Dissertation defenses

Oral Defenses of Dissertations 2006
Ecole Superieure d'Art d'Avignon
Department of Conservation and Restoration of painted works of art
December 7-8, 2006

Lecture Hall (Amphitheatre)
7 rue Violette
84000 Avignon, France
+33 0 4 90 27 04 23
Contact: Cecile Savelli <cecile.savelli [at] mairie-avignon__com>

Dissertations:

    Aurelia Catrin, <aurelia.catrin [at] free__fr>
    "Powders and pigments in contemporary art"

        Today art installations are of first importance in
        contemporary creation. What about those that are made from
        non-permanent material: raw pigments? Employed in their
        primary state, not bound and not fixed, powders and pigments
        question in a particular way their conservation, restoration
        and re-installation.

        The aim of this dissertation is to understand the
        specificity of this pulverulent material by studying two
        major artworks by Anish Kapoor using pigments. These two
        pieces have been analyzed and compared through their
        constitutive and conservation states and their
        re-installation process. A scientific research on pigments
        has also been carried.  Arguments and ideas about the
        authenticity of these art pieces, their conservation and
        their documentation are proposed here.

    Sandrine Chastel, <cendtel [at] gmail__com>
    "Madder lake: approach esthetic and tecnhic"

        A pictorial layer is subject to various deteriorations
        including one in particular which causes an aesthetic
        modification corresponding to a chromatic change of the
        painting. It is changing colour. This modification results
        from various factors among which the prolonged exposure to
        ultraviolet rays. In this case, the deterioration is called
        the photochemical change of colour which is often observed
        on paintings with lakes such as madder lake.

        Other factors are involved such as the nature of the
        pigment, the workmanship and the places of conservation. The
        consequences of this deterioration were observed and studied
        on the whole collection of the samples of the Indiennes of
        Avignon and on some painted drawings of this same series,
        currently preserved at the Palais du Roure

    Alexandra Deneux, <alexandra.deneux [at] laposte__net>
    "The reliquaries of Bernard Requichot Study and treatment of a
    work with a great symbolic charge"

        The object of this thesis is in the survey of  a series of
        fourteen works of Bernard Requichot titled "Reliquaire" in
        order to be conserved and restored. These works carried out
        between 1955 and 1961 are composed of an assembly of varied
        objects (bones, roots, feathers, shoes) picked up here and
        there, covered with thick coats of paint and set in a box.
        The choice of the reliquaries term and the use of its formal
        characteristics which concern this particular object confer
        to these works a certain ambiguity  with the sacred.

        These ambivalent object interrogate us and hustle us: the
        risk of a misinterpretation at the time of a bad restoration
        is real. The reliquaries  of Requichot present, indeed,
        disconcerting resemblances with true reliquaries and yet we
        are not facing religious objects. This symbolic feeling is a
        part of the game set by the artist. It is necessary to
        evaluate the impact and how serious it is. Moreover, the
        link which maintains these works with the tragic destiny the
        artist, adds to this work a particular emotional charge,
        that one should respect. Our goal is to understand and
        determine more precisely the concept of the artist as well
        as the authenticity of the work, in order to define the
        posture of the restorer and to propose a general concept of
        intervention.

    Anita Durand, <c.-omet [at] worldonline__fr>
    "To perpetuate the moment? Or what kind of conservation and
    restauration for the non-permanent and performative works?"

    What is an impermanent, ephemeral, occurent or performative
    artwork? What are their conceptual and technical features? What
    kind of relationship does the institution keep up with these
    works today? As restorers, how can we approach this artistic
    production whose concept is more important than its materiality,
    or how can we engage in their conservation and restoration when
    artists often refuse their conservation and invite us instead to
    interpret them? How can we include this specificity in a
    scientific protocol? Can we still speak about conservation and
    restoration in front of these works of art? Can we imagine the
    restorer becoming an interpreter of artistic production? And if
    yes, what kind of technical and ethical tools have to be
    developed? What does the institution think about this? What is
    the artists' position?

    Here are some of the mysteries that this study could unravel but
    clues are hard to find. This report tries to approach
    installation art and performative work under the microscope of
    the conservation and the restoration. It offers to show the
    antagonisms that exist between the institution, the conservation
    and restoration practices, and a contemporary art production
    whose codes come to question the definition of specific art
    works, artefacts, and their authenticity.

    My work is essentially based on ethical and legal questions; it
    is also made up of concrete studies and a series of artists'
    reflections I have gathered through interviews and questionnaires
    that have been specifically elaborated during this study.

    Celine Guern <celine.guern [at] laposte__net>
    "Inclusions by Toni Grand: A preservation and restoration study
    of sculptures made of polyester resin and organic matter"

        Inclusions by Toni Grand are sculptures made of laminated
        polyester resin, which include organic matter such as fish
        or wood segments. Despite the artist's utmost care, these
        works of art have become debased leading to aesthetic and
        semantic alterations. These sculptures ask for both artistic
        and technical research so as to define the restorer's sphere
        of activity, and then consider suitable processing.

    Severine Padiolleau, <padiolleauseverine [at] hotmail__com>
    "Matter, Relief, 3Dimensions"
    The necessity of 3D documentation for the conservation and the
    restoration of matter paintings

        Matter paintings are made up of thick and complex layered
        coloured surfaces. They are prone from their creation to
        many morphological changes and deteriorations which through
        time modify their original aesthetic aspect. Faced with the
        problem of the conservation-restoration of their
        outer-surface and their morphology, this thesis proposes to
        seek an adapted documentation for the study of the orography
        of these paint layers and of their deformed canvas support.
        Various methods of 2D and 3D documentation are studied  in
        order to know if it is possible to record the
        three-dimensional state of reference proper to each one of
        these paintings and to evaluate so the loss of information
        undergone by the work of art.

        Among the digital 3D techniques currently suggested, is a
        tested process of data acquisition which operates from a
        distance without touching the work of art: the 3D laser
        system with fringes projection. Thus by the survey of the 3D
        geometry and the texture of samples of canvas paintings,
        this study allows us to check if digitalization 3D makes it
        really possible to the conservator to establish an objective
        condition report of the painting by measurement.

        It is also a question of knowing if concrete applications in
        the field of the conservation-restoration of matter
        paintings are possible from this 3D documentation. The
        feasibility of treatments by machining with numerical
        control, such as the reintegration a lost paint relief with
        the same deontological requirements as for a coloured
        reintegration, or the realization a protection of reverse
        adjusted to the deformations of the canvas, is studied
        there.

        The problematic of this thesis is based on the study and the
        treatments of the conservation-restoration of the painting
        of Jean-Paul Riopelle, "A l'Affut", 1967, preserved at FRAC
        PACA, France.

    Severine Renaud <severinerenaud1 [at] yahoo__fr>
    Problem connected to the protection of the "Indo-reunionnais"
    historic and cultural heritage.

        Later societies will have to remember that, upon their
        arrival during the last century, Indian immigrants, placed
        in a dominant socio-cultural system, even degrading, have
        never given up, and though they always played adaptability,
        they constantly wanted to protect their identity and
        dignity. It is up to the future generations to also remember
        that humble people worked hard in order to leave them a
        priceless cultural and religious heritage.

        Association Pandiale du Colosse, Saint Andre. Reunion
        Island: duality in the Indian Ocean. The island embodies
        both the settler and the immigrant, the Eastern and the
        Western world, the sacred and the profane. The history of
        the Indian society within this French overseas territory is
        written through Indian temples and the rites connected to
        them. Dependent on the evolution and change of mentalities,
        the "Indo-reunionnais" historic and cultural heritage,
        material and inviolable, demands a particular attention.
        Preservation of the sacred implies a capacity of
        adaptability, in an environment where  religious will
        determines each and every attitude of the body and mind.

        In the same way, as far as protection is concerned,
        accepting a different and foreign vision demands being
        open-minded and having a perfect understanding of what the
        stakes are. Today, one century and a half after the birth of
        the "indo-reunionnais" heritage, there are numerous
        difficulties regarding its protection. Are we confronted
        with an inheritance in peril?


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:26
                 Distributed: Monday, November 13, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-20-26-015
                                  ***