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MAKING IT LOOK GOOD In preserving an art object, conservators use tested methods that restore the item to as close to its original condition as possible for as long a period as possible. Guidelines included applying minimal intervention, using appropriate materials and reversible methods, and fully documenting whatever work is done. Because preservation techniques improve over time, emphasis is now placed on the reversibility of the conservation processes employed. That reduces potential problems for future CLEANUP The conservation lab at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, above, is a typical facility for conservation and restoration of valuable artworks. At left, an icon is gently cleaned with a cotton swab and distilled water. wikimedia.org photos treatments. Conservation is usually reserved for works of historial or aesthetic importance; their rarity, representativeness and communicative power are also taken into consideration by conservators. 18 more specialized and rarified), but we basically make those things the museum so desperately needs on its walls look presentable. This often increases the value of the artwork. Here is an example of how the conservation section of the Museum Value Machine works. A modern painting is going out on loan. The curator assigns it to a modern painting conservator to be conserved. The curator comes in and stands over the painting with the conservator and ruminates on how it should look. Intervening too much, altering it too severely could decrease a painting’s value. A difficulty arises when mounting a large exhibition and paintings in a wide variety of conditions come from all over. The perfectly adequate painting my curator has pales in comparison to the pristine, relatively untouched painting that another museum is lending and (as it happens) will be placed right next to it. The couch looked great until I purchased those new drapes. And it isn’t a matter of moving the painting. These exhibitions are painstakingly planned out with every painting in the same position in every venue – false walls abound. It’s all about context, people. Or better yet, as in retail, location is everything. This is where it gets very noisy in the conservation section of the Museum Value Machine. The pressure to make a painting look presentable applies not only to itself, but to itself in comparison with its exhibition neighbors, and to a potential increase in its value. Pressure also comes from the board to mount a successful exhibition (not to mention the fact that if a board member is lending an artwork to the exhibition, it will be conserved for free) and from the public who has been conditioned to expect blockbuster exhibitions. By the way, the museum world pretty much assumes that while the average visitor may not know anything about art, he or she does understand “bigger is better.” Museums know that will draw crowds. The message museums put out to the general public isn’t something like “As a public institution, we act on your behalf to bring you an art experience that we hope will add meaning to your life.” It’s more along the lines of “This exhibition was brought to you by us. It’s a rare opportunity to see this artwork made by this popular artist during this time! Thank goodness it’s only our board that has paintings of this artist from this specific era, or we would never know what the artwork from this most rudimentary period was like! Let’s make it a blue-chip extravaganza!” The Museum Value Machine isn’t about the philanthropic sharing of art for the betterment of humanity. It is about the calculated sharing and borrowing of artwork to increase its exposure and monetary value. And conservation is a tool of this pragmatism, serving as a sort of “check engine” light, should some portion of the museum machine require a tune-up. In a museum, there is always a ton of money, and no money at all. I worked for one institution with a billion-dollar endowment where its highest paid employee – the director, of course – was earning sometimes 625% more than its lowest-paid employees (nearly everyone else). The glory days of a member of the social register taking one dollar a year to head a museum By the way, the museum world pretty much assumes that while the average visitor may not know anything about art, he or she does understand ‘bigger is better.’ FALL 2016
MAKE ART GREAT AGAIN are over. The days of that same director taking time to walk through the museum to check on the guard who was recently in the hospital are also long gone. While money always seems to be found to buy artwork at an inflated price, efforts to locate funds to provide a museum’s lowest-paid workers with a living wage are never made. It is a myth, really, that there is no money to be earned in the art world. There definitely is – just not for anyone who isn’t already wealthy. The romantic image of the starving artist and the glamour of the art world all play into the mystification of the museum world experience. Art conservation contributes to this mystification in a big way by simply fixing things and then tarting up the process with a lot of science and jargon. The conservation process is not without real value, but its practicality can assume a sanctimonious gloss under these conditions. The Museum Value Machine increases monetary value by conserving artwork, but it also contributes to increasing mystique by adopting a minimally invasive “hands-off” approach to the preservation of art. For example, there is no small amount of discussion involved in conserving a painting. Conservators may make very little compared to higher-level staff, but can wax philosophical about original intent and sing the praises of reversing “chemical degradation.” The irony here is that one would think that this intervention corresponds to the age of an artwork, that it is directly proportional to it – and that is often the case. The conservators of several-centuries-old “old yellow paintings” work very hard (sincerely so) to make them presentable to the public. But with the advent of newer materials used in newer works came new problems, and conservators of 20th-century works have their work cut out for them preserving modern and contemporary art. Such work also happens to have some of the highest valuations in art. For example, we modern conservators fret about the aging of materials that came into use during the last century (one word: plastics) and will do a bit less to conserve them because, well, who knows what to do? But you will rarely find a painting conservator admitting as much. Instead, the myth is perpetuated that we do less with modern work because we want DREAM JOB Conservator Erica James carefully cleans a contemporary art piece for eventual display in a museum. Photo courtesy Erica James to stay true to the original intent of the artist and that intent was ... to be ... abstract and conceptual. Again, not entirely disingenuous, but in the finer workings of the Museum Value Machine, these nuances enhance the art world’s mystique. Think of it as detailing the Museum Value Machine. It needn’t work to look good. By the time you get to contemporary art, the materials are so unpredictable in their longevity, and some of the artwork is so devoid of craftsmanship and – here’s the kicker – the value so HIGH, who even wants to touch them? Of course, the spin remains the same: We do less because we want to stay true to the original intent of the artist. And we don’t know what that is because it is all so ... conceptual. This becomes quite ephemeral when, for example, a conservator of contemporary art is the keeper of an “idea” by the artist. So, when the artwork has to be conserved, somehow the conservator lets the idea emerge from his or her lips like a Pythian priestess. Ideas are important, and intellectual property is, too. But it all gets very vague, contrived and practiced. If one has any common sense at all, it becomes quite apparent that a lot of this is made up. The emperor has no clothes. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if it wasn’t so insidious. But at the end of the day, like many things, it comes down to money. Because, although there are many ways to measure value, money is the driver for Museum Value Machine culture. Not freedom of expression, not passion, not beauty, not spirit, not creative drive, not intellectualism, not philosophy, not, not, not. Not anything you would expect or want it to be about. Most of all, what it isn’t about is the art. And, in those moments when one talks shop with other museum folks, precious few of them imbue the conversation with the following: “You know, it is just about the art for me. I just try to make it about the art.” The truth is, it never will be about the art in the Museum Value Machine’s infrastructure, because art only plays a very small role as fuel for the machine. Along with money, it is simply a currency that keeps museum culture running. And conservation, despite its best intentions, is never a means to an end, but only a barometer for what is best for any artifact by means of comparison. n 19
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 16 and 17: 16 ENGAGED Visitors to the Musuem o
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
Page 42 and 43: Scene 42 MY FIRE PAGER sits on the
Page 44 and 45: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts 31 Mercer
Page 46 and 47: 46 starlightmasquerade.com photos F
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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