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Preserving The John Deere Corporate Collection

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Preserving The John Deere Corporate Collection

Corporate archives serve as invaluable repositories of historical knowledge for organizations. Archives provide insights into the company's past, which they can leverage to inform present decision-making and future strategies. These archives serve several vital functions and are crucial in supporting various aspects of a company's operations and activities. They are sources of inspiration and are crucial in preserving corporate memory, facilitating research, ensuring compliance, and contributing to a company's overall success.

The Rediscovery and Restoration of a Forgotten Lester W. Bentley Mural

The Rediscovery and Restoration of a Forgotten Lester W. Bentley Mural

Here at the Center, the conservation of murals is something in which we take great pride. In the early 1990s, our CEO Heather Becker co-founded a large-scale mural preservation project which restored a selection of Progressive and WPA-Era Murals in Chicago Public Schools. Since the completion of the project, The Center has continued to treat murals of various materials, time periods, subjects, and sizes.

For this reason, we were especially excited when the Ruth St. John and John Dunham West Foundation contacted us about restoring a mural painted by Lester W. Bentley located on the West Foundation’s property.

Frederic Clay Bartlett's 56 Panels: A Gothic Chase And Feast

Frederic Clay Bartlett's 56 Panels: A Gothic Chase And Feast

The conservators at The Conservation Center had the rare privilege to conserve a mural in one of Chicago's historic buildings. The University Club of Chicago is a private social club that was founded in 1887 “by university graduates who wanted a special place where they could enjoy intellectual pursuits.” The Club’s current building was constructed in 1907-09 by renowned architectural firm Holabird and Roche, and with its distinct Neo-Gothic facade, it still stands out today amongst the buildings along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. For the interior spaces, the Club hired fellow member and Chicago artist Frederic Clay Bartlett (1873-1953) to design the interior decor of the club, which included such original artwork as Bartlett’s 56-panel mural on the ceiling of the Club’s Michigan Room. 

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Don't Do It Yourself: Cautionary Tales of At-Home Art Treatments

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Don't Do It Yourself: Cautionary Tales of At-Home Art Treatments

There are few rites of spring more satisfying than the annual clean. And while spotless living spaces make a house a home, many of us unfortunately have to use harsh chemicals and solvents to achieve that goal. The application of products found under the kitchen sink can lead to chemical reactions on the surface of art objects that can prove to be quite serious, resulting in detrimental losses that are usually so much greater than the reward of a home cleaning approach. When it comes to caring for your art and antiques while freshening up around the house, we strongly advise our readers to adhere to the “DDIY” rule—Don’t Do it Yourself—and leave the job to professional art conservators.

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Lucienne From the Bloch: Conserving a Modern Mural for a Jewish Temple

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Lucienne From the Bloch: Conserving a Modern Mural for a Jewish Temple

In honor of Pesach (Passover) earlier this month, we’re highlighting a major conservation treatment for Temple Emanuel, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Conservation Center’s team worked tirelessly on-site and in our laboratories to help restore a massive 1,000 square-foot mural that covered the entire expanse of the rear wall of the synagogue. Painted on multiple lightweight wood panels by the Swiss-born American artist Lucienne Bloch (1909–1999), this modern mural stands as a testament to a dynamic time in religious architecture that aimed to keep up with societal trends in art and construction.

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Slide Show: Deinstalling and Examining Lucienne Bloch's Epic Mural

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Slide Show: Deinstalling and Examining Lucienne Bloch's Epic Mural

In 2012, significant leaking from the roof caused severe water damage of the plywood panels, causing extreme warping, staining, and delamination of the veneers from the panels. The mural itself, which was painted using water-soluble paints (something similar to gouache), started to drip down across the panels as soon as water entered the space. Devastated, Temple Emanuel contacted The Conservation Center to perform an on-site assessment to best determine how to conserve Bloch’s work. Years of constant use and handling of the doors and tracks around the mural had also caused issues beyond the water damage—fingerprints had darkened and smudged areas of the paint, to the extent that there were significant losses that needed to be addressed. There was also a thin layer of grime that needed to be removed from the panels. However, because of the nature of the paint used, most methods of cleaning would strip away the design. Eventually, six panels came back to The Center’s lab in Chicago to undergo treatment.

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Cleaning The Merchandise Mart's Epic "Merchandise Around the World" Mural

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Cleaning The Merchandise Mart's Epic "Merchandise Around the World" Mural

The Merchandise Mart, towering 25 stories at its highest point and occupying four million square feet, rests along the Chicago River as the epicenter of downtown Chicago life, culture, media, and business. Finished in 1930 and massive in its construction, The Mart serves as a monument to early 20th-century merchandising and architecture. Even after more than 80 years, this Art Deco landmark continues to be a leading retailing and wholesale destination, attracting people from all over the world.

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TCC Restores a Treasured Cliff Dwellers’ Painting

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TCC Restores a Treasured Cliff Dwellers’ Painting

John Warner Norton, a charter member of The Cliff Dwellers, became one of the most accomplished and sought-after muralists in Chicago and across the United States by 1920. Earlier, however, in 1910 as Norton’s career and The Cliff Dwellers were both newly beginning, one of his first commissions titled "Navaho" became one of the private club’s earliest acquisitions of art. "Navaho" was recently conserved by The Conservation Center.

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Before & After Stories

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Before & After Stories

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.

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The Conservation Center's Services During EXPO CHICAGO

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The Conservation Center's Services During EXPO CHICAGO

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. 

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The Challenges of Outdoor Frescos

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The Challenges of Outdoor Frescos

The Chicago Conservation Center recently conserved outdoor frescos painted in 1955 by Jean Charlot located at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Jean Charlot was born in France in 1898. He moved to Mexico in the 1920’s and joined up with the muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He died in Hawaii in 1979.

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