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Munch’s art has survived the
artist. Meticulous conservators
are largely responsible.
One topic that is sure to crop up when you
read about care of Munch’s art is emergency
conservation. The damage can
be minute. It can be about loose paint
that requires an adhesive. It’s an issue
of conservators’ concern about lending works to
museums around the world. The demand for his art is
enormous, but the pictures are fragile.
“The important task prior to an exhibition is ensuring
the work is in good condition to withstand transportation
and exhibition,” says painting conservator
Eva Storevik Tveit.
Our focus is mainly on such safeguards she
explains while showing me around the Munch
Museum one October day. The condition of a painting
is being recorded in one of the studios. It’s going
to be sent abroad. In another room a photographer
is bending over a photo with a magnifying glass. A
number of photos have returned to Norway from the
exhibition L’oeil moderne/The Modern Eye in Paris, Frankfurt and London. The
issue now is whether they can withstand further exposure.
balancinG act. Taking care of Munch’s art is a great responsibility. Conservation
usually entails detailed work and precision. The microscope is a key work
instrument.
But there are other tasks besides preparing for new exhibitions. Sometimes
requests are about works that aren’t part of the museum’s collection, for instance
when collectors or private owners query whether their picture is a real Munch. Or
questions come from the general public.
“People ask lots of questions and we appreciate that. We recognise the importance
of explaining what we do and why our work is so essential,” says Tveit.
MuNCH 150
60
1
Forberedelser til skråmontering
av Historien
(1910-11) før utstilling.
Foto: Munch-museet
1
Preparations for tilted
mounting of History (1910-11)
before exhibition.
Photo: Munch-museet
cOnserVatiOn
The conservation
department consists
of 13 people working in a
studio for paper conservation,
one for paintings
conservation and one
workshop for mounting art
on paper. The personnel in
these studios perform
preservation work, documentation,
analyses and
conservation.
An important part of our job is to collect information
about the artworks by researching the methods
and materials that Munch used, and how these materials
deteriorate with the passing of time.
“This is what conservation is about,” stresses
Tveit. “We try to slow down the natural deterioration
which is accelerated by factors such as light, moisture,
vibrations or other mechanical strains. We have
to find the balance between preserving these pictures
and displaying them.”
A six year long project of the conservation
department has been the conservation of Munch’s
monumental sketches, among them his drafts for the
university Aula decorations. They had been rolled
up since Munch painted them and many were in
very poor condition. These paintings have now been
treated and are being stored properly.
nOt self-eVident. What’s it like working in a
museum where you get so close to one particular artist?
“First let me point out that we don’t just represent
one artist, but also the comprehensive collection
of the Stenersen Museum. When dealing with the
Munch collection you’re often encountering the same
phenomena regarding the condition of the works,
the materials and the problems. Our conservation
efforts with these are more repetetive than in a
museum with a more diverse collection. But on the
other hand, we have the opportunity to delve into
the techniques of a single artist. We develop a unique
competence for these kind of paintings and become
specialists, not just in
conservation but also
in Munch.”
1
Tveit doesn’t
deny that the Munch
Museum has been
subjected to repeating
media focus in the past
few years. But there
are exciting moments
in the daily work of a
conservator.
“For instance we
were really eager
every time we unrolled
a new monumental
sketch. We were
primarily concerned
with the condition, but
we were often surprised
by the methods
Munch used in these
works. We were well
acquainted with his
motifs, but he often
varied his techniques. Some paintings have a watercolour
like appearance.
She says the work carried out in her department is
essential for preserving Munch’s paintings for future
generations. A common complaint in the cultural sector
is the struggle for sufficient time and funding.
“We feel a lot of pressure to lend this art and we
have to make priorities. Our challenge is to find time
for more basic but totally essential tasks, the care of
artworks that are less frequently exhibited. Our goal
is to keep this art accessible for many future generations,”
says Tveit.
1
Edvard Munch,
Melankoli III, 1902.
Munch-museet.
Edvard Munch,
Melancholy III, 1902.
Munch Museum.
2
faVOrittbilete
– Eg er veldig glad i grafikken til Munch, og tykkjer
det er synd at ein ikkje oftare viser fram desse
arbeida. Munch laga det same motivet i utallige
variasjonar, med ulike fargar og strekar. Uttrykksforma
hans, særleg i den mest ekspressive perioden,
høver godt til den grafiske forma. Kanskje sidan
fargane er mindre viktige, og streken er den som
vert berar av det ekspressive.
faVOurite picture
“I truly appreciate Munch’s graphic works and I
regret that we don’t exhibit them more often. Munch
would repeat a subject matter countless times in different
versions with change in colour and lines. His
idiom, especially during the most expressive period,
is well suited to the graphic technique. Perhaps it’s
because colour is less important and the lines are the
expressive component .”
Edvard Munchs
Pubertet, 1894,
undersøkes av
Eu-Autech MoLab
Edvard Munchs Puberty,
1894, is being examined
by Eu-Autech MoLab
2
Omfattande arbeid
Behovet for konservering er stort. Av 1158 maleri
treng 904 konservering.
Dei siste åra er det utført eit grundig forskingsarbeid
og behandling av Pubertet, Madonna og
Skrik.
Det er utarbeidd konserveringsplanar for både
Stenersen- og Munch-museet sine maleri med
tidsberekning for kor mykje arbeid som må gjerast.
Sidan 2010 har det vore konservering på Munch
sine maleri i samband med at Munch-museet med
Stenersenmuseets samlingar legg planar for flytting
til eit nytt og moderne museumsbygg. Det er
ynskjeleg å gjera ein tilsvarande gjennomgang av
andre prioriterte deler av papirsamlinga.
extensiVe WOrk
There is a great demand for conservation. Among
1,158 paintings, 904 are in need of conservation.
In recent years the conservation department has
performed comprehensive research and conservation
on Puberty, Madonna and The Scream.
Conservation plans have been completed for the
Stenersen- and the Munch Museum’s paintings,
including estimates of how much time each artwork
requires.
The Munch Museum’s collection includes 3,364
drawings and 16,643 graphic works in addition to
other paper material such as Munch’s sketchbooks
and notebooks. The collection of drawings has been
examined to prepare the works for a prospective
move. Such efforts are also needed for other parts of
the paper collection.
Conservation work has been done on Munch’s
paintings since 2010 in keeping with plans to move the
Munch Museum’s and the Stenersen Museum’s collections
to a new, modern building.
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