After a year of learning from Project MEAC, this project has come to a close. Unfortunately it ended in a rocky way due to COVID-19, and the end goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year is a little smudged. Throughout my time spent at the studio, I learned so many valuable skills, and built important connections.
At the very beginning of the year, I was undecided about how I would start my first year of Flex Friday. Luckily I quickly developed a strong interest in art conservation, leading me to immediately discover if there were any conservation studios nearby, that we're willing to take interns. Through emails and phone calls I was able to officially book myself for work, every Thursday afternoon after school. Spending hours at the studio, observing, taking notes, I often wouldn't make it home until late.
However, interning on Thursday afternoon left my Friday schedule completely free. Decided it wasn't enough to simply do the internship, I began researching everything I could about art conservation. The three pillars I focused on were the science, history, and the theory of art restoration. I was able to focus my research through the book "Installation Art and the Museum, Presentation, and Conservation of Changing Artworks." Written by Vivian Van Saaze Although installation art is a very different medium from fine art, the book spends a good portion discussing the conservation of fine artworks.
Through this book I studied the theory of conservation, focusing on important names in the industry such as Caple, Conti, Lewenthal, Muñoz Viñas, John Ruskin, and Violet-Le-Duc, whose impact strongly helped mold the restoration industry to what it is today, as each carried strong opinions on how art conservation should be practiced.
In Lewenthal's books, Our Past Before Us: Why do we save it? and The Past as a Foreign Country were arguably the first books to systematically describe the changing attitudes towards paintings from the past. These books gave birth to the principle that everything a conservator touches must be reversible and done with minimal intervention.
John Ruskin and Violet-Le-Duc are widely considered to be the first conservation theorists. Ruskin arguing artifact from the past must not be touched, arguing strongly against repairing old artifacts. As the damages and changes inflicted upon a canvas where was the very thing that kept them authentic. However, Violet-Le-Duc claimed the exact opposite. He claimed that restoration was the only thing that kept these old artifacts alive and authentic. the two were on opposite sides of extremism. As today, conservation is wildly accepted at a necessity and practiced by millions. Yet Violet-Le-Duc's most notable restoration work, like the Notre Dame and the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne, is criticized as too free, too artistic, and too interpretive.
The history of fine art conservation is complex and diffuse. Fine art conservation as we know it is a relativity young discipline. Before the traditional field of conservation came into being, the restoration processes was predominantly the domain of artists and craftsman. Nevertheless the work done by artists and craftsmen can be classified as simple cleaning, rather than true conservation work.
Casari Brandi led the Istituto Centrale del Restaayro in Rome from 1939 to 1961. He can be credited for the introduction of many factors generally neglected by conservators of that time, such as treating the paintings aesthetic value of upmost importance. As well as methodizing the concept of reversibility in restoration.
The science of conservation is a tough subject to tackle. So much of conservation and been adapted and been modified with advancements in technology, and science. Now, conservators are required to have both a masters in chemistry and art history. As so much of a conservator's work is identifying how different solvents and chemicals will affect the paint and canvas. The relationship between science and restoration works notably pivoted after world war II. The emerging natural science ('techno-scientific') approach started to clash with the traditional artisanship ('historico-humanist') approach. In the nineteenth century, there was a developing collaboration between the fields of art and science. Museums created conservation departments and analytical laboratories, thereby laying the foundations of professional lab-based art conservation and establishing a connection between restoration and science which persists in today's art conservation theory and practice. The creation of instruments for elemental analysis and examination (such as x-radiography and SEM analysis) has lead to increasing possibilities of technical examination. The rise of what could be referred to as 'new scientific conservation' set the grounds of present-day professional conservation values.
The time I spent working on this project this past year has truly been so much fun. I was able to learn so many new things about a subject I am passionate about, so much so that I hope to pursue this is a career. I plan to continue my internship in the years to come and grow my experiences with Project MEAC. I'm a little sad and not quite ready to let this project go, but it was still worth every second. YAY THATS IT<3