Art conservation blends creative and scientific
Erica Schuler isn’t always in a creative mood, but when she is she will come home from work and immediately begin carving pieces of glass into various shapes. On those days, dusty end tables and dirty laundry will have to wait.
Schuler needs those moments crafting stained glass to balance two sides of herself: the freewheeling, creative artist and the organized, logical pragmatist.
Weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Schuler usually is at The Indianapolis Museum of Art surrounded by paintings. But it is the pragmatist who holds court. Schuler is an art conservator.
Conservators preserve artwork. They make sure paintings or sculptures will last as long as possible. They examine, clean and restore. Through the dueling disciplines of science and art, conservation allows art to be enjoyed by generations.
A conservator’s job starts with an artwork. Before she sets to work, however, she needs to understand what the piece is made of and what its history is. She can glean part of that from records or experience, but much of an artwork’s nature lies beneath its surface.
Conservators often turn to scientific testing to excavate these mysteries. Using infrared reflectography, x-ray fluorescence, ultraviolet illumination or other methods, conservators expose individual elements of an artwork. The techniques can reveal what materials artists used or sketches they made before starting their piece.
When those techniques are not enough, conservators can remove a microscopic sample from an artwork and test it in a lab.
In some cases, this testing can expose an artwork as a fake, say when a painting uses a color that was not discovered until after the artist who was purported to be behind the work had died.
For Indiana Beach, a new beginning
Art conservation is a multidisciplinary field, requiring the knowledge of chemistry but also the skill of holding a steady brush. Only four colleges in North America offer an art conservation master's degree program.
After graduating, conservators can work on their own or at institutions, such as libraries, archives, laboratories or government agencies. Like Schuler, conservators also can lend their services to museums, such as the IMA.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art takes pride in its conservation efforts. It’s 7,700-square-foot laboratory lies beneath the galleries that museum visitors glide through each day. Within the lab’s white-walled rooms, 11 employees scrutinize paintings, objects and textiles whose condition makes them unable to be publicly displayed.
Above the main lab is a science lab where artworks often are tested with sophisticated equipment, such as a standing electronic microscope, to determine of what they are made.
“The IMA is fortunate to have a facility like this, as large and well-equipped as it is,” said David Miller, chief conservator at the IMA.
Miller, who used to conserve paintings at the museum before taking on his current role, knows each of the dozens pieces that are being treated and examined in his labs at any moment.
The IMA’s conservation facilities rival that of big-name museums, such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Most institutions the size of the IMA send their artworks to private conservators or regional centers when they need a restorer, Miller said.
The IMA hasn’t had to do that since the 1970s when the museum opened its conservation department.
Schuler, who is a Samuel H. Cress Fellow of Paintings and Conservation at the IMA, began work on one of her current conservation projects in mid-December. She is now about a month away from finishing the artwork.
The piece is a 15th century Italian Renaissance painting by Neroccio di Bartolommeo de’ Landi titled “Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalene.”
The focus of the painting, Jesus Christ and his mother, are seen often in de’ Landi’s works. Patrons of de' Landi would request the same scene with different saints surrounding the Madonna and her son.
Schuler still manages to find something unique in the painting.
“It’s easy to get lost,” she said, her face a few inches from the old artwork.
She appreciates de’ Landi’s delicate brush strokes. Each eyelash on Mary’s face stands out from the others.
“It’s an honor" to work on the painting, she said. “It’s an honor to have it here.”
Schuler is in the in-painting stage of restoring the artwork. She is filling in areas where the paint is no longer intact.
On a June day at work, Schuler mixed colors on a glass palette with a small, black brush and lifted it up to the painting. With small strokes, Schuler carefully attempted to blend her additions in with that of the original artist.
“I’m never completely comfortable,” she said about working so intimately with someone else’s work.
Schuler might be cautious, but she isn’t painting directly over de’ Landi’s handiwork. A layer of varnish that Schuler applied separates de Landi’s and her brushstrokes.
This stage of the restoration process is a throwback to Schuler’s past as a fine arts major during her undergraduate years.
The process starts with careful visual and photographic examination, Schuler said.
She uses the various techniques of infrared, X-ray and ultraviolet to learn more about the painting: its history, how it has aged and what materials lie within its layers. Then Schuler can determine if the painting needs restoration, and if it does, what she should do to it and how should she do it.
The de’ Landi painting, Schuler found, had been treated before, probably in the late '60s or early-'70s. The materials used had aged poorly, darkening the painting’s vibrant primary colors.
Through testing, Schuler determined what kind of solvent she could use to remove the last treatment's handiwork.
From there, Schuler grabbed some rolled cotton swabs and began slowly removing the varnish. Afterward, she would apply the new layer of varnish and begin in-painting.
The cleaning process left the painting looking worse than before. Small swaths of the painting appeared to have been chipped away. Now, after Schuler's efforts, de’ Landi’s painting looks closer to what it did when the artist first created it.
After Schuler finishes in-painting she will frame the painting. Soon it will hang where it did before in the IMA’s Clowe’s Collection.
People often say that arts and science don't belong together, said James Hamm, a paintings conservation professor at State University of New York College at Buffalo, the graduate school Schuler attended.
“It’s very simplistic, and it’s just not true,” he said. “All have components that are highly technical, you could say scientific, but there’s also an aesthetic aspect to them, as well.”
For evidence, look no further than an architect or your dentist, he said.
Look no further than Schuler and the differences between her mornings and her evenings, her master’s degree and her undergraduate, the beginning of her restoration process and the end.
Call IndyStar reporter Danielle Grady at (317) 444-6152. Follow her on Twitter: @dgrady1222.
IMA conservation exhibitions
On the Flip Side: Secrets on the Backs of Paintings
Find out what the back of a painting can teach you about the history of artworks. This exhibition let's you peek at the parts of permanent IMA paintings that usually face the wall.
When: Through Oct. 30.
What Lies Beneath
Some paintings are more than meets the eye. This exhibition will show you the clues to a painting's history that lie underneath its surface.
When: Opens Aug. 6.
Chemistry of Color
The discovery of new colors has a big impact on the worlds of art and science. This exhibition will explore how colorants are made and how pigment analysis can help date and authenticate artworks.
When: Opens Dec. 17.
