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16 ENGAGED Visitors to the Musuem of Modern Art crowd its second-floor galleries in search of great art. Ingfbruno photo so that artists, museums and the public can all collaborate and be part of the “make art great again” initiative. Expected results: The engagement with FURY Art Advisory provided a head start for MoMA. The benchmarking study allowed the museum to develop superior and effective plans to achieve their specific goals. MoMA set out to start a movement to “make art great again.” Through various social media campaigns, the museum and its affiliates were able to create an awareness of the initiative. The various marketing campaigns conducted by FURY created a following for the museum’s mission. People who are dissatisfied with the direction art is taking now have a cause to join. FURY’s proposed grading system and plans for “making art great again” will be published on the MoMA’s website. FURY also suggested beginning a dialogue with emerging artists to engage the public in their creative process. Research indicates that many people feel art is meaningless because they don’t understand what the artist is trying to convey. FURY determined that this gap can be closed by examining previous art movements and quantifying the way they were initially received by the public. FURY Art Advisory will demonstrate that change is necessary in order to make art meaningful and thus “great again.” What remains is for MoMA to implement recommended strategies and launch the “great art” roadmap. n THE CONSERVATOR Almost every single artifact in a museum on exhibition (of any age) has had intervention. The department that stabilizes artwork so it can be exhibited without its condition being questioned is the museum conservation department. Art conservators are different than art restorers. The difference is best highlighted in the following example. If one has a sword blade with spot areas of corrosion, a conservator would treat those tiny areas and not By Erica James re-galvanize it (an act of restoration). Theoretically, conservators don’t need things to look new. This is done for a variety of reasons. In terms of the sword blade, the existing metal is the original material; in preserving this material, the conservator maintains the value (monetary and otherwise) of the sword. More importantly, this less invasive approach preserves the material for future scholarship, etc. Allow me to briefly give you a bit of background. I have been engaged in the art conservation field for 26 years, starting when I first became (passionately) interested at age 18. I completed undergraduate work in studio art, art history and chemistry, before going on to graduate school where I specialized in painting conservation with an interest in modern materials. Two more fellowships followed, and then private practice and a position in a museum. Typically, a painting conservator would keep a position like that for life. I was out in less than five years. The question is why? It wasn’t the fact that in a field that is 95 percent female, males hold most of the positions as heads of museum conservation labs. As ingrained as sexi<strong>sm</strong> is in the museum world, that wasn’t the reason. The reason was that as time dragged by in my dream job, I gradually started to sense the workings, the light thrum and the endless combustion of a “Museum Value Machine.” Think of the nonsensical machine paintings by the early 20th-century artist Francis Picabia. A Picabia machine is incredibly detailed. Exacting, elegant and specific. And people stand back and admire its specificity. There is only one problem. The machine doesn’t work, and its dysfunctionality is systemic. One plug fires, creating movement in a wheel whose only output is noise and a requirement for more action. The situation with museum conservation is like that, but even more complicated. Think of one of those strange vehicles (only more heavily detailed) from an early Mad Max film. Hoses, wires and FALL 2016
MAKE ART GREAT AGAIN tubes in abundance. If one piece was removed, the mechanical puzzle would be incomplete. So it is with the Museum Value Machine. Typically, art conservation in the museum environment isn’t about the art, although it plays a pivotal role in how art is valued. If art conservation isn’t about art, what, then is it about? How does the Museum Value Machine transform the manifestation of a creative act into a thing so specialized and rarified that its most significant valuation is monetary? The more specialized and rarified a museum’s art product appears to be, the more luxurious it becomes. Who can afford such luxury? People who have money – in the case of art, a lot of money. And thus the inflation of art value by the Museum Value Machine dictates big museum (and <strong>sm</strong>all museum) policy. As conservators, we are expected to be completely devoid of interest in this monetary valuation. Art conservators aren’t appraisers. My classic response to a private client who asks if something is worth conserving (i.e., will cost less to conserve than it is worth) is, “If it’s worth it to you, it’s worth it.” But often, museum conservation will increase the monetary value of an artifact. This added value is highly disruptive to the conservation psyche that prides itself in being neutral or simply absent when the valuation of art comes into play. In order to understand the big picture of Museum Value Machine pathology, one must go behind the scenes. First, who works in a museum? On top are board members who have big art collections and dictate policy so their collections, often stored at the museum for free, are in a secure place. Board members also give money to purchase artworks whose acquisition by a museum not only increases the value of the artwork acquired, but perhaps also increases that of artworks that already reside at the museum. Museum board members curry the most favor because they not only have artwork that may someday be donated to the museum, but they also have money; and art and money are the fuel that make the Museum Value Machine go. Next in line is the museum director, who executes the vision of the board and heroically shuffles and reorganizes the employees. Museum directors also have I gradually started to sense the workings, the light thrum and the endless combustion of a ‘Museum Value Machine.’ Think of the nonsensical machine paintings by the early 20th-century artist Francis Picabia. an important say in who the musuem’s curators are. The curators manage respective collections based on their art history expertise and are in charge of coming up with exhibition ideas, maintaining relationships with other institutions to facilitate loans, buying new artwork and sometimes deaccessioning pieces. They also maintain relationships with the board and fulfill board requests. If a board member can get his or her artwork into an exhibition, its exposure increases its potential monetary value. Alternatively, if an exhibition can be founded on a specific group of paintings, their exposure – and value – also goes up. In other words, the strategic handling and promotion of artwork in a collection potentially increases its value for present and potential owners – board members and museums, respectively. A rising tide does, indeed, lift all boats. And the curator is beholden to board member requests because those board members not only have the money to purchase other artworks (hear the heavy gavel drop down at your local art retailer), but also have art collections that may eventually come to the museum. The curator does everything to make sure the board members are appeased. This can include a whole range of activities, from professional discussions about the management of a board member’s collection, to the facilitation of a board member’s private event at the museum after hours. For all intents and purposes, curatorial activities serve as the oil for the Museum Value Machine – constantly lubricating the works to minimize any sort of friction. And who are the curators in charge of? Well, us. The outwardly high-minded, and inwardly hand-wringing, conservators. The only power that conservators have in a museum is a claim to this high-minded specificity. Art conservators “treat” paintings and objects for exhibition. We take something that isn’t up to snuff and propagate the myth that it is exactly as the artist intended. That it hasn’t aged. We blind people with science and include the results in glossy catalogues on exhibitions that are no more in our control than are the laws of physics. Make no mistake about it, however. Conservators are tradespeople. We fix things. We may use an enormous amount of science to do it (making us seem all the See a video on conserving modern art at artenol.org. 17
Page 1: FALL 2016 DAVID PRYCE-JONES Modern
Page 4 and 5: From the Editor 4 ON THE COVER The
Page 6 and 7: 6 Please send all correspondence to
Page 8 and 9: 8 ATTORNEY ADVERTISING The Law Offi
Page 10 and 11: to utter one of his deepest convict
Page 12 and 13: 12 FALL 2016
Page 14 and 15: THE CONSULTANT With this issue of A
Page 18 and 19: MAKING IT LOOK GOOD In preserving a
Page 20 and 21: THE INVESTOR 20 My first child was
Page 22 and 23: 22 field also has other strategies
Page 24 and 25: Cover story STARTING OVER: I am an
Page 26 and 27: ‘Great art’ survey Artenol surv
Page 28 and 29: ook, Thought-Forms (1905), written
Page 30 and 31: PROVOCATEUR Gallery of ‘great art
Page 32 and 33: Poster IT'S THE CULTURE STUPID! MAK
Page 34 and 35: 34 STATE-OF-THE-ART It had all been
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Page 38 and 39: Secrets The hidden hand By Zinovy Z
Page 40 and 41: 40 HANDOFF Why is Pushkin's left ha
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Page 48 and 49: 48 Join Artenol’s ‘Revolution
Page 50 and 51: 50 Fire or water The water in the m
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