Rosa Mystica: The Second Phase of Treatment
The Conservation Center is honored to partner with the Illinois Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums to treat The Annunciation. Please enjoy this video explaining our first phase of treatment for the piece, included in their five-part lecture series, Rosa Mystica: A Journey of Renewal and Restoration.
Doris Lindo Lewis: American Surrealist
Doris Lindo Lewis was an artist with many different stylistic interests, perhaps due to her mixed cultural heritage and experiences living in Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, and the United States. She started with traditional oil landscapes, experimented with surrealism and charcoal portraits, and ended her career with abstract expressionism. Art from her surrealist period is particularly loved; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and LACMA are among the major art museums to boast a surrealist Lewis piece in their collections.
The Conservation of a 19th-Century Portrait: Great-Great-Great Grandmother Brenner
Ever since photography became the favored medium of memory, painted family portraits became rare. These portraits are special heirlooms that deserve to be cherished and maintained for generations. A recent client of ours shared this belief and he and his family sent a portrait of their great great-great-grandmother to The Center for treatment.
Rosa Mystica: The First Phase of Treatment
The Conservation Center is honored to partner with the Illinois Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums to treat The Annunciation. Please enjoy this video explaining our first phase of treatment for the piece, included in their five-part lecture series, Rosa Mystica: A Journey of Renewal and Restoration.
Maintaining the Magnificent
At 8½ feet tall and 6½ feet wide with over 150 painted figures, James Van Fossan’s “Drama Magnifico” was a sight to behold in our conservation laboratory. The large oil painting, which reportedly took the artist over 4,000 hours to complete, is like a modern version of Rubens’ swirling celestial compositions.
A Gem of the Shedd
Our home base in Chicago has many cultural jems, and The Conservation Center has recently had the privilege of working with one of them- the beautiful Shedd Aquarium. Working closely with us throughout the conservation process, the Shedd Aquarium sent us a work that does not depict one of their thousands of species of fish, as you might have guessed, but rather a portrait of their generous patron and founder, John Graves Shedd.
Protecting "Poppet"
“Poppet” has two definitions: either as an informal British term for an endearingly sweet young girl, or a small figure of a human being used in sorcery and witchcraft. While the portrait Poppet from the Fischer Governor Foundation must refer to the former, she certainly cast a spell on us as she underwent treatment in our Painting Department.
"Portrait of a Young Lady" Gets Patched Up
Preserving a Mysterious Portrait
When this darkened painting came to The Center for treatment, we knew we were working with a special piece of history. The subject of this portrait is an unidentified woman dating back to 1860, a time when only those of high status could afford to have oil portraits done of themselves. This piece of information gives little insight into who this woman was and the life she lived.
Preserving Peaches
Our Painting Department sees several common issues frequently in the pieces they treat: discoloration, surface grime, tears in the canvas — but every now and then, a completely unique challenge is presented. Recently, a piece brought to us by local Chicago business Nick’s Beer Garden ( 1516 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL) gave us just that.
Rosa Mystica: A Journey of Renewal and Restoration
A Trip to Trouville
As winter looms over our heads, we find ourselves enjoying the last few days of nice weather near our beautiful lakefront- much like the figures in French painter Félix Buhot's painting Jetty at Trouville, 1884. This piece, depicting a serene day along the coast of France, recently underwent a magnificent transformation in our Painting Department.
Saving the Stockton's
From the Bar with Bullet Holes: Cleaning a Painting
Kerry James Marshall's "Ipso Facto"
In 2016, The Center had the pleasure of working on a personal piece for Kerry James Marshall titled Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness and we were very honored when the artist gave us the opportunity to work on another piece from his personal collection. “Ipso Facto” is a painting executed on two plywood panels joined together with batons and screws. The diptych is primed and painted with what appears to be moderately applied acrylic. Both panels depict a figure’s rear. The left panel is painted in white, with various colors playfully peeking through the brush strokes, and the other is painted in black surrounded by small white flowers with intimate red and green details. The piece is unvarnished and while unsigned, the painting is characteristic of Marshall’s work.
Hello Pretty "Yellow Lady": Shedding Light on an Ed Paschke Painting
Well before Matt Groening’s Marge Simpson character became pop icon, artist Ed Paschke (1939–2004) created his own version of a Yellow Lady in 1969. In the same way that the bizarre appearances and situations as depicted in “The Simpsons” comment on pop culture, Paschke’s manipulations of mass media aim to do the same. The technicolor tones and flat background aim to dissociate the woman from her body and her surroundings; the addition of the admiring man takes on the role of the consumer and the viewer, aiming to make the voyeur uncomfortable. While only minor conservation was needed for this vibrant painting, the private collector knew very little about its history, causing us to reach out to the Ed Paschke Foundation and even the artist’s daughter, Sharon Paschke. Neither was familiar of the piece’s existence, and Sharon, especially, was excited to see a new example of her father’s early work. In order to discover more about this very special Yellow Lady, we studied the canvas under ultraviolet light and found some surprising details. With these new findings, The Conservation Center was able to shed new light on this painting for its owner as well as the Paschke family.
"Mess is Less": Roger Brown's Unique Multimedia Piece
Though Roger Brown was born in Alabama and split his time between homes in Chicago, Michigan, and California, the Windy City always held a special place in his heart. Brown moved to Chicago in 1962 to attend the American Academy of Art, where he completed a commercial design program. Brown then enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received his BFA in 1968 and MFA in 1970. During this time, Brown and his colleagues (many of whom would become part of the group known as the Chicago Imagists) began to nurture an appreciation for self-taught artists, seeing them not as “outsider” artists, but as worthy of respect and inclusion into the mainstream art world. This, coupled with his travels throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, and Russia, had a profound influence on Brown’s art. Though his works are often bright and simple in composition, the artist’s practice frequently presents a darkly satirical view of contemporary life and American culture.
The Conservation of a Civil War Painting for Southern Illinois University
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of The Civil War. Like any thread in the fabric of our cultural heritage, this point in our collective memory was captured countless times by the artist’s eye. With photography still in its infancy, fine art and literature still serve as major artifacts for this defining time period in American history. While many of the artist’s names have been lost over the years, the importance of their work stands as a testament to this era. One of these remarkable works is a painting titled Steamboat U.S.S. Switzerland on River (artist and date unknown), belonging to our friends at The University Museum at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, Illinois. The museum recently engaged The Conservation Center to preserve this piece of Americana, and also taking the opportunity to educate its audience in the importance of art conservation.
Bringing a Jewel of a Collection Back to Life: Freeport Art Museum
Last month, The Conservation Center spent a lovely Saturday afternoon with more than 40 members of the Freeport Art Museum (FAM)—a jewel of a collection located in Freeport, Illinois, right outside of Rockford. Together with Roberta Kramer, a Chicago-based art appraiser, we made a special presentation that marked the end of a two-year project, which, while not beginning under the most auspicious of circumstances, concluded with cause for celebration. Many key pieces of art from FAM’s collection were properly appraised and saved from water damage that occurred in its 2D storage unit.
