They are thus posed a question: What is the fine line between conservation and alteration? “It’s a question we deal with all the time, and one that you are taught things about when you go to formal graduate programs,” Lie says. “All the different areas of art, from Neolithic archeological material through contemporary material, tend to have different ways of approaching that question.”
Some works, like porcelains and paintings, need to look perfect, so those repairs are done in a way that is different from historical archeological materials, where restoration is more heavily needed. Restoration should never be obvious, though. Driesse says, “The approach to conservation is always the same: Less is more.”
The line between conservation and alteration is extremely important when considering the preservation of the artist’s objective in the work of art. To conservators like Mancusi-Ungaro, anything done to a work of art alters it, so one must be very cautious to not change the effect of the artwork. “You don’t do anything that would interfere with what was intended, which is the immaterial effect, but you are also respectful of the material effect. That’s really the central directive of what I do and what [all] conservators do—it’s conserving a work without altering it in a way that counters the artist’s intent.” These conservators’ painstaking research and the millions of dollars invested in scientific and technical equipment are all in the hopes of preserving the artistic vision for current and future generations.
AN UNLIKELY MARRIAGE
In addition to preserving artistic vision, conservation can in fact play a role in inspiring it. David Maisel, a contemporary artist based in California, creates photographs of the x-rays of three-dimensional art objects that are usually found in conservation labs. He was inspired by his residency at the Getty Research Institute. “One if the things I was thinking about was the way that changing technology would allow us to see into realms that we would not otherwise see,” Maisel says. “I was basically spending time in the painting conservation lab at the Getty, and one day they had this incredible x-ray taped up to the window, and it looked like this abstract expressionist painting by Franz Kline or something, but in fact it was this x-ray of this 19th century landscape painting they were working on, and the disjunction between the two things was really captivating.”
Maisel’s work not only transforms a method of preserving art into art itself but also captures the interplay of art and science that is present in conservation. Moreover, advances in the technological landscape have directly affected conservation, which is apparent in the x-rays and other products used in the discipline. “Conservation is a marriage of science and studio hand skills and art history,” Knipe says.
It is the hope of conservators that the field becomes more visible to the public eye. Although many of the objects in conservation are, for practical reasons, kept in laboratories and behind closed doors, the efforts of conservators is overwhelmingly out of view. Even those in the field, such as Vasanthakumar, were not aware of conservation until they entered it. Despite this initial lack of knowledge, she believes that publicity on conservation is gaining more momentum. “Conservation science is becoming more visible in diverse forums such as conferences,” Vasanthakumar says.
Museums like Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts are also making more of an effort to showcase their conservation efforts. “Most people don’t even know that we have a whole science lab upstairs, [though] it is a very important part of the preservation of art and getting [art] on view,” says Tsu. “The public doesn’t really know, and they’re always really fascinated to find out.” Conservation labs are a gold mine for art historians, scientists, and curators as well as members of the general public who are interested in how works survive to make it on display.
As I toured around the Straus Center, I could clearly see the dialogue between art and science that is crucial to conservation. The discipline allows practitioners to hone their technical skills, but the field itself is much more holistic. Conservation places weight not only on the material makeup of artwork but also the art’s history and original intent.
Examining rows of multicolored pigments collected by Forbes, the Straus Center’s first director, in the ’20s, it struck me that these pigments have a visceral aesthetic personality and a more subtle chemical composition that gives clues into how art can better be conserved. However, these vivid pigments are out of view. Though integral to the success of curation, conservation lives and breathes in the confines of laboratories and unmarked floors of museums. Yet, despite this seclusion, conservation’s devotion to preserving history has earned it continuing legacy built on the dialogue between artistic and scientific expertise.
—Staff writer Jihyun Ro can be reached at jihyunro@college.harvard.edu.