Conserving Art Coast to Coast
EXPO CHICAGO
(02/22/2013):
EXPO CHICAGO HOSTS THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF REGIONAL DINNERS FOR COLLECTORS, CURATORS AND CIVIC LEADERS
(09/09/2012):
EXPO CHICAGO
EXPO CHICAGO
National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library
(09/09/2012):
It All Comes Out in the Wash
Crain's Chicago Business
(07/30/2012):
She's a master of the art of the fix
She's a master of the art of the fix
The Chicago Sun-Times
(06/21/2012):
Summer Art to Intrigue Everyone
National Czech and Slovak Museum
(06/15/2012):
National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library Reopens Bigger, Stronger, Better
The Conservation Center
(02/24/2012):
Holland Sentinel
(09/24/2011):
Historic Trust Collection Back at Holland Armory
Chicago Ideas Week
(08/03/2011):
About the Lab: The Marriage of Art and Science
Claims Journal
(07/26/2011):
How to Evaluate Fine Art & Collectible Claims
See more news articles about The Center.
In our February Newletter, we brought you our treatment story of the Historic Murals of Winchester Hiram Lodge, N. 21, A.F. & A.M. in Winchester, Virginia. Local newspaper, The Winchester Star, recently published an article featuring our work to the murals by Associate Paintings Conservator Amber Smith.
These images speak for themselves! Check out some recent items to come through the doors of The Conservation Center, how they looked by the time they left, and the stories behind the artwork.
Winchester Hiram Lodge, N. 21, A.F. & A.M. in Winchester, Virginia, contains an extraordinary lodge room with murals on all four walls and the ceiling. These murals were painted in 1868 by Mr. Ango from the Peabody Institute of Baltimore in the fresco secco style, and depict images important to the Mason tradition. Surrounding these images are trompe l’oeil painted elements making the room look full of columns and marble panels. The ceiling is also painted with images and has a small dome in the center.
The Conservation Center is proud to announce we will once again be serving as the fine art conservators for EXPO CHICAGO 2013. Please mark your calendars for September 19th-22nd 2013 for The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art in Chicago located at Navy Pier.
The Chicago Public Schools mural preservation effort began in 1994, with the perseverance of one teacher, Flora Doody, who was concerned about the condition of the murals in the school. When The Chicago Conservation Center staff first went to examine the murals, they expected to find one or two. Instead they found 66 murals, in what is considered to be one of the nation’s largest public building mural collections.
The Lucy Flower High School houses Edward Millman’s 1940 “Outstanding American Women” WPA fresco. The H. 9′ X W. 54′ mural depicts scenes from the lives of Lucy Flower, Grace Abbott, Frances Perkins, Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Clara Barton. In 1941, one year after its completion, the mural was painted over with two layers of paint, one red calcimine layer and one layer of white oil paint.
Designed in 1928 by the architect Ernest Mayo for Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Windsor, the house – and its décor – follows in the tradition of English country estates based on classic French chateau design. The Sitting Room murals feature a tropical landscape of palm trees, monkeys and greenery.
The Wabash YMCA, listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places, has had both a colorful and difficult past. Located in the historic Bronzeville district, the structure was originally built in 1913. During its heyday, from the ’20s to the ’40s, the Y served the basic needs of the black community during the Great Migration, the movement bringing African-American workers from the South to Chicago and other northern cities.
The Masque of Youth was painted in 1918 by Jesse Arms Botke, and encircles the perimeter of the Ida Noyes Theater at the University of Chicago. The mural was installed for the opening of Ida Noyes Hall, at the time a new building for female students.
There Was a Vision, by George M. Smith, was commissioned in 1938 by the Section of Fine Arts mural program of the Treasury Department. This large rectangular-format allegorical mural scene represents the hopes and dreams of the immigrants and settlers who moved to the Midwest in search of a better life.
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