments involved cleaning, repair of torn

skin, reconstructing missing toes and feet,

and removing overpaint from beaks and

feet. Broken body mount wires were re-

paired by inserting the broken ends into

aluminum tubes of the proper inner di-

ameter, cut to the desired length. This

eliminated the need to remove the broken

wires from the bodies or having to solder

extensions on to the existing wires. The

new tubes were painted black and adhered

on with Paraloid B-72. Paul is now the

Sites Collections and Exhibits Liaison in

the new Facilities-Historic Properties De-

partment at the Minnesota Historical Soci-

ety. Besides preventative conservation

responsibilities such as IPM and environ-

mental monitoring at the 22 sites with

collections in the MNHS network, he is

now responsible for the maintenance and

development of the exhibits equipment

and furniture at the sites. So far this year

Paul has reviewed two manuscript articles

for Studies in Conservation, and is the

lead on the grant review team for the FAIC

"Take a Chance" grant program.

Kristin Cheronis, Inc. is pleased to

announce that Laura Kubick has joined

her well-established and busy object and

sculpture conservation practice on a part-

time basis. Laura Kubick left her position

as Assistant Conservator of Objects and

Variable Art at the Indianapolis Museum of

Art in July 2014 to make the move to Min-

neapolis, MN. Laura has also begun her

own object conservation practice, Laura

Kubick, LLC, running her business out of

the lab space that she shares with Kristin.

The MRCG Wants You!

The positions of MRCG Vice-President and Treasurer will become vacant this fall. Please consider contributing your time to the conservation com-munity by serving as a Guild officer for 2015/2016. If you would like more information about what kind of work the positions will entail, take a look at the MRCG Officers Manual (here).

Many thanks to Daniela and Jodie for your past service!

News from Minnesota

Page 5 Fall 2014 Newsletter

Fiona Beckett, Clowes Conservator of

Paintings at the Indianapolis Museum

of Art, is conducting technical analysis

and examination of the Clowes Collection

of Old Master Paintings, most of which

have never been thoroughly analyzed, for

an upcoming online collection catalogue.

Her current treatments include Jacopo

Zucchi’s “Portrait of a Lady” (attributed,

16th century). The painting was signifi-

cantly damaged, followed by several res-

toration campaigns during which it was

heavily overpainted, obscuring much of

the original paint layer. Removal of the

overpaint will allow further research into

the identity of the woman and quite possi-

bly the painting’s attribution. Retouching

will occur in part in the IMA gallery space,

allowing visitors to see conservation in

action when they visit the museum.

Fiona Beckett cleaning “Portrait of a Lady”,

attributed to Jacapo Zucchi.

Oil on Canvas, 48 x 37 ¾ in.; C10015.

Courtesy of the Clowes Fund.

Laura Kubick, former Assistant Conser-

vator of Objects and Variable Art, has left

the IMA to go into private practice in Min-

neapolis. We miss her and wish her suc-

cess.

Erica Schuler will begin her Third Year

Internship in Painting Conservation with

Senior Conservator of Paintings Linda

Witkowski on September 15th. Erica

comes to the IMA from the Art Conserva-

tion Program at Buffalo State College and

will be with us for one year.

Dr. Mike Samide, analytical chemistry

professor at Butler University, is currently

on sabbatical leave in the IMA Science

Laboratory. Dr. Samide’s 4 month re-

search stay will focus on material off-

gassing studies using volatiles analysis

techniques for gas chromatography-mass

spectrometry (GCMS). Mike is also devel-

oping curricular materials and gaining

practical experience in museum science

for his two undergraduate Chemistry of

Art courses.

“Five Brushstrokes”, a monumental work

by Roy Lichtenstein commissioned in the

early 1980s, but never before assembled,

is considered to be Lichtenstein’s most

ambitious work in his Brushstroke series.

Consisting of five separate elements, the

tallest of which soars 40 feet into the air,

“Five Brushstrokes” features a striking

collection of forms and colors and is one of

Lichtenstein's premier "scatter pieces." A

30 second time-lapse video of the installa-

tion can be seen at http://artbabble.org/

v i deo / ima/roy - l i c h tens te i n s - f i v e -

brushstrokes-installation-time-lapse.

Cleaning and minor repairs were done by

Conservation Technician Mallory Marty

and Chief Conservator David Miller prior

to the unveiling of the sculptures.

Exhibitions at the IMA

COAT OF MANY COLORS: August 22,

2014—January 25, 2015.

Science and art come together in the

IMA’s Conservation Science Laboratory

where in-house scientists and conserva-

tors study works of art to learn more

about them and how to best conserve

them. Using a recently acquired Uzbek

garment, Coat of Many Colors will illus-

trate how scientific imaging and dye

analysis has narrowed the possible crea-

tion date on this object and contributed to

our understanding of the influx of modern

European synthetic colorants into tradi-

tional Central Asian textile arts of the early

20th century. To see videos of the proc-

ess, visit http://www.imamuseum.org/

exhibition/coat-many-colors.

CONTINUING THE WORK OF THE

MONUMENTS MEN: September 5,

2014—September 6, 2015.

The 2014 release of the Hollywood

movie The Monuments Men created much

public interest in the issue of Nazi art loot-

ing before and during World War II. It

also increased awareness of Allied efforts

to protect important cultural treasures, so

far as war allowed.

Monuments men and women were mu-

seum and cultural professionals who

helped the Allied military forces safeguard

the art the Nazis stole and return it once

World War II had ended. Art museums the

world over continue their work by con-

ducting provenance research, or research

on the history of ownership of works in

their collections. This exhibition tells the

interesting story behind one of the IMA’s

European paintings, “Interior of Antwerp

Cathedral”, painted by the Flemish artist

Peeter Neeffs the Elder in 1651. The tale

reveals the complexities of provenance

research, and the fact that a painting’s

history of ownership can be difficult to

reconstruct.

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE AND THE SOUTH-

WESTERN STILL LIFE: November 2,

2014—February 15, 2015.

The stark beauty, unusual architecture,

and unique light of the American South-

west have inspired artists for generations.

Georgia O’Keeffe and the Southwestern

Still Life tells the story of the Southwest as

seen through the eyes of the artists who

lived there. Focusing on still lifes, repre-

sentations of an object or groups of ob-

jects, the exhibition features more than 50

works that provide fascinating examples of

art’s capacity to capture the essence of a

particular place.

Georgia O’Keeffe and Southwestern Still

Life brings to light how O’Keeffe found

inspiration in some of the simplest of sub-

jects, and reveals how her depictions of

News from Indiana

What’s with all the blue underlined text in this newsletter???

The MRCG Newsletter is a pdf file so if you’re reading this on your computer, click on the links to access websites!

Page 6

these objects were anything but mundane.

Her enlarged views of flowers, trees,

shells, rocks, and crosses are emblematic

of her embrace of the genre. The sun-

bleached bones that she gathered in the

New Mexico desert became subjects of

some of the most famous depictions of the

region. O’Keeffe’s iconic works fueled the

imaginations of artists for decades to fol-

low and inspired a vibrant artistic scene

that began in the early 20th century and

still thrives today.

Including additional still-life works by

artists such as Marsden Hartley, Raymond

Jonson and Victor Higgins, this exhibition

presents the paintings of O’Keeffe’s con-

temporaries in the context of their shared

passion for the region and the genre.

Exhibitions from IMA’s collection to ac-

company the travelling special exhibition

Georgia O’Keeffe and Southwestern Still

Life include:

THE RISE OF AMERICAN MODERNISM:

October 24, 2014—July 26, 2015

The avant garde of French art made in-

roads into the American mainstream in the

first decades of the 20th century largely

through the efforts of photographer Alfred

Stieglitz. Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery, founded

in 1908, introduced the works of Henri

Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne,

as well as such young Americans as Mars-

den Hartley, John Marin, Charles Sheeler,

Katherine Dreier and Man Ray. Dreier,

Marcel Duchamp and Ray founded the

Société Anonyme in 1920 to foster the

Modernist movement. These and other

artists are featured in this exhibition of 29

prints, drawings, watercolors and photo-

graphs from the IMA s permanent collec-

tion.

THE ONYA LA TOUR COLLECTION:

MODERNISM IN INDIANA: October 17,

2014-April 12, 2015

Presenting 30 works from the unconven-

tional collection of an Indiana native, The

Onya La Tour Collection: Modernism in

Indiana will highlight the early Modernist

movement in America. Born and raised in

Indiana, Onya La Tour (1896–1976)

worked for the WPA in New York during

the 1930s and befriended many of the

artists whose work she would collect and

display in her own gallery. When La Tour

moved back to Indiana in 1940, she made

her unusual collection available to the

public free of charge in her Brown County

farmhouse, which she called the “Indiana

Museum for Modern Art.” In 1972, La

Tour donated much of her collection, fea-

turing figurative and abstract styles, to the

IMA. This exhibition marks the first time

many of her paintings, drawings, and

prints have been displayed since their

days in Brown County. The Indiana Uni-

versity Art Museum is also lending four

works from La Tour’s collection.

The Asian lab at the Cleveland Mu-

seum of Art is busy arranging for future

rotations while taking time to further de-

velop our knowledge in the field and

broaden our connections both in the US

and abroad. Both Yi-Hsia Hsiao, Assis-

tant Conservator of Asian Paintings (Chi-

nese tradition), and Sara Ribbans, Assis-

tant Conservator of Asian Paintings (Jap-

anese tradition), will be in Hong Kong at-

tending a conference on East Asian art

conservation, held by the IIC, where Yi-

Hsia will be presenting a poster on a lining

technique for paintings on silk. The con-

servators will also be travelling to Asia as

couriers for artwork over the next month.

Yi-Hsia will be in China to collect paintings

to be installed at the Virginia Museum of

Fine Arts while Sara will be deinstalling

our masterworks show that has been on

exhibit in Japan this year. In October,

Sara will be attending a forum in Korea

with our Curator of Japanese and Korean

Art, Sinéad Vilbar, to discuss the state of

collections of Korean paintings abroad with

a focus on conservation and exhibitions.

Hopefully this will lead to some collabora-

tion with Korean paintings conservators

and possible conservation focused exhibi-

tions in the future. Later in the year, both

Sara and Yi-Hsia will be settling in to pre-

pare paintings for the January rotations of

the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean galler-

ies.

Colleen Snyder, Assistant Conservator

of Objects, welcomed Charlotte, her first

child, to her family this August. She is

enjoying her time off and looks forward to

returning to work on Apollo later this year.

Samantha Springer, Assistant Conserva-

tor of Objects, is holding down the fort

while Colleen is on leave, and looks for-

ward to several contemporary art installa-

tions this fall and preparation for an Afri-

can show at the beginning of next year.

She is also focusing on developing a work-

flow and proper documentation protocols

for the CMA’s time-based media collection

and incoming loans. Pre-program in-

tern Laura Siegfried, will be working in

the lab until the end of September. She

has been extremely helpful in preparing

Native American beadwork for a gallery

rotation, and examining a Rorimer silver

set for loan. The lab is looking forward to

having a pre-program intern, Kendall

Trotter, in November to work on a Japa-

nese inlaid lacquer box. Chris Bruns,

conservation technician, is preparing to

migrate our environmental monitoring to e

-Climate Notebook. He has also been busy

cleaning glass works for photography.

Per Knutås, Eric and Jane Nord Chief

Conservator, traveled to Mexico City to

work on a collaborative conservation pro-

ject between CMA conservator Sam-

antha Springer and the studio of the

artist, Gabriel Orozco. The project and

outcome will be submitted to the upcom-

ing 2016 ICOM-IIC/INCCA conference in

Los Angeles dealing with modern and con-

temporary art.

The rotation schedule for textiles in the

galleries keeps Robin Hanson, Associate

Conservator of Textiles, and Leanne

Tonkin, Mellon Fellow in Textile Conserva-

tion, very busy. In July, the exhibition in

the dedicated textile gallery opened; this

exhibition includes 18th and 19th century

Islamic textiles. In August, the pre-

Columbian textiles and Native North

American case rotated. Plains beaded

hide objects form the NNA rotation and

cotton, gauze weave Chimu textiles form

the pre-Columbian rotation. All rotations

will be up for a year.

Marcia Steele, Senior Conservator of

Paintings, will be traveling to Dresden in

September to continue research on An-

drea del Sarto's Sacrifice of Isaac. Her

News from Ohio

Volume XXXIII, Number 2

Page 7 Fall 2014 Newsletter

current major treatments are on paintings

by Valentin and Cranach. Dean Yoder,

Conservator of Paintings, has been treat-

ing Caravaggio's “Crucifixion of Saint An-

drew” in a public exhibition designed to

inform visitors about conservation. This

includes public question and answer ses-

sions three times a week, along with addi-

tional talks to select groups. Dean also

worked with Parker Hannifin to design a

new microscope table included in the exhi-

bition.

Dave Piurek, Conservation Technician,

Paintings and Frames, completed a full

restoration of a period frame for one of

our Edouard Manet paintings, “Portrait

of Berthe Morisot”. The frame restoration

included a full re-gilding and patination

and the frame is now highlighting the

painting instead of being visually distract-

ing.

In August, after a productive and event-

ful summer filled with a variety of interest-

ing projects, Moyna Stanton, Conserva-

tor of Works of Art on Paper, and the rest

of the conservation lab said good bye

to Anisha Gupta, first-year summer in-

tern and paper major with the Winterthur

program. Later this month we wel-

come Kimi Taira, also from the Winter-

thur program, as a third-year intern in

paper. Also this month, Amy Cri-

st, Associate Conservator of Works of Art

on Paper, returned from maternity leave

(new baby Penelope is already nearly 4

months old!) to resume her duties as part-

time associate paper conservator for the

art collection and part-time associate book

conservator for the Ingalls Library.

A highlight for the coming year will be

the treatment of the museum’s Indian and

Southeast Asian paper collection, including

Mughal paintings, Buddhist, palm leaf su-

tras and Jain, Kalpa Sutra manuscripts.

Attention for this collection has been

spurred by the 2013 acquisition of nearly

100 Mughal paintings from the renowned

Benkaim collection.

We are closing in on a major photo exhi-

bition of surrealist works titled Forbidden

Games, from the collection of David Ray-

mond that the museum acquired in 2007.

Preparing this collection of roughly 170

works has been a protracted project that

included numerous conservation treat-

ments, many performed under the guid-

ance of our contract photo conserva-

tor Paul Messier. Thanks to Joan Neu-

becker, our conservation technician for

photographs, the entire Raymond collec-

tion will be matted and framed and ready

to install in October.

Upcoming prints and drawings exhibi-

tions include (in January) Themes and

Variations, an inspired assemblage of

prints and drawings, spanning early Ren-

aissance to contemporary, that feature

music, music making, and dance in

graphic art. Later in the spring, a contem-

porary print show will present a selection

of bold, exciting, and exquisitely crafted

works acquired over the past 25

years. The lion’s share of preparations for

these exhibitions, as well as rotating

works of art on paper in many of the mu-

seum’s renovated and new galleries, will

be undertaken by Stephen Fixx, our con-

servation technician for prints and draw-

ings.

Conservation of Alonso Cano’s 17th century

“St. John the Baptist” has been completed

at the Cincinnati Art Museum by Kress

Fellow Wendy Crawford. The first major

treatment undertaken since it entered the

collection in 1964 addressed significant

visual changes on the surface. A textured

and grayed synthetic varnish was removed

revealing the partially removed and

streaky, darkened natural resin varnish

below. Past campaigns of well-intentioned

care had significantly compromised the

visual integrity of the sky, exposing the

canvas weave in areas and creating small

patches of blanched paint in others. Old

tears, structurally sound as a result of

lining, had uneven fills and discoloured

retouching that had been later addressed

by further retouching that had again dis-

coloured. Most distracting were the areas

within the figure where the retouching had

dramatically lightened over large tears,

seen in both the stomach and proper right

shoulder. XRF analysis indicated the pres-

ence of zinc, used in the synthetic re-

touching, which accounts for the dramatic

visual change over a relatively short pe-

riod of time. The disfiguring elements

were removed. The losses were filled,

textured and underpainted. Layers of

stable synthetic varnish were applied to

saturate and protect the surface. The fills

“St. John the Baptist” Before Treatment, left and After Treatment, right.

Volume XXXIII, Number 2 Page 8

Two series of extremely rare photographs

documenting a last look at a rapidly disap-

pearing frontier are on view at Nelson-

Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City,

beginning July 25, 2014 through January

11, 2015. Across the Indian Country:

Photographs by Alexander Gardner,

1867-68 was curated by Jane L. Aspin-

wall, Associate Curator of Photography at

the Nelson-Atkins. The exhibition includes

photographs from two extraordinary bod-

ies of work created by Gardner, “Across

the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Rail-

road”, 1867-68 and “Scenes in the Indian

County”, 1868, which depict the transfor-

mation of the American West by the rail-

road and the subsequent effect it had on

the American Indians in the region.

Nine of the photographs from the series

are from the Nelson-Atkins collection. As

most of these images had never been on

view at NAMA, they received thorough

cleaning treatment in preparation for dis-

play. Several of the photographs were

cleaned via dry and wet treatment to sta-

bilize inherent deterioration issues.

The survey photographs make up about

half of the exhibition; the other half in-

cludes images taken during treaty nego-

tiations between the Plains Indians and

the Indian Peace Commission at Fort Lara-

mie, Wyoming in 1868. Gardner photo-

graphed many of the chiefs from the

Northern Plains tribes including Crow,

Arapaho, Oglala, Minneconjous, Brule and

Cheyenne. The images are remarkable

both for the variety of tribes represented

and for the candid documentation of eve-

ryday Indian life, including Indian encamp-

ments, burial trees and peace proceed-

ings. Gardner's photographs marked the

rapid and disastrous changes in the lives

of the Plains Indians as they were happen-

ing, signaling the end of the "wild fron-

tier".

The Conservation Department at the Saint

-Louis Museum of Art is pleased to an-

nounce that Claire Walker has been pro-

moted from contract/temporary to full-

time Assistant Painting Conservator.

News from Missouri

NEWS COORDINATORS

for Fall 2014

Wendy Crawford

Tom Edmondson

Nicole Grabow

Nancy Heugh

Per Knutas

David Miller

and key areas of abrasion in the sky were

inpainted before a final application of var-

nish.

An aspect of research for this treatment

involved consultation with conservation

scientists to try and determine the charac-

ter of the overhanging foliage at the top of

the composition. Visually dissimilar from

the rest of the painting and other exam-

ples of foliage in Cano’s work, attempts

were made to discover the treatment his-

tory of this portion of the painting. Cross-

sections were analysed in an attempt to

determine the layer structure and a visit

to both Granada and Madrid, Spain al-

lowed access to well preserved examples

of Cano’s work from the same period, and

experts who have studied these paintings.

In the end, though most agreed it was

likely that the foliage was not original,

there were no conclusive analytical results

to inform further treatment.

“St. John the Baptist” is scheduled to

return to the Spanish gallery of the Cincin-

nati Art Museum in mid-October.

Detail of the stomach: left, Before Treatment, layers of discol-

oured retouching and dramatically lightened zinc white pigment

over complex tear; right, After Treatment, retouching layers

removed, fill recreated and inpainted.

Detail of right edge by knee: left, During Treatment, com-

plex tear with retouching, fill and surrounding discoloured

varnish removed; right, After Treatment with fill recreated

and inpainted and the paint layer resaturated with a pro-

tective varnish.

Page 9

Welcome to Minneapolis!

(www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/visitors/index.htm)

Minneapolis' name is attributed to the city's first schoolteacher who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word

for water, and polis, the Greek word for city. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just

north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. The

city is abundantly rich in water, with twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and water-

falls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.

It was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business cen-

ter between Chicago and Seattle.

Fall 2014 Newsletter

Transportation

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)

www.mspairport.com

Taxi, limousine, van and shuttle services, and car rental companies all operate at MSP. Jefferson

Lines scheduled bus service is also available.

Public transportation is available through Metro Transit, which provides both Light Rail Transit and

public bus service to and from MSP, as well as within the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Terminal 1-Lindbergh

4300 Glumack Drive

St. Paul, MN 55111

612-726-5555

Terminal 2-Humphrey

7150 Humphrey Drive

Minneapolis, MN 55450

612-726-5555

Volume XXXIII, Number 2

Page 10

Places to Stay

Blocks of rooms with reduced rates have been reserved at the following downtown Minneapolis ho-

tels. The room blocks will only be reserved until Wednesday September 17, 2014. The rates are

confirmed for up to two people per room, additional guests are charged an additional $10.00 per night/

per person. Room rates also do not include state and local taxes, presently at 13.4%.

Please refer to the MRCG Annual Meeting to receive the group rate.

Best Western Normandy Inn & Suites

405 South 8th Street

Minneapolis, MN 55404

(800) 372-3131

30 Rooms reserved with a choice of 2 Queens, 1 King, or a King Suite

Rates:

$94.00/night for a room with 2 Queens or 1 King

$109.00/night for a King Suite

Hilton Garden Inn Minneapolis Downtown

1101 4th Avenue South

Minneapolis, MN 55404

(612) 339-6633

20 Rooms reserved all with 2 Queens

Rate: $119.00/night

Page 11

Where are you working now and it what capacity?

I recently finished a year-long Mellon Fellowship in paper conservation at the Bal-

boa Art Conservation Center (BACC) in San Diego, California, and I will be starting

a Kress Conservation Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame in October.

Tell us a little about your current project(s).

While at BACC, I had the unique opportunity to work with some of the Indian miniature paintings previously owned

by Edwin Binney 3rd and now held at the San Diego Museum of Art. I enjoyed learning about the intricacies of the

paint layers of these paintings on paper and how important the use of microscope work is for such works. I am ex-

tremely excited about my next move to the Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame. I have loved work-

ing with books (and so much more!) in my former internships at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and at

Iowa State University, and so I am looking forward to continuing my education and training in book conservation

under Liz Dube at Notre Dame. I hope to develop my experience with different binding and conservation skills, to

coordinate and collaborate with the curatorial staff, and to be able to pursue a research project that will benefit the

collections and the field.

Where did you study and why did you choose that program?

I studied at the Sorbonne program in Paris, France. The program is different from American programs in that the

science and chemistry classes are integrated into the training, instead of being pre-requisites. This makes the pro-

gram longer-four years including the internship year. Specialties are chosen before applying, and only a certain num-

ber of applicants per specialty are chosen each year. My choice of the program was a combination of serendipity and

the desire to pursue both conservation and my French language skills. My first introduction to the profession had ac-

tually taken place during an exchange year in France, when my host mother dropped me off in a painting conserva-

tion studio for a day so she could get some shopping done around town, and so my connection with conservation can

be traced to its Gallic origins.

Years later, when I was informed that I had been accepted into the Sorbonne, I jumped at the chance to study con-

servation in Paris, a city so full of history, art, and culture, and to continue the relationship with conservation that

had begun years before. Attending a European conservation program has definitely had an influence on me, and

paired with experience in the US, it provides me with a reference of comparisons of treatments and materials that I

carry with me.

What would you like to be doing in five years?

I would like to be working in a conservation lab in an academic research library--in the US-- in five years. My experi-

ence in such institutions has been incredibly positive, and I love working in a team-oriented atmosphere where con-

servators can exchange ideas and brainstorm about treatment strategies. In addition, as a young professional I have

had to move quite a bit in the past few years, so I hope to be settled in a more permanent position this time 2019!

Highlight a Conservator

Meet Susanna Donovan!

Fall 2014 Newsletter

Page 12 Volume XXXIII, Number 2

The Modular Cleaning Program at the Art Institute of Chicago

Daniela Leonard, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Painting Conservation, Art Institute of Chicago

In a workshop organized by Maria Kokkori, Stockman Family Foundation Research Fellow at the

Art Institute of Chicago, Chris Stavroudis, a private conservator in Los Angeles, was invited to

the Art Institute from June 23-27th to introduce his Modular Cleaning Program (MCP). Those in

attendance represented the majority of the Conservation Department at AIC, a total of 20 con-

servators specialized in paintings, objects, paper and conservation science.

The Modular Cleaning Program is a FileMaker Pro database of chemicals and their properties, those chemicals formu-

lated into cleaning solutions, and families of cleaning solutions. The program can also be used to help conservators

formulate cleaning systems and keep track of their cleaning tests, noting the varying efficacy of the materials

they’ve tried, and make educated guesses about what other options may work better. As Mr. Stavroudis stresses

during his lectures, the MCP cannot (nor is it intended to) dictate to conservators what they should use; rather, it is

a passive program that can be used to visualize the various pathways open to us in determining an effective cleaning

solution. While the program is freely downloadable from CoOL, only conservators are granted access to the program

(at no charge) via a registration number available from Chris.

Mr. Stavroudis’ workshop aims to provide conservators with a solid foundation in the theory and practice of formulat-

ing aqueous cleaning solutions, solvent gels, polymer-stabilized emulsions, and silicone-based microemul-

sions. Lectures providing a recap of cleaning theory and descriptions of the MCP are interspersed with hands-on

practice using the program and mixing the stock solutions that form the base from which hundreds of different

cleaning mixtures can be made for testing on artworks. The lectures touch on the role that various parameters of a

cleaning solution may play on the surfaces of artworks, including: pH buffers and conductivity, and the addition of

surfactants and chelating agents in aqueous solutions; the solvent action of free solvents and choice of gelling agent

in solvent gels; and the various components of emulsions.

Chris Stavroudis,

Private Conservator

Sets of aqueous cleaning solutions made at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the

Modular Cleaning Program workshop: June 23-27, 2014.

Fall 2014 Newsletter Page 13

The aqueous cleaning solutions that are made, in conjunction

with the parameters noted above, include water buffered to

different pH levels, along with mixtures of these same buff-

ered solutions with various surfactants or chelating agents.

The aqueous solutions are concentrated by 5x so that every

mixture made for a cleaning test has a total volume of 5ml.

For example, you may want to try a 6.5 pH buffed solution

with an Ecosurf surfactant and an EDTA chelating agent; to

arrive at the correct concentration, you would add 1ml of

each of these pre-prepared solutions with 2ml of deionized

water, for a total of 5ml in a separate container for testing.

The purpose of this approach is to both simplify and speed up

the testing process. Rather than having to measure the cor-

rect amount of buffer or surfactant or chelator for each clean-

ing test you make, you have pre-prepared solutions that can

be readily mixed in any desired combination without the need

to constantly make new calculations.

Similarly, the solvent gels are pre-prepared so that a conservator can have them on hand when she runs across a

problem for which they may prove useful. The gels currently integrated into the MCP are based on those described

by Richard Wolbers (Associate Professor, Coordinator of Science and Adjunct Paintings Conservator at the University

of Delaware) in his book, Cleaning Painted Surfaces. Again, the program will not prompt you to use a particular gel

or free solvent mixture, but it will do the calculations for you so that you can see on the screen where in Hansen

Space or on the Teas Chart your chosen mixture will lie. Other solubility parameters, reflecting the work of

Hildebrand and Teas, as well as information on the aromatic/aliphatic indexes are included. Once you’ve chosen a

mixture for testing, the program will provide the recipe for the gel. Eventually, the intention is to provide information

on the solubility of materials so that one can better visualize desirable targets based on what one hopes to remove

and what one hopes to maintain (for example, ‘oxidized natural resin varnish’ from ‘aged oil paint’).

Emulsions and microemulsions constitute a new area of cleaning research within the field of conservation. These ma-

terials have proved useful in situations where the material we wish to remove is a mixture of water-soluble and sol-

vent-soluble materials (like animal glue and varnish) or when aqueous or solvent-based cleaning solutions affect

both the material we wish to remove and the artwork itself. In this second case, it is sometimes possible to suspend

the aqueous phase in a solvent that won’t affect the object (or vice-versa) while simultaneously dissolving the mate-

rial we wish to remove. To create a stable cleaning mixture of ‘oil and water’, we need to add a surfactant as an

emulsifier to form the emulsion.

At this stage, the MCP does not include the myriad of possibilities for formulating emulsions; however, Mr. Stav-

roudis does discuss some promising materials introduced by Richard Wolbers. The first of these is Pemulen TR-2, a

polymer that acts both as a thickener for the water phase and like the surfactants otherwise used to create an emul-

sion. The result is essentially an aqueous gel to which non water-miscible organic solvents can be added, in quanti-

Frank Zuccari, Grainger Executive Director of Con-

servation and Senior Painting Conservator, and

Francesca Casadio, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Con-

servation Scientist, look on as the author tests

aqueous cleaning solutions on a naturally aged

primed canvas provided by Mr. Stavroudis.

Page 14

ties as high as 30%, to form an emulsion. Next is a variety of silicone-based ‘microemulsions’ (clear, stable, isotropic

mixtures of oil (solvent), water and one or two surfactants). Velvesil Plus, a silicone-based gel combined with a sur-

factant, can be mixed with either water or a variety of polar organic solvents.

The final lecture touches on the problems that Acrylic paintings pose for conservators. The many additives included

by paint manufacturers can result in surfaces that are highly sensitive to any aqueous cleaning methods, as well as

presenting difficult ethical questions about what materials conservators should remove from paint surfaces: if a sur-

factant has migrated out of a paint film, altering the surface, should we remove it or should we maintain it as

‘original’ material? What if there is significant grime mixed in? The most important take-away from this discussion is:

do NOT use deionized water to clean an acrylic paint surface! Water that does not contain ions (i.e., have a

suitable ionic strength or conductivity) may conceivably pull material out of a delicate and exposed paint layer. Using

water with a low pH and high conductivity, as well as emulsions and gels, have proved promising for acrylic paints,

but our collective experience is not sufficient to understand which systems are better in which circumstances.

One of the main concerns for many of the cleaning solutions made in the workshop is clearance of non-volatile mate-

rials. Chelating agents, buffers, surfactants, Pemulen, Carbopol and the Ethomeens are materials that could con-

ceivably cause further damage to an artwork if allowed to remain on the surface. As such, it is imperative to have an

understanding of what materials to use and the proper steps to rinse the cleaning systems to minimize residues and

to avoid re-depositing unwanted material on the surface. It is equally important to have an understanding of when to

avoid using a particular cleaning technique (for example, do not introduce any non-volatile system onto very porous

surfaces where they may easily become trapped). One very important note: do not allow solvent gels based on

Carbopol and Ethomeens to dry on the surface of an artwork! You will not be able to sufficiently re-dissolve

and clear the gel once it is fully dried.

In the final days of the workshop, we began to test the materials we’d

made throughout the week on several artworks from the collection, mak-

ing use of the Modular Cleaning Program to keep track of our results. It

was easy to see that these various cleaning techniques could prove quite

useful in a variety of situations, but what was particularly interesting to

witness was the variety of results experienced by different conservators

using the same materials. Ultimately, it should not be surprising that

there is no one ‘right answer’ to any conservation problem, which rein-

forces the usefulness of the Modular Cleaning Program primarily as a

tool to assist in determining the best solution for the conservator using

it, not as a means of providing ‘the correct answer’, devoid of all mitigat-

ing factors.

Many thanks to Chris Stavroudis for traveling to rainy Chicago (albeit, a

far cry from the misery of this past winter!) to present for us the latest

developments of his Modular Cleaning Program.

You may contact Chris for more information at: cstavrou@ix.netcom.com

Frank Zuccari utilizing the Modular

Cleaning Program to test aqueous solu-

tions on a painting from the collection

of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Volume XXXIII, Number 2

Page 15 Fall 2014 Newsletter

Lessons In Communication from Depression-Era Correspondence

Melissa Tedone, Library & Archives Conservator, Iowa State University Library

One of this year’s most significant archival acquisitions at Iowa State University Library was a cache of Depression-

era correspondence added to the Carrie Chapman Catt Papers. Carrie Chapman Catt graduated from Iowa State Col-

lege in 1880 as the only woman in her class, and went on to become a leader in the women’s suffrage movement,

both in the United State and internationally. The newly acquired collection came to the Conservation Lab for treat-

ment before archival processing because so many of the folded letters were in fragile condition. In addition to hand-

written and typed letters, the collection includes newspaper clippings, photographs, pressed flowers, postcards, and

stamped envelopes. While the letters poignantly describe the highs and lows of life during the Depression, the letter-

writing materials themselves reflect the changing fortunes of the correspondents, with supports ranging from heavy,

high-quality, monogrammed stationery to index cards, scraps of acidic notebook paper, the backs of receipts, and

previously used envelopes.

One part of managing a large-scale treatment project, of course, involves scheduling phases of treatment and keep-

ing materials organized in the lab. If you’re interested, you can read my original write-up about the logistics of

treating such a large collection on the ISU Library Preservation Department blog:

http://parkslibrarypreservation.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/preserving-depression-era-letters/

However, other equally important aspects of managing a large-scale treatment project rely on effective communica-

tion with collection managers. Working on the Catt Papers drew attention to the fact that, although allied profes-

sionals may work closely and collaboratively, our professional jargon does not always correspond. When asked for

an overall project time estimate, I was informed the collection contained between 300 and 400 “items.” Our large

humidity chamber can accommodate 15 to 20 letter-sized items at a time, and I planned to humidify one batch per

day. So, at that rate, with a comfortable cushion built in to the estimate, I could expect to finish humidifying, flat-

tening, and rehousing the collection in approximately six weeks. However, what constitutes an “item” in archivist’s

jargon can be very different from what a paper conservator considers a single item. In fact, the archivist’s estimate

was accurate: the collection contained nearly 400 folded-up letters (some with and some without their original postal

envelopes). As I started to prepare the letters for

humidification, I noticed that many letters were

comprised of multiple pages, sometimes as many

as 7 or 8 pages. For the purposes of the humid-

ity chamber, a single sheet of paper is considered

an “item,” so as time went on, I realized that my

original time estimate was way off the mark. In

the end, I treated and rehoused 1,178 items, and

it took 4 months to do so. Had we clarified the

language we were building our expectations on

from the beginning, a significant misunderstand-

ing about treatment duration could have been

avoided.

Page 16 Volume XXXIII, Number 2

This project also underscored another lesson in communi-

cation: the importance of balancing goals and expectations

about the publicity surrounding high-profile collections. At

ISU, the Special Collections Department and the Preserva-

tion Department maintain independent social media pres-

ences, which include departmental Wordpress blogs. While

we will occasionally coordinate blog posts for special events

(Women’s History Month, for example), for the most part,

the blogs function independently and reflect each depart-

ment’s internal workings. Our two departments exercise

very different philosophies about social media publicity,

because we have different public outreach goals.

Part of the Preservation Department’s mission is to educate the public about the behind-the-scenes role of preserva-

tion and conservation professionals in making research collections available for public use. To this end, blogging

about the treatment of the Catt Papers while the project was still underway fit our goals perfectly: we want people to

realize how much work goes into making collections available, and how time-consuming that preparatory work can

be. However, the Special Collections Department’s mission is to promote its collections and make them as accessible

to researchers as possible. To this end, the department prefers publicity about a new collection to take place only

after the collection has been stabilized and processed, when it is ready for use. Special Collections staff do not want

to risk alienating interested researchers by telling them a publicized collection is not yet available for access.

Neither of these outreach philosophies is inherently right or wrong; they simply serve different ends. We are fortu-

nate to enjoy a strong working relationship between the Preservation Department and the Special Collections De-

partment at ISU Library. This relationship has been built on a willingness to listen to one another’s perspectives,

clarify the occasional miscommunication, and work out necessary compromises. Consistent, open communication

builds trust and allows us to balance the goals of two departments which may collaborate closely, but ultimately op-

erate as individual units with their own unique goals.

Page 17

Green pigments in Graeco-Roman Egypt

Caroline Roberts, Conservator, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology

For the past three years I have been exploring the topic of

Egyptian pigments, specifically from the Late Period to the Ro-

man period (712 BC – 364 AD). It all started at the Kelsey Mu-

seum of Archaeology, where I worked as a fellow from 2011 –

2012 and am now working as a conservator. The Kelsey has a

collection of limestone funerary stelae from Terenouthis, a Ro-

man town in Egypt excavated in the 1930’s by the University of

Michigan, and many of them retain some of their original paint.

I used X-ray diffraction to study the composition of some of the

paints, and to my surprise I found something unusual: a blue-

green pigment that was not copper based. Instead, the pigment

was a green earth. Green earth is a naturally-occurring clay

mineral well known for its use in Greek and Roman painting, as

well as medieval panel painting. An initial literature search con-

firmed that relatively few examples of green earth on Egyptian

artifacts have been documented, which launched me on a quest,

of sorts, to find out more about pigments and their uses in

Graeco-Roman Egypt.

Compared to Pharaonic Egypt, relatively little technical informa-

tion has been published on Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptian

paints. For example, the chapter discussing paint in Nicholson

and Shaw’s essential reference Egyptian Materials and Technol-

ogy reports extensively on pigments and binders in use during

the Predynastic, Early Dynastic and Dynastic period, but pro-

vides no information following these periods. Graeco-Roman

Egypt is also overlooked in Alfred Lucas’ Ancient Egyptian Mate-

rials and Industries. More recent studies, however, have been

more inclusive of later periods. Studies carried out at the Art

Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, and J. Paul Getty Mu-

seum report on pigments discovered on painted wooden and

ceramic artifacts, as well as a red shroud mummy, from Ptole-

maic and Roman Egypt. On two of these artifacts, the green

paint was made of green earth pigment.

My own research began in force at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where I was given the opportunity to pursue an inde-

pendent research project. I worked closely with conservators in the Antiquities Conservation Department at the

Getty Villa, and scientists at the Getty Conservation Institute to analyze pigments on a painted coffin and group of

Stela 21180, from Terenouthis Egypt; Kelsey Mu-

seum of Archaeology. Photo credit: Claudia Che-

mello.

Taking paint samples from wooden coffin

82.AP.75, J. Paul Getty Museum. Photo credit:

Elisa Maupas

Fall 2014 Newsletter

Page 18

mummy shrouds in the Museum’s Romano-Egyptian collection.

Of these, one was painted with green earth. It was here that I

learned about another pigment mixture used in Roman Egypt:

Vergaut, a mixture of indigo and orpiment. The Getty’s red

shroud mummy was painted with Vergaut, as was one of the

shrouds I studied. It was also here that I learned about multis-

pectral imaging, namely Visible-Induced Luminescence (VIL)

imaging, a technique I brought with me on a research trip to

Chicago. There, I was granted access to Egyptian collections at

the Art Institute, the Field Museum, and the Oriental Institute,

where I gained a great deal of information using VIL imaging

and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis.

Eager to continue my research with a more extensive

Egyptian collection, I applied for a fellowship at the Metro-

politan Museum of Art, where my proposal to examine

pigments was successful. Working in the Objects Conser-

vation Department, and with the help of the Scientific Re-

search Department, I was able to study nearly 20 artifacts

in-depth, using Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM), XRF,

and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. During this

time I also completed a survey of previously studied arti-

facts from Egypt’s Late Period to the Roman period, and

started to plot this along with my own data to look for

trends. Based on the results gathered so far, it appears

that an increase in the use of green earth, used alone or

in mixture, as well as indigo-containing mixtures occurs

during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Many questions

remain, however, such as where artists were obtaining

their green earth pigment. Did they source it in the West-

ern Desert, where deposits of the green earth mineral

glauconite are known, or did they import the pigment

from sources in the Mediterranean that were familiar in

the Hellenistic and Roman artistic world?

During my time at the Met I acquired a very useful set of

documentation skills, thanks to the fortuitous presence of

fellow conservators and scientists with interest and exper-

tise in multispectral imaging (MSI). Using a modified cam-

era (a digital SLR camera with the IR filter removed), and

Volume XXXIII, Number 2

XRF analysis of cartonnage fragment 13.182.42,

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo credit: author.

Conducting multispectral imaging on inner coffin

25.3.183A, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo credit:

Dawn Lohnas.

Fall 2014 Newsletter Page 19

by interchanging various filters and lighting sources, the reflectance and luminescence properties of paint surfaces

can be explored over a spectral range spanning the Ultraviolet to the Infrared. Multispectral imaging proved useful

on occasions where paint sampling was not possible, helped guide my choices in terms of where to sample, and –

with post-processing – provided false-color images. Certain pigments seem to show consistent, characteristic proper-

ties in infrared false color; Egyptian blue appears magenta, while indigo appears red. MSI is a tool that is accessible

to many conservators thanks to the setup’s relatively low cost; a tool that I know will be useful to us in the conser-

vation lab at the Kelsey Museum.

Technical research is one of the things I love the most about working as a conservator, because of the twists and

turns that arise from its pursuit, the paths of inquiry that unfold, and the opportunities to work with and learn from

fellow conservators and professional allies. I learned from this project that there is always something new to dis-

cover, even in artifacts that have been in collections for decades, and that simple tools can help answer complex re-

search questions. I hope to be able to share what I learned with others, so that we can pool our data and better un-

derstand the artistic practices of antiquity.

got news?

Do you have a story you would like to share with other MRCG

members? Consider submitting an article for the MRCG

Newsletter! It could be an interesting problem or treatment

you have encountered, results from a research project,

something you learned at a workshop or other event that

you think the rest of us could benefit from hearing.

Remember that the Newsletter is a tool for all of us to

connect and share within our community! Contact the Vice-

President with your ideas:

themrcg.wordpress.com/current-mrcg-officers/

Page 20 Volume XXXIII, Number 2

Midwest Regional Conservation Guild

Fall Meeting Registration Form October 17-19, 2014

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Name:_______________________________________________________________________________________ (REQUIRED - please print legibly)

Mailing Address: (If you are using the address of a business or institution, please include the name of that organi-

zation. Members in good standing with no changes need not fill out this section.)

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Email:______________________________________________________________________ (please print legibly)

Telephone: Work ____________________ Fax _____________________ Home_______________________

Specialty:_____________________________________________________

New Member _____ Address Change _____

Number of Registrations: x $55

2014 Membership Dues: x $20 (include if you have not yet paid for 2014)

Total Amount Enclosed: $ ­

Please provide the requested information and mail your check payable to the

Midwest Regional Conservation Guild (or MRCG).

Registration mail to the MRCG Treasurer:

Jodie Utter, Conservator of Works on Paper Amon Carter Museum of American Art 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd. Fort Worth, TX 76107

If you have questions, please contact Jodie at (817) 989-5088 or email jodie.utter@cartermuseum.org

For more information about MRCG visit www.themrcg.wordpress.com