United Nations Mosaic - Williamstown Art Conservation Center

A P U B L I C A T I O N o f T ‌h e W illia m s town A r t C on s e r v ation C e nt e r Volu m e 8 , N u m b e r 1 • s u m m e r 2 0 1 3
United
Nations
Mosaic
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 1
Contents, Summer 2013
Art Conservator
Volume 8, Number 1 • Summer 2013
Director
T‌homas J. Branchick
Editor
Timothy Cahill
Art Direction and Production
Ed Atkeson/Berg Design
Photographer
Matthew Hamilton
Contributors
Thierry Boutet,
Laura Downey Staneff,
Gretchen Guidess, Ginia Sweeney
Proofreader
David Brickman
Office Manager
Rob Conzett
Accounts Manager
Teresa Haskins
Printing
Snyder Printer, Troy, NY
Williamstown
Art Conservation Center
227 South Street
Williamstown, MA 01267
www.williamstownart.org
T: 413-458-5741
F: 413-458-2314
Atlanta
Art Conservation Center
6000 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30341
T: 404-733-4589
F: 678-547-1453
All rights reserved. Text and photographs
copyright © Williamstown Art Conservation
Center (WACC), unless otherwise noted.
Art Conservator is published twice yearly
by WACC, T‌homas J. Branchick, director.
Material may not be reproduced in any form
without written permission of Williamstown
Art Conservation Center. WACC is a
nonprofit, multi-service conservation center
serving the needs of member museums,
nonprofit institutions and laboratories, and
the general public.
3 Director’s Letter
4 The Golden Rule
Restoring the Norman Rockwell Mosaic at the United Nations
Timothy Cahill
8 Unburying the Past
Lenett Fellow traces the history of a forgotten man
Ginia Sweeney
12 The Push Pin Solution
Reframing a Chuck Close Polaroid self-portrait
16 WACC News & Notes
Following a unique paper trail at Yellowstone Park; an American neoclassical looking
glass; from Tehran to Hyde Park, an exquisite Persian carpet at FDR museum
18 Report from Atlanta
Undoing the heavy hand of a misbegotten makeover
Tierry Boutet
19
This summer’s exhibition of George Inness at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
afforded me the opportunity to prepare ten exquisite paintings by this American genius. I
was enlightened about what a master of magic and mystery Inness was with his delicate veils
of color. The show celebrates the gift of eight Innesses to the Clark by Frank and Katherine
Martucci. Mr. Martucci is a remarkable man; a self-made Wall Street executive and art
collector, he took a hiatus from finance to earn an master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham
University. The Martucci paintings join two enchanting Innesses already in the Clark
collection. It’s an amazing show of generosity and beauty that I encourage you to see.
Similarly, the companion exhibition at the Clark, Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History, allowed me to
treat Homer’s 1869 The Bridle Path, White Mountains, much to my satisfaction. I have longed for some years to clean
this canvas, which was badly discolored from old varnish. Having worked on other Homer masterpieces, I knew one
has to work slowly around his notorious glazes, but the reward is the reclamation of luminous highlights. I had goose
bumps recently when I saw the painting on a billboard announcing the exhibition. There was the woman riding
sidesaddle, with that line of light describing the contour of her horse’s mane and neck. Sheer genius in the handling
of paint! Another do-come-and-look.
WACC conservators regularly work on location, but this year we’ve had the opportunity to complete on-site
projects at two of America’s most prestigious institutions. It was a huge honor for the Center to perform treatments at
the United Nations and Yellowstone National Park, both of which are described in this issue.
Finally, hard to believe, but as of May we have been in our quarters at Stone Hill Center for five years. Time does
fly. We just completed a great fiscal year in June, and the workload continues to hum. Please continue to think of the
Center for your conservation needs, and thanks for all of your support.
—Tom Branchick
Tech Notes
Collection and preservation of oversized photographs
Laura Downey Staneff
On the cover
Objects conservator Hélène Gillette-Woodard inpaints a section
of the Norman Rockwell Mosaic at the United Nations.
2 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
From the Director
In June, the Williamstown Art Conservation Center celebrated its fifth year at Stone Hill Center with an afternoon
reception for the Friends of WACC and other well-wishers. After hearing presentations from conservators on
treatments at the United Nations and Yellowstone National Park, the group assembled on the terrace to enjoy the
view, the building, and the company. At right in this composite photo, WACC director Tom Branchick and former
trustees chair Bob McGill (seated) address the group, as current co-chair Carol Stegeman (in red) looks on.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 3
Cover Story
The Golden Rule
Restoring the Norman Rockwell
Mosaic at the United Nations
By Timothy Cahill
S
ince its arrival at the United Nations in 1985, the
Norman Rockwell Mosaic has been an icon of the
organization’s New York headquarters. Rockwell’s
depiction of the Golden Rule was a favorite of visitors, staff
members, and diplomats alike until 2009, when it was removed
from view in advance of construction. At that time, it was
discovered that the half-ton artwork contained large cracks
that threatened its integrity. The famed mosaic was crated and
placed in storage until earlier this year, when the Williamstown
Art Conservation Center arrived to stabilize and restore it.
How chief objects conservator Hélène Gillette-Woodard and
her team came to be working on the project is a story in itself. Some
two years earlier, through the recommendation of Laurie Norton
Moffatt, Director/CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum in
Stockbridge, Mass., Ambassador (Ret.) Joseph H. Melrose had
contacted WACC to enlist the Center’s aid. Ambassador Melrose
serves as Acting US Representative for Management and Reform at
the United States Mission to the UN; the mosaic, commissioned by
Nancy Reagan as a gift of the American people, is of special interest
of the US delegation. WACC was contacted not only regarding the
repairs, but also to help secure the funds necessary to pay for them.
The request came amid a historic $2.1 billion renovation
at the United Nations, during which nearly every aspect of
the High Modernist complex is being renewed, restored,
updated, and upgraded. None of those funds were earmarked
for the art collection, however, which is not formally owned
or controlled by the UN. Nearly all the art at the UN has
been presented as a gift of the member countries, which retain
rights and responsibilities to the work. While the UN oversees
the artworks in its possession, it does not manage them as a
collection per se, with the personnel, budget, and facilities such
stewardship would imply.
It is not unusual for WACC to help an organization raise
funds for a treatment or project, but the United Nations is by
On location at the United Nations, objects conservator Hélène
Gillette-Woodard puts finishing touches on the Golden Rule
mosaic, based on a painting by Norman Rockwell.
4 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 5
Detail of losses to the glass tiles, or tesserae, before treatement.
far the most prestigious partner the Center has worked with.
Director Tom Branchick approached the Stockman Family
Foundation, a longtime supporter of WACC, which expressed
its enthusiasm for the project and agreed to fund the work.
Because the mosaic was boxed and stored, budgets and
timelines were drawn up last year without the aid of visual
inspection, based only on existing reports. Work was scheduled
to begin in early January but, in October, Hurricane Sandy
lashed New York, wreaking havoc at the UN and imposing
delays on WACC. Treatment began in late February.
Gillette-Woodard’s first sighting was not of the ten-bynine-foot artwork itself, but the wooden crate that surrounded
it. Work was done on location at the UN, which provided a
makeshift studio in a one-time hospitality bar on the third
floor of the General Assembly building, the last building to
be renovated. The UN is a model of modern architecture,
with clean exterior lines and often low-ceilinged interior
passageways. In its transfer from storage, the behemoth crate
only cleared the ceiling by inches in places, and sometimes less.
At one juncture, the art was taller than the hallway, requiring
workers to nick away part of the ceiling.
Even surrounded by the chaos and dust of a construction
site, and transformed into a workroom with worktable,
stepladders, and a low scaffold, the hospitality bar-cumconservation-lab retained an essence of mid-century éclat.
Dominated at one end by a sleek, mirrored bar, the room
was filled with light from two floor-to-ceiling glass walls.
6 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
mortar repair recommended leveling the back with a
water-based mortar That requires twenty eight days to
cure, time the schedule did not permit. As an alternative,
Gillette-Woodard used a specialized, quick-drying
structural epoxy. This presented new challenges. Epoxy is
not designed for use over an area some ninety feet square.
When used in large quantities, the exothermic properties
of the epoxy mixture can build up heat enough to
explode. Before going ahead, Gillette-Woodard consulted
with two experts in the use of structural adhesives,
including the chemist who had developed the epoxy she
planned to use. Over the course of the treatment, she
became on a first-name basis with both men.
The answer was to work in small batches, no more
than four cups of mixture at a time, enough to cover a
single square foot. Gillette-Woodard supervised a team of
WACC conservators and technicians in completing the
work. Once leveled, the conservators secured the back
with a rigid, honeycombed-aluminum panel that will not
flex or bow.
The time had come to flip the mosaic image-side up.
Gillette-Woodard acknowledges a measure of anxiety
as workers used a pair of large hoists to turn the work.
The face was covered in two layers of protective material,
an eighth of an inch of vulcanizing silicone over a layer
of Japanese tissue. As the facing tissue was removed,
Gillette-Woodard beheld the faces of Rockwell’s creation.
“That was the first time I got to see the mosaic,” she
said. “We were two months into the project.”
In contrast to the damage on the back of the work,
the front was in generally sound shape. Some tesserae
were missing, which Gillette-Woodard replaced with
replacement glass tiles, and some minimal inpainting was
required.
Gillette-Woodard said the most dramatic visual
change to the image came from stripping it of “thirty
years of dirt and grime” that “could have had nicotine in
it too. It was a very yellowy black.”
“Everybody from the UN who came in to see the piece
while I was cleaning it was astounded at the difference,”
she said. “But it had just been covered with a heavy layer
of black dirt. It was quite a regeneration of the piece.”
During the course of the work, she could not help but
admire the beauty of the surface she was treating.
“The surface of the mosaic is actually very rippled. It
continued on page 18
Norman Rockwell Museum/©SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN
One looked out onto a broad staircase decorated with a large
tapestry; the other surveyed the plaza entrance of the UN’s
thirty-nine story Secretariat building and views south of
Manhattan and the East River.
Work began with the mosaic face down. In 2009, a
conservation group observed that the artwork was cracked
in several places; their initial inspection speculated that the
plywood backing had moved due to changes in humidity,
causing the damage. The back of the piece had to be
completely stabilized to prevent further cracking.
The mosaic had been constructed in a series of layers. An
Italian mosaic collective, Co-op Mosaico Artistico Veneziano,
created the image layer, reproducing and enlarging Rockwell’s
original oil painting with thousands of colored glass tiles
called tesserae. The tesserae are secured to a mesh matrix, and
it was in this form, as an arrangement of glass tiles supported
on cloth, that the work was shipped to the US. Here, it was
pressed in a bed of mortar mounted on a backing of plywood
with a metal support frame. Once the mortar hardened, the
cloth mesh was removed.
The first step in the treatment was freeing the mosaic from
the metal and plywood backing to examine the mortar. As the
plywood was removed, it became clear that cracks throughout
the work corresponded with the presence of angle irons on the
metal frame that were embedded in the mortar layer. These
irons, and not just the plywood, had caused the chief damage
to the mosaic.
“Not only was the wood acting against the artwork, causing
movement, but actually the metal frame itself was flexing and
causing damage,” Gillette-Woodard concluded. “The whole
backing support was responsible for the cracking.”
Six major fissures ran through the mosaic, threatening
to separate it horizontally and vertically. Gillette-Woodard
injected adhesive to stabilize the cracks and tesserae, then set
about replacing the backing.
Rather than presenting a flat surface, the mortar bed was
scalloped in peaks and valleys. The plywood backing had
warped from the moisture of the wet mortar, and the mortar
followed the warp as it dried. From end to end, the back
was some one-and-a-half inches out of plane. A new backing
panel would require a level surface, of course. The leveling
process required far more than Gillette-Woodard could have
anticipated ahead of time.
Though the start of the treatment had been delayed by
two months, its finish date was unmovable as renovations on
the General Assembly building progressed. The extent of the
Norman Rockwell, Golden Rule, 1961
The Origins of Rockwell’s Painting
“Every so often I try to paint the big picture, something serious
and colossal that will change the world, save mankind,” confessed
Norman Rockwell in My Adventures as an Illustrator, his 1960
autobiography. “But my worst enemy is the world-shaking idea. . . .
I just can’t handle world-shattering subjects.”
So it seemed to the artist as he surveyed his attempt to express in
a painting his abiding faith in the United Nations. The year was 1953,
less than a decade after the end of World War II and subsequent
ratification of the UN charter. “I sincerely wanted to do a picture that
would help the world out of the mess it’s in,” Rockwell wrote. “And as
it seemed to me that the United Nations was our only hope . . .
I decided to do a picture of a scene at the UN.”
Rockwell first imagined an image very much in keeping with the
anecdote allegories he is famous for, a cleaning man alone in the
Security Council following a day’s session, watched as he goes about
his tasks by the spirit of a Great Man (in the autobiography, it’s Jesus
or Lincoln). Abandoning that, he settled on a multiple portrait of key
members of the Security Council, watched by the peoples of the world.
As America’s most popular artist, and representative of one of
the most successful magazines, The Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell
had unprecedented access to the celebrated and powerful of his
day. He photographed the diplomats, American Henry Cabot Lodge,
Jr., Englishman Gladwyn Jebb, and Soviet Valerian Zorin, in situ in
the Security Council chamber. Today, we may be struck by the white
male hegemony of the figures, but then they would have represented,
above all, the allied powers that had prevailed in WWII.
Rockwell returned to his Arlington, Vt. studio, where he
photographed, he estimated, some “thirty or forty” models for the
continued on page 18
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 7
Feature
Unburying the Past
Lenett Fellow traces the history of a forgotten man
By Ginia Sweeney
Each academic year, a second-year student at the Williams College/Clark Art Institute Graduate Program in the History of Art is
awarded the Judith M. Lenett Memorial Fellowship in Art Conservation by the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. The twosemester fellowship provides the student with the opportunity to research and conserve an American art object. This year’s Lenett Fellow,
Ginia Sweeney, worked on a long-forgotten nineteenth-century portrait from the collection of the Albany Institute of History & Art. She
was supervised by Thomas Branchick, WACC director and head of the paintings department. The project culminated in a public lecture
at the Clark, from which the article below has been adapted.
W
hen I first encountered the portrait of Edwin
Morgan, it was hanging in its cramped home
of many years: the compact storage area of the
Albany Institute of History & Art in Albany, New York.
Standing a foot and a half or so from the huge canvas, I craned
my neck to see it. Under the fluorescent overhead lighting,
8 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
its poor condition stood out above all else. It was a big,
dirty canvas, slack and warped in its stretcher. Underneath
those brown layers of grime, the subject was obscured but
decipherable: a distinguished man with an unmistakable air of
gravitas.
Edwin Denison Morgan. Born in 1811, his illustrious career
appearance. The discoloring and warping of the canvas were
included his making a fortune at a young age in a wholesale
grocery business, and serving as New York City Alderman, New clearly the results of maltreatment and the passage of time.
Without documentation, we can never know the true values of
York State Senator, Governor of New York, Major General in
the colors the artist used. Over the course of the project, we had
the Civil War, and United States Senator. He was a leader in
to make decisions about how thoroughly to clean the canvas
the Whig Party and later the first, and, to date, longest serving
and how to inpaint losses. The goal was to make the painting
chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was an
function as a cohesive whole.
active patron of the arts, and his own collection, which was
I hope and believe the result resembles the original intention
exhibited at the National Academy of Design after his death,
of the artist as much as possible. Through conservation,
included three Bouguereaus, a large genre painting by Jules
a previously unexhibitable
Breton, and an Asher B. Durand
painting, hidden in storage for
landscape. Morgan served as an
decades, is rendered once again
officer of the corporation of the
usable. The previous condition
Metropolitan Museum of Art in
drew attention primarily to the
the early 1870s.
material history of the object.
Yet despite his myriad
Now, in its newly conserved
accomplishments and
state, the portrait can serve as
contributions to our nation’s
a window into an important
history, Edwin Morgan is not
moment in New York and
a figure that looms large in
American history.
our collective memory. So as I
The artist has depicted his
worked at the Williamstown Art
subject in a distinguished pose.
Conservation Center to remove
He stands upright, his chest
the materials distorting Governor
puffed out, wearing a fine black
Morgan’s likeness, I sought
three-piece suit and bow tie.
also to perform a similar sort of
His body is turned towards
excavation on the history of an
the viewer at a three-quarters
illustrious man, and of a forgotten
angle. One hand, curled into
depiction of him. Time has
a loose fist, hangs at his side;
changed the physical properties of
the other is deliberately placed
the portrait, and also its meaning.
on a partially unfurled map of
When it was commissioned in
Asa Twitchell (attributed), Edwin Denison Morgan, c.1861,
the United States. The map sits
1861 by the Albany Common
after treatment. As Lenett Fellow, Ginia Sweeney (opposite)
atop a red-cloth covered table
Council as part of a series of
conserved and researched the long-forgotten painting.
with a large sword and stacked
portraits of New York governors,
books. Behind Morgan, a drapery hangs partially opened,
it had the precise purpose of representing civic power. Its years
revealing a campground of white tents pitched in receding rows
in storage have stripped away those layers of meaning, just as
to the horizon. Above the tents, small but unmistakable, an
they have added physical layers of damage.
American flag flutters in the wind. Much later, after cleaning
This is an object whose existence has been all but erased
and conserving the painting, I would consider the meaning of
from the historical record, even whose very authorship is
the pose and surroundings.
uncertain. Its sitter was an eminent man and his legacy leaves
As I started the treatment process, I realized I had a fear
him worthy of our respect and admiration. In spite of the
of touching the painting. Through my studies of art history,
eminence of its sitting, this painting has been relegated to the
all art objects had gained an impenetrable aura that caused
closet of American history and art history both.
them to exist in an exalted, intellectual realm beyond the
The conservation process itself raised philosophical
material. Conserving the portrait of Edwin Morgan forced me
questions, because we have no record of the painting’s original
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 9
to deal with the artwork on a directly material level. As Lenett
Fellow, of course, I not only had to touch the painting but use
solvents to clean it and even add my own inconspicuous paint
strokes to the surface. Each day presented a new worry that I
might irrevocably ruin the painting, despite Tom Branchick’s
assurances to the contrary. I soldiered forth with a great deal of
trepidation.
The original condition of the painting presented several
problems. The overall surface was discolored. The collar and
chest of the governor’s shirt, presumably originally white, were
tinted a dull shade of brown as if stained with mud. The area
of sky and land visible through the drawn curtains was also
covered with a smoggy residue
of grime and, we assumed,
discolored varnish.
I began by cleaning the
painting with an aqueous
solution and cotton swabs,
which removed a fair amount
of grime. The surface dirt gone,
we discovered the painting was
not coated with the more usual
yellowed varnish, but rather with
a discolored layer of shellac, a
hard resin related to lacquer,
made from the secretions of
insects. The shellac layer was
visible in a photograph under
ultraviolet light as a lightly
fluorescing coating applied
unevenly over the surface. Because of the haphazard
application, we inferred that the
shellac was added not by the
artist, but in a later restoration.
Removing it presented solubility
problems. It is difficult to remove
shellac without disturbing the
paint layer underneath, which in
the case of Morgan was applied
in thin, easily damaged glazes.
Proceeding gingerly at
first, I changed course in the
cleaning process, switching from a water-based surfactant to
a solvent. Luckily, the shellac lifted off without a problem.
The transformation was instantly noticeable. The sky and
mountains behind the curtain were blue, the tablecloth red; the
collar and front of Morgan’s shirt a gleaming white.
Once cleaning was complete, we turned attention to relining
the canvas, to reinforce the areas of brittleness and loss. The
relining process was fairly routine, but not for me, having never
taken part in such a process. One of the unexpected lessons
of the Lenett fellowship was the amount of time and physical
labor required in the conservation lab. Stretching the lining
canvas onto the wooden strainer proved a surprisingly taxing
undertaking. The physical labor put into the conservation
process only deepened my understanding of the Morgan
portrait on a material, as well as a symbolic, level. My final
technical work involved inpainting areas of lost pigment.
Here again, I felt twinges of anxiety. Much of the inpainting,
thankfully, was along the edges now covered by the frame.
Part of my task was to research authorship of the portrait,
which is unsigned. I began with almost nothing to go on; the
AIHA archive files contain only a single passing reference to the
painting in the minutes for the March 11, 1861 meeting of the
Common Council of the City of Albany. The Albany Institute
dates the picture to between 1861 and 1863, and based on the
date of the above citation, I surmised it was in the earlier half of
that range. Morgan’s term as governor ended in 1862 when he
was elected to the US Senate.
Unfortunately, there was no mention of an artist in
conjunction with the commission. The painting is generally
attributed to Asa Weston Twitchell (1820-1904), a self-taught
Albany artist, but such an attribution is tricky, as I was to
discover. In a 1943 letter inquiring about Twitchell, the thendirector of the Albany Institute wrote, “Some of his work is
very good. It is quite uneven, however.” This was precisely
the issue I faced in securing the attribution of the portrait of
Governor Morgan. The likeness of Morgan is less than perfect,
compared to other contemporary images of him. Yet Twitchell
was capable of quite convincing work. He had a deft hand and
sensitive touch, and according to one source was the leading
portraitist in Albany from 1849 through the end of the century.
He created other gubernatorial portraits commissioned by the
City of Albany, including Samuel Howell Lloyd and Dewitt
Clinton, as well as a fine early
painting of Herman Melville
dating to 1847.
In these, I found hints of the
same hand as the Morgan portrait.
Comparing the faces of all four
portraits revealed similar paint
handling. Morgan’s face is painted
more delicately than the rest of
the painting, with tiny, wispy
brushstrokes creating his hair
and features. The other portraits
have been executed with the
same attention to detail, minute
brushstrokes, and careful modeling
of the face.
Given the stylistic similarities
between the Morgan portrait and
Twitchell’s other work, as well
as the artist’s place as Albany’s
leading portrait painter at the time
In May, Sweeney delivered the Lenett Fellow lecture at the Clark Art Institute.
of the commission, I concluded
he is the most likely author. This
suggests Morgan’s rank of Major General in the Union Army,
attribution is by no means certain, however. Notwithstanding
while the cavalry tents gathered outside the window reference
the few stylistic characteristics, his work bears no utterly
the New York state troops he rallied to fight for the cause.
unique in either the Morgan painting or the others.
After a failed attempt to appease the South on the question
Portraiture is often said to have two purposes: first, to
of slavery, Morgan willingly aided the Union’s war effort. He
represent the appearance of the sitter, and second, to depict
first volunteered New York state troops to the Union Army
some inner essence of that person. In the second half of the
in February of 1861, before the war formally began. In April,
nineteenth century, photography gained in popularity and
he dispatched the first four regiments to Washington. As a
brought new possibilities in lifelike representation. In the
leader in the Republican Party, Governor Morgan was a strong
face of this technological development, the symbolic role of
and early supporter of President Lincoln. He quickly became
the painted portrait took on greater weight, as the paintings
known as the “War Governor,” the role he is seen in here.
operated as much as repositories of biography and character as
Now restored to its original luster, the portrait of Governor
physical appearance.
Morgan
takes on a new meaning. If the obsolescence of
The Twitchell portrait is a statement not so much on
the portrait led to its poor condition, its poor condition
Morgan’s appearance (there are paintings and photographs
that capture that more accurately), but about his authority and perpetuated that obsolescence. Despite several recent loan
requests, the Institute had been unable to lend or exhibit the
influence. The picture denotes Albany as the seat of power
painting. With the past century of neglect and maltreatment
for the State of New York, even as it references the pivotal
stripped away, the painting can begin its life again. No longer
moment in New York and United States history in 1861, as the
Civil War began. The painting’s iconography embodies a sense will it languish in storage, unseen and forgotten. The past
uncovered, it can now serve as an important relic of history.
of civic pride in Morgan’s leadership. The sword on the table
Rows of Union Army tents behind Morgan evoke his efforts as New York
governor during the Civil War. Top, ultraviolet photography revealed the
presence of a shellac coating discoloring the paint surface.
10 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 11
Feature
The Push Pin Solution
Reframing a Chuck Close Polaroid self-portrait
A
Chuck Close, 5C (Self-portrait), 1979. Right,
detail of top middle section, showing color
shift where the prints overlapped.
12 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
twenty-four-by-twenty inch photographic print was
still a bit of a wonder in 1976, and a color photo that
size produced instantly a small miracle. That’s what the
Polaroid Corporation achieved that year when it began production
of instant film in those dimensions, and fabricated the massive
cameras to hold it. The technologic marvel was a novelty of sorts,
created to help promote Polaroid’s new large format (eight-by-ten
inch) peel-apart film to the consumer market. Polaroid invited
several of the greatest artists of the day, from Robert Rauschenberg
to Andy Warhol, to produce images with the large camera. The list
included painter Chuck Close, whose massive
photorealist portraits had revitalized the
genre in the 1970s. Since then, no artist has
become more closely associated with the large
Polaroid than Close.
For decades, Polaroid owned many
of these one-of-a-kind artist’s images,
produced in the “20 x 24 Studio,” the
common name given to the rooms in
various cities where one of the large cameras
was installed. The company traveled
the photographs to museums across the
country, but when the digital age caused
the end of mass instant photography (and
Polaroid Corp.), the Polaroid Collection
was dispersed at auction in 2010. Among
the images that became available was Close’s 1979 5C (Selfportrait), purchased by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at
Vassar College.
To celebrate the new acquisition, as well as the bygone era of
instant photography, the Loeb mounted the exhibition The Polaroid
Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation from April 12 through
June 30, 2013. In preparation for the exhibition, the museum sent the
Close photograph to the Williamstown Art Conservation Center’s
Department of Paper and Photography. It was treated by Laura
Downey Staneff, herself a new acquisition for WACC, having joined
the Center as photography conservator in January.
The nearly five-foot-square work is made up of five oversized
Polaroids, overlapped to create a continuous image and held in
place by thirteen push pins, many penetrating more than one
print. Each of the five prints isolates a different close-up feature of
the artist’s face, emphasizing the astounding detail obtained by the
large camera. Common elements take on an alien presence. Small
wrinkles evoke river deltas, facial hairs are adamant as cactus
quills. The intimacy is disquieting and thrilling.
The photo arrived framed in an unfinished, low-profile wood
molding. The back of the frame and mount carried a number
of exhibition and gallery labels, including a recent one from
Sotheby’s; another from 1999, from the widely traveled exhibition
Innovation/Imagination: 50 Years of Polaroid Photography; and
a third label, partly in Dutch or German, connected to a 1989
exhibition originating at the University of Delaware. Despite
thirty-five years on the road (sometimes
without the protection of glazing), on
inspection the photograph “looked pretty
good,” said Downey Staneff.
She began by drawing a template of the
print and pin replacement on Mylar for use
in reassembly, only to find, when the pins
were removed, such a guide would hardly be
required. A dramatic color-shift was evident
everywhere the photographs had overlapped.
The part of each print protected from the light
had discolored to a brownish yellow that showed
dramatically in the skin tones. A reaction,
caused by light, air, or chemistry, of one of the
image layers or the fixative coating likely caused
the shift. For Downey Staneff, it meant treating
the work was simpler than anticipated, as the five pieces went back
together easily with the discolored edges as guides.
Treatment included mending where print layers had
delaminated or cracked, and light surface cleaning of grime,
fingerprints and staining that may have been red wine. More
complicated was the task of how to remount and frame the work
for exhibition. After considering linen tape, it was decided to
retain the solution of common push pins. This retained the work’s
original, low-tech ethos, and proved surprisingly effective. In
addition to securing the print to the new, laminated mount, the
pins serve an additional function as auxiliary spacers between the
artwork and the non-reflective, museum-grade acrylic glazing. A
new frame of black aluminum completed the treatment.
Laura Downey Staneff discusses problems and solutions of framing
and storing oversized photographs in Tech Notes, p. 19.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 13
WACC News & Notes
Preserving a Unique Paper Trail in Yellowstone Park
T
he opportunity for a team of Berkshire-based paper
promised to stabilize the ten-by-fifteen-foot room in a single
yet remains soluble in water, allowing the work to be reversed if
conservators to work at Yellowstone National Park arose
week. In May, WACC’s full staff of three paper conservators,
necessary. The EVA also offered elasticity when dried, so that it
suddenly when the federal budget sequestration froze travel
Leslie Paisley, Rebecca Johnston, and Laura Downey Staneff,
would remain pliable as the walls move with changes in humidity
or vibrations.
expenses for government conservators in March. One of countless
flew west, where they picked up a pre-shipped bin of tools
projects threatened by the budget cuts was Yellowstone’s plan
and supplies, everything they might need for the treatment.
to conserve the so-called “Million Dollar Room,” located in the
There are no conservation suppliers within hundreds of miles of
Each piece required varying amounts of attention. Some were
Lower Hamilton General Store, within sight of the Old Faithful
northwestern Wyoming.
partially detached from the wall and in danger of being damaged,
geyser. As Plan B, the park put out bids to non-government
The checks are hung floor to ceiling in measured alternating
Treatment proceeded area by area and check by check.
while others were intact and required only small repairs. The
conservation firms whose travel and work could be paid directly
rows like brickwork. Issued by the National Park Bank, they
conservators worked on “seventy-five to eighty percent” of the
by the Yellowstone Park Foundation, the nonprofit partner funding
contain a prominent oval-shaped logo depicting Old Faithful.
uncounted hundreds of checks. “There were very few sections
the conservation.
The dark logo creates an overall pattern broadly resembling
where we didn’t do something,” said Leslie Paisley, chief paper
houndstooth. The effect was largely intact even before treatment,
conservator. In addition to the checks on the wall, there were
owner of the general store from 1915 until his death in 1957.
but the individual checks showed signs of age that threatened
check fragments saved over the years. Rebecca Johnston
Hamilton papered the office walls with the store’s cancelled
the display’s integrity. Some were peeling or lifting, others were
sleuthed the locations of the larger check pieces and reattached
checks, leaving a trail of business transactions that eventually
torn or had missing pieces, and some had been cut, abraded, or
them in place.
covered the entire room. The room, like the store building it is in,
otherwise damaged. Push pins, nails, cellophane tape, and paint-
is part of Yellowstone’s rich legacy.
spatters also marred the surface.
The Million Dollar Room was the office of Charles Hamilton,
The Williamstown Art Conservation Center’s successful bid
The “wallpaper” contained a wealth of other visual elements,
An American Neoclassical
Looking Glass
To relieve the strain of extended work at close quarters, the
team took lunchtime and after-hour sightseeing forays into the
park, observing the wildlife, geology and other natural wonders.
including handwritten dates and inscriptions, signatures, red bank
“Geyser gazing” from the deck of the Old Faithful Inn, a short
Furniture and frames chief conservator Hugh Glover applies red clay bole to
stamps, and perforations of cancellation, all of which needed to
walk from the job site, was a highlight. Of about a thousand
replacement beads on the crest of an American looking glass, in preparation
be preserved. Most checks had been applied directly to cellulose
geysers estimated to exist worldwide, half are in Yellowstone.
for gilding. The maker of the spruce, pine, and basswood mirror is unknown,
wallboard, though in some cases they were overlapping.
Treatment began by surface cleaning the checks with soft
With completion of the stabilization phase, larger preservation
concerns for the Million Dollar Room remain. These include
brushes and dry chemical sponges. Swabs moistened with
checks heavily damaged over the years and large exposed gaps
acetone removed accretions and stains. Once cleaned, the team
between the wallboard panels. A complete restoration could also
began the meticulous process of stabilizing and re-adhering
involve filling losses with toned paper to unify the room visually.
the checks to the wall. A variety of adhesives were considered.
The conservators and park officials also discussed the viability of
Aqueous-based methylcellulose and wheat starch paste both
removing the room’s walls entirely, for reinstallation in a museum.
presented the possibility of bleed-through or other moisture-
The conservators advised against such a move, which would
related effects on the paper. The team consensus was EVA,
require cutting the checks to remove the wallboard. The damage
ethylene-vinyl acetate, a co-polymer adhesive that dries clear
and loss of historic integrity would be unacceptable. The final
possibly from Albany or New York. Owned by Historic Deerfield, the glass
dates to 1800-1810, the height of neoclassicism, the ornate aesthetic that
melded classical and indigenous motifs. Among the carved details are fluted
columns, acanthus leaves, a flower basket, urns, a laurel wreath, and wheat
stalks, crowned with an eagle bearing a double row of beads. The frame is
finished with water gilt gold leaf. Treatment included removal of later overgilding, securing loose parts, and replacement of missing features.
phase of the project, using WACC conservator’s specifications,
will be to install a protective acrylic barrier.
The park service staff, as well as the seasonal employees
at the general store, expressed heartfelt appreciation for the
conservation. As the week began, it was clear that the room’s
deterioration and neglect had really pained people. They knew
irreversible damage was occurring but didn’t know how to
protect the room. Their joy and amazement at the results made
this project especially rewarding and memorable.
Charles Hamilton in the “Million Dollar Room” at Yellowstone
National Park. Far left, a WACC conservator applies adhesive to
one of the cancelled checks Hamilton used to paper the office
walls of his General Store, in sight of Old Faithful.
14 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 15
Report from Atlanta
WACC News & Notes
From Tehran to Hyde Park, an exquisite Persian carpet at FDR Museum
D
uring the Tehran Conference of November 1943, President
red swirls. The rectangular design space is framed with wide
Franklin D. Roosevelt received a large and beautiful Persian
borders around the perimeter of the rug that shows the fine knot
carpet as a gift from Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of
Iran. The monumental Isfahan rug, more than twenty-one-by-
count, fifty knots per inch, to great effect.
The velvety texture that Ms. Suckley noted in her diary is due
thirteen-feet, is the centerpiece of Roosevelt’s study at the FDR
to the fineness of the wool wefts that form the cut pile of the
Presidential Library & Museum, in Hyde Park, New York.
rug’s surface. The rug is woven with a thin denier cotton warp
Daisy Suckley (pronounced “sookley”), Roosevelt’s distant
and equally fine wool wefts that are wrapped and crossed around
cousin and an early archivist of the Library, suggested the rug’s
every other warp. The high knot count and delicacy of the warp
placement in the study. She wrote in her diary on May 23, 1944,
and weft yarns contribute to the beautiful rendering of even the
that the rug had “…every possible colour & harmonizes with
smallest motifs in the rug pattern. Along the border, a series
everything.” It is likely that the rug was installed on the floor
of four-inch motifs appear as complete as individual rugs. The
that day, as she also noted that it “…feels like velvet.” The rug
curved lines flow as smooth and round in miniature as they do on
designer Imami created this Isfahan rug with an off-white ground
the monumental center. On rugs woven with coarser yarns, the
and central oval medallion surrounded with undulating blue and
edges of the small motif designs often take on a jagged, checked
appearance similar to digital pixelation.
Equally impressive is the finish used on the five-inch fringe.
Formed from the warp ends, the warp yarns were divided into
top and bottom layers. In the top layer, the yarns were gathered
into groups of twelve and twisted together. In the bottom layer
each warp yarn was over twisted so that their length shortened
to about three inches and appear corkscrewed. To ‘lock’ the
twisting in place, the bottom of each yarn was tied to its left
neighbor. Finally the two layers were integrated by pulling the
gathered and twisted five-inch top layer through the corkscrewshortened bottom layer. This created a finished fringe that is just
as ornate as the other components of the rug. It is no surprise
that Ms. Suckley reported that the rug of this size, complexity,
and fineness took nearly ten years to produce.
With funding from the federal Save America’s Treasures
program, the rug was sent to WACC for preservation assessment
and treatment as part of the wider preservation and rehabilitation
of some of the interiors in the FDR Library. The rug has fared
extremely well. Treatment was minimal, consisting of vacuuming
the front and back and realigning more than twenty-six feet of
fringe—a monumental task. For final installation, the rug was
rolled out on a rug pad made from inert materials specified and
constructed by WACC. Comparing the unexposed back of the
Undoing the Heavy Hand of a Misbegotten Makeover
“
T
en years ago a misbegotten
delivered the painting to the Atlanta
painting remained. Grime removal
restorer painted the hell
Art Conservation Center in hopes
was followed by varnish removal,
rug to the front demonstrates that the rug has had little to no
out of this thing!” Such was the
it could be reclaimed. Inspection
then overpaint removal. Original
noticeable fading of its colors, owing to careful stewardship by
colorful finding of the curator of
confirmed the portrait (above, left)
varnish was discovered beneath the
the Library. It retains all the color complexity that Ms. Suckley
the Columbia (South Carolina)
had been over-cleaned, over-filled,
overpaint and this too was removed,
described in 1944.
Museum of Art in the 1950s, when
over-painted, and over-varnished.
revealing a fairly intact likeness
the owner of this unsigned mid-
It was decided to completely undo
(center). Filling the areas of loss and
nineteenth-century portrait brought
the earlier “makeover,” a leap
inpainting returned great-great-
it for inspection. Recently, the family
of faith of sorts, as AACC chief
great-aunt Lucinda to her rightful
of the pictured woman, known
conservator Larry Shutts and I could
glory.
affectionately as “Aunt Lucinda,”
not be sure how much of the original
—Gretchen Guidess
Assistant Conservator for Objects & Textiles
Historic photo of the Persian carpet in FDR’s study. Below, after
seventy years, the brilliant colors and fine fringe remain intact.
—Thierry Boutet
Study courtesy FDR Presidential Librar y & Museum
16 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 17
Tech Notes, Summer 2013
WACC Staff
T‌homas Branchick
Director; Conservator of
Paintings/Dept. Head
Rockwell Mosaic continued from page 8
Thierry Boutet
Assistant Conservator of
Paintings/Atlanta
Nate Brulé
Office Assistant/ Technician
Origins continued from page 8
John Conzett
Office Manager
multitudes in the background. “I spent at least
drawing, he transmuted a passage of the New
Laura Downey Staneff
Associate Conservator of Paper
and Photography
a month taking the photographs. And I spent
Testament into a universal moral code.
drawing, doing each of the more than seventy
as you would have them do unto you,” is in
Kristan Goolsby
Office Assistant/Atlanta
figures in detail.”
fact ageless. Throughout written history,
Hélène Gillette-Woodard
Conservator of Objects/Dept.
Head
and-three-quarters-inch drawing, however,
the primacy of what philosophers call the
Rockwell lost faith. “Maybe I was getting in
“ethic of reciprocity,” the idea that our
Hugh Glover
Conservator of Furniture and
Wood Objects/Dept. Head
beyond my depth,” he agonized. “Perhaps
relationship to others should mirror our
it was too ambitious. I turned the charcoal
desires for their relationship with us. Rockwell
to the wall. I couldn’t stand to look at it any
embodied such conduct in all his art, and
more.” He never returned to it, at least not in
nowhere more powerfully than in his painting
that form, and at the time of his autobiography
of the precept itself.
Mary Catherine Betz
Associate Conservator of
Paintings
Gretchen Guidess
Assistant Conservator for Objects
& Textiles
another month on the preliminary charcoal
Upon completing the seven-by-fifteen-
considered it among his supreme failures. He
By Laura Downey Staneff
Associate Conservator of Paper and Photographs
Overview
The wisdom of Jesus, to “do unto others
civilizations around the globe have affirmed
In his initial “failure,” Rockwell planted
the seeds for a truly “serious picture” with a
Matthew Hamilton
Photography Technician
tells the story in a chapter titled, “Flops!”
Teresa Haskins
Accounts Manager
Rockwell’s preliminary effort was not his
course, is that the mosaic of faces, races, and
depiction of the UN. It was in the common
creeds he created with his painting became
Rebecca Johnston
Conservator of Paper
humanity the organization represents,
an iconic mosaic for the place he wanted
eloquently expressed by the men, women,
originally to celebrate, the United Nations.
Henry Klein
Conservation Technician
and children who occupy the background.
Alone, his image may not “save mankind,” but
In 1961, the message was requited in one
it points the way.
Montserrat Le Mense
Conservator of Paintings
of Rockwell’s best know Post covers, The
As the world now knows, the genius of
Collection And Preservation Of Oversized
Photographs
mosaic is too heavy to be hung directly on a
wall. It will be mounted on a small plinth,
allowing the weight to be borne by the
floor, and secured to the wall. The Rockwell
Mosaic will be unveiled later this summer
in an annex of the Secretariat Building,
returning an icon to public view.
has a morphology all it’s own,” she noted.
“That’s partially because of the way it was
pressed into the mortar, and also because the
tesserae are different thicknesses. That gives
a textural quality that creates a sparkle to
the surface, as the glass pieces each catch the
light differently.”
At some twelve hundred pounds, the
“world-shaking idea.” The triumphant irony, of
—Timothy Cahill
Golden Rule. Using portraits from the earlier
Nor man Rock well Museum /©Nor man Rock well Famil y Agenc y
Leslie Paisley
Conservator of Paper/Dept. Head
Christine Puza
Assistant Conservator of Furniture
and Wood Objects
Michelle Savant
Associate Conservator of
Objects/Atlanta
Larry Shutts
Associate Conservator of
Paintings/Atlanta
Sandra L. Webber
Conservator of Paintings
18 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
Norman Rockwell’s preliminary charcoal sketch for the unfinished UN painting, 1953.
The past twenty-five years has seen a marked increase in oversized contemporary
photographs of both traditional and digital processes. “Oversized,” in this case, refers to
prints larger than the traditional “large” size of twenty-by-twenty-four inches. With digital
technology, moreover, it is no longer unusual for prints to be six feet or larger in one or both
dimensions. This technical bulletin is an overview of some of the many challenges presented
by these works regarding use, access, and storage. Oversized photographs demand those
involved with their care to adjust expectations for what is necessary and possible, with an
understanding that these large prints are extremely delicate. Once damage has occurred
it often cannot be remediated. All staff members involved in collections care, including
curators, registrars, art handlers, and others, need to understand that, with oversized works,
everything is likely to take longer and be more expensive than traditional photographic
holdings.
It is not unique to photographs that the larger size means larger problems. It is also
widely understood that contemporary digital prints can be even more sensitive to damage
from light, humidity, and chemical contaminants than traditional photographic processes.
Oversized photographs, however, have the additional challenge of extreme physical delicacy,
especially if they have not been mounted to a firm support. The layers of paper, gelatin,
plastic and other materials in their composition are extremely vulnerable to handling dents
and other small but significant damages. This is a problem for photographs of any size, but
especially so when the print is large and difficult to handle without uncontrolled flexing of
the print. To compound the problem further, the aesthetics of contemporary art tend to
demand a pristine surface, without blemish and kept extremely smooth. More and more
frequently, that ideal becomes impossible to meet.
Along with the larger size of these photographs comes greater weight: larger prints need
larger mats, larger frames, larger glazing, etc. More people are needed to move the framed
artwork, more space is needed in the storage room, extra time is required to do the simplest
of chores such as moving the piece into a print study room for a viewing, and extra attention
devoted to wrapping for shipment if the work goes out on loan. Naturally, there is also
greater expense and difficulty in shipping such works.
Challenges of new materials
The conservator setting out to treat oversized contemporary photographs—or even just to
hinge one for an exhibition—has several additional challenges related to the sensitivity and
vulnerability of some of the new materials. Time-tested aqueous adhesives such as gelatin,
methylcellulose, or wheat starch paste simply will not adhere to the glossy resin-coated
papers used in most color processes, including many digital prints. Non-aqueous methods
usually involve either heat or solvents, both of which can present problems for the prints.
Meanwhile, some of the limited-moisture acrylic emulsions that are used elsewhere in
conservation have been found not to pass the Photographic Activity Test.1 They may still be
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 19
Tech Notes, Summer 2013
At top. the author prepares
lining strips of synthetic
fabric for edge mounting.
Above, an oversized
photograph and lightweight
honeycomb panel. The panel
has an aluminum skin, sealed
poplar frame, and aluminum
honeycomb core.
useful for inkjet prints, which do not involve photographic chemistry.
It is extremely difficult to find out what will be harmful to these new processes and what will not.
Useful testing data is scarce, and what tests have been done tend to have been commissioned by the
companies that manufacture the materials and are not published.
Furthermore, there is a high level of variability within the new
materials. Some are so sensitive to humidity that applying any
moisture may cause fading. Others may react to a component
in the adhesive, or may fade simply because they were printed
on the wrong kind of paper. Meanwhile, because most types of
color prints are known to fade with light exposure, and because
contemporary photographers often want to avoid glazing the
work so that it is more immediate to the viewer, sometimes
they have been faced with UV-absorbing films or laminates.
Unfortunately such laminates do not always adhere well to the
photographic surface, producing hazy “bubbles” or air pockets
that are visually distracting from the work as a whole.
For any of these problems it is usually virtually impossible
to test a treatment option locally because any poor results will
show. Even if you are fortunate enough to have an “study” print
that is ostensibly of the same materials, testing on these may be
inaccurate since the mock-up probably comes from a different
batch of paper or is a different age or has simply aged under
different conditions. The conservator has very little information
to work with and tends, with reason, to provide for the worst.
Sometimes, however, one must proceed toward some action even
when there seem to be no good solutions. Conservators are still
looking for the best avenues to recommend in dealing with these
contemporary prints.
In short, conservators and owners alike must adjust to the
needs of the works. For example, both the conservation ideal
of reversibility and strictures against overall mounting seem
impractical when brought up against the challenges of oversized
photographs. When these prints are left unmounted, they
quickly begin to show handling dents and other superficial
imperfections that become glaringly obvious when a pristine surface is expected. Furthermore, it
is very difficult to hinge these works flat to a mountboard—inevitably, one ends up with a rippled
surface. With this in mind, photograph conservators, including here at WACC, have resorted to
attaching strips of inert synthetic fabric along the entire perimeter of the photograph and wrapping
them around the back of a solid support such as a paper-faced aluminum honeycomb panel. Even this
solution poses problems, in that it is difficult to adjust the tension so that the print is truly flat. Of
course, the materials will continue to change dimension through fluctuations in relative humidity,
which can cause transient ripples or even an overall “pillowing” effect. It is also possible that adhesives
used in the process may not stand up to the test of time.
Techniques of mounting photographs
Photographers have mounted their photographs throughout history, often using inappropriate
materials. A remarkable number of these mounted photographs have survived, often in better
condition than their unmounted counterparts. Ansel Adams, in fact, insisted on mounting his prints
20 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
as the best way of preserving them; his method of choice was dry-mounting to museum-quality mat
board or, for oversized works, wet-mounting to heavy, oversized paperboard or fiber wallboard such as
Homosote, which is hardly archival material. His largest works have suffered somewhat, due to their
size and the lack of quality mounting materials available; nevertheless with good care and museum
environmental conditions they can be expected to last for decades to come.
Contemporary photographers also recognize that their work is easier to handle and better
preserved when it is mounted overall, though some have heeded conservators’ strictures against
overall mounting. As a group, these photographers have searched for alternatives to mat board as a
mounting surface. For one thing, the ability to print on large scale paper has outpaced the largest
available mat board dimensions; for another, even the smoothest paperboard produces a subtly
dimpled or eggshell appearance that does not suit the pristine aesthetic typical of contemporary
works. Richard Avedon was a pioneer in this regard; he mounted the life-size and larger prints for his
1985 In the American West exhibition on sheets of aluminum. Metal is a much smoother surface than
mat board, but considerably heavier, and can prove prohibitively expensive for many. More recently,
photographers have turned to plastic products such as Sintra (polyvinyl chloride sheet), but concerns
about the long-term stability of such materials have prompted a shift to cold-mounting on DiBond
(aluminum skin laminated to a polyethylene core), currently the mounting system of choice.
What follows are general guidelines for proceeding with the collection and preservation of
oversized contemporary photographic materials:
Storage
• Keep oversized works framed if possible. Heavy though the frame may be, the photograph is safer
during handling if in a frame. Watch out for unintended light exposure in the storage room.
• If a work can’t be kept framed, try to keep it flat. Oversized flat files are available; it is also possible
to sandwich large prints between layers of oversized mat board, corrugated cardboard, or Coroplast.
The layer closest to the artwork should be as smooth as possible, made of paper that passes the
Photographic Activity Test. The folder should be stiff enough to prevent creasing.
• If it won’t fit in flat storage, it must be rolled. Use a large-diameter, archival-quality tube that
is longer than the width of the photograph to avoid crumpling the edges. Interleave with a
smooth, high-quality paper, wider than the photograph, preferably in one continuous sheet. If the
photograph already has a tendency to curl, roll in that direction rather than against it. Store the roll
suspended at the ends so that the portion of the photograph at the bottom is not placed under the
weight of the whole roll.
• Try to use Optium Museum Acrylic™. This anti-static, non-reflective glazing is the best product
we’ve seen to protect the vulnerable surface of oversized photographs (and other artwork), while
giving an effect of immediacy comparable to viewing the artwork unglazed.
• Loose prints can’t be made perfectly flat. If it isn’t mounted overall, expect some distortions.
Handling
• Use as many people as you need. This almost always means two or more; sometimes as many as
four.
• Try to keep the print as flat as possible. Avoid creases and dents!
• Sandwich the print between stiffer material to turn it over. Even a stiff folder can do, but usually
mat board or clean cardboard is better.
• Make sure your workspace is big enough to handle the print safely. For very large works you may
need to use the gallery on a day when it is closed to the public.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 21
Members of the Consortium
General
Williamstown
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,
Roland Gibson Gallery, State
• Know what you have. Get as much information from the artist as you can about the materials used,
including details about what type of substrate or paper (manufacturer, model, batch number if
possible) and what type of printing.
Art Conservation Center
Cornell University
University of New York
• Use the Photographic Information Record. This is a free pdf available in several languages on
the website of the Photographic Materials Group of the American Institute for Conservation
(http://tinyurl.com/bhoaz6l). Quoting from the website, “The Photograph Information Record
(PIR) represents the effort by many colleagues to create an ‘international standard’ for an artist’s
questionnaire form.” • Try to establish the artist’s intent for mounting and presentation. We have heard of several
museums that are taking an active role, during the process of acquiring new contemporary work,
by requesting that galleries and/or photographers provide their prints already mounted. If for
some reason the photographer prefers not to mount the work, s/he must then specify the preferred
alternative for storage and presentation. Often artists in this situation have worked out specific
ways to care for their work that may also be the best solution within the museum. In other cases,
the institution may find that adjustments can be made to the recommended care in order to better
preserve the work within the museum environment.
• Establish a policy/protocol for mounting accessioned works. Some institutions will prefer not to be
responsible for mounting contemporary photographs at all, and with good reason. We suggest that
collections staff should at least discuss the question and have a policy about whether or not it can
be done. If the institution may sometimes choose to mount a photograph overall, there should be
a written protocol outlining the circumstances in which this may be done. The artist’s intent must
be taken into consideration. Only recently made and recently acquired prints should be considered
for mounting (but how recent is an open question); and liability for mounting problems should be
established in case there is an accident and the print is damaged during the process.
1. The Photographic Activity Test, or PAT, is an international standard test (ISO18916) for evaluating photo-storage and display products.
Developed by the Image Permanence Institute, a nonprofit, university-based laboratory devoted to preservation research, this test explores
interactions between photographic images and the enclosures in which they are stored. The PAT is routinely used to test papers, adhesives,
inks, glass and framing components, sleeving materials, labels, photo albums, scrapbooking supplies and embellishments, as well as other
materials upon request.
227 South Street, Williamstown,
MA 01267
Hood Museum of Art,
Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy
—Andover, MA
Albany Institute of History & Art
—Albany, NY
Alice T. Miner Colonial Collection
—Chazy, NY
at Buffalo in 1994, majoring in paper conservation,
after completing her third-year internship at the Fine
Arts Museums of San Francisco. She worked for three
years as Assistant Paper Conservator at the Balboa
Art Conservation Center, a regional art conservation
center in San Diego. Laura participated in the Mellon
Collaborative Workshops in Photograph Conservation and
earned a second master’s degree in Art History (History
of Photography) at the University of Arizona, where she
served as Ansel Adams Intern at the Center for Creative
Photography. She was a Mellon Fellow in the first cycle
Dartmouth College
—Hanover, NH
T‌he Hyde Collection
—Glens Falls, NY
T‌he Lawrenceville School
—Lawrenceville, NJ
Mead Art Museum,
T‌he Arkell Museum
Amherst College
—Canajoharie, NY
—Amherst, MA
Arnot Art Museum
—Elmira, NY
Art Complex Museum
—Duxbury, MA
Bennington Museum
—Bennington, VT
Berkshire Museum
—Pittsfield, MA
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
—Brunswick, ME
Charles P. Russell Gallery,
Deerfield Academy
—Deerfield, MA
Memorial Art Gallery,
University of Rochester
—Rochester, NY
Middlebury College Museum of Art
—Middlebury, VT
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
—South Hadley, MA
Connecticut Historical Society
—Hartford, CT
T‌he Daura Gallery at Lynchburg
College
Book Art
—Amherst, MA
Farnesworth Art Museum
—Rockland, ME
Fort Ticonderoga
—Ticonderoga, NY
—Hartford, CT
Neuberger Museum,
—Purchase, NY
New Hampshire Historical Society
—Concord, NH
New York State Office of General
Services, Empire State Plaza Art
Collection
—Albany, NY
Norman Rockwell Museum at
Stockbridge
—Stockbridge, MA
Picker Art Gallery,
Colgate University
—Hamilton, NY
Portland Museum of Art
—Portland, ME
Preservation Society of Newport
Vassar College
County
—Poughkeepsie, NY
—Ogdensburg, NY
Gershon Benjamin Foundation,
—Clayton, GA
Smith College Museum of Art,
of our cultural heritage; to provide
—Northampton, MA
Springfield Library and Museums
examination, treatment, consultation
Association
and related conservation services
—Springfield, MA
for member institutions, and for
Sterling and Francine Clark Art
other nonprofit organizations,
Institute
corporations and individuals; to
—Williamstown, MA
Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L.K.
Morris Foundation
conduct educational programs with
respect to the care and conservation of works of art and objects of
—Lenox, MA
cultural interest; to participate in the
Union College
training of conservators; to promote
—Schenectady, NY
the importance of conservation
Vermont Historical Society
and increase the awareness of the
—Montpelier, VT
Williams College Museum of Art
—Williamstown, MA
issues pertinent to collections care;
and to conduct research and dis-
—Utica, NY
Museum of Connecticut History
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center,
Frederic Remington Art Museum
conserve and maintain the objects
seminate knowledge to advance the
Purchase College, State University
—Waterville, ME
nonprofit institution, is to protect,
—St. Johnsbury, VT
profession.
of New York
—Manchester, CT
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
‌he mission of the Williamstown
Art Conservation Center, a
Munson Williams Proctor Arts
Manchester Historical Society
Colby College Museum of Art
T
—Potsdam, NY
Institute
T‌he Cheney Homestead of the
Eric Carle Museum of Picture
Conservation Department at the State University College
Historic Deerfield, Inc.
—Deerfield, MA
—Lynchburg, VA
Laura Downey Staneff graduated from the Art
—Ithaca, NY
Mission Statement
Atlanta Art Conservation Center
6000 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30341
Alabama Historical Commission
—Montgomery, AL
Booth Western Art Museum
—Cartersville, GA
Brenau University
—Gainesville, GA
Columbia Museum of Art
—Columbia, SC
T‌he Columbus Museum
—Columbus, GA
High Museum of Art
—Atlanta, GA
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
—Montgomery, AL
Telfair Museum of Art
—Savannah, GA
—Newport, RI
Rhode Island School of Design
Museum of Art
—Providence, RI
T‌he Rockwell Museum of
Western Art
—Corning, NY
of the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph
Conservation at the George Eastman House.
22 | Art Conservator | Summer 2013
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 23
www . willia m s towna r t. o r g
Vi s it u s O nlin e :
C hang e S e r v i c e R e q u e st e d
W illia m s town , M A 0 1 2 6 7
2 2 7 Sout h St r e e t
W illia m s town A r t C on s e r v ation C e nt e r
art C ons e r v ator
p e r m it # 3 7 0
ALBANY NY
PA I D
U . S . P o s tag e
org.
N on - p r o f it