Volume 4, Number 2, May 1982, pp.6-7

Personals

Los Angeles

With the support of an endowment grant for conservation from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (matched from grants from other donors) the Huntington Library in San Marino has begun a one year training program designed to enable a library school graduate to study library conservation by working with original manuscripts and rare printed and photographic materials in a research library. The first conservation intern, Ms. Melinda Hayes, began work on July 12. Ms. Hayes graduated in June from the University of California at Los Angeles Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Her specialization paper was based on work undertaken during the summer of 1981 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where she surveyed the drawings in the Gough Collection and described the problems in conservation and access. Ms. Hayes is interested in a career in library conservation administration.

Johann Reusch has joined painting conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum as Conservation Assistant. He studied at the University of Berlin where he received his B.A. in classical studies and art history. After which he served as apprentice at the Alstertal Museum in Hamburg, Germany and the Museum of Arts and Crafts where he specialized in polychrome sculpture and paintings.

Samuel Reznik was born in 1927 and attended school in Leningrad and Tambov USSR. He attended a specialized school for artistic cabinet makers from 1943-47. He then began working as a furniture restorer at the Artistic Foundation for Conservation in Leningrad, which served the Hermitage, the Russian National Museum and other minor museums in Leningrad. From 1968-72 he was artistic restorer of gilded furniture in the Russian National Museum and from 1973-75 a furniture designer for Durim in Jerusalem, Israel. Since 1975 he has been a private conservator in New York City. He joined the staff at the J. Paul Getty Museum in March 1982. He and his wife Ludmila have a daughter Maya, age 11.

Filling a new position at the Huntington Library of Administrative Aide in Conservation is Mrs. Christie Shonard Hedges.

Pat Reeves and Sharon Shore have completed their contract to conserve ten W.W.I American silk flags belonging to the State Capitol Museum in Sacramento, CA. The completed flags are now in the museum and it is hoped that some of them will be on display during the WAAC field trip to the State Capitol Building. Pat and Sharon presented their technique of mounting these flags at the Harper's Ferry Regional Textile Group Meeting September 10-11, 1982. This conference will cover the mounting of museum textiles.

Ms. Judy Fox has been granted, under the National Museums Act, a six-month internship in ethnographic conservation at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History, beginning October 18, 1982. Judy is in her final year of the NYU Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Program and has spent this past summer interning at the Fogg Art Museum Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. In 1981, Ms. Fox worked at an archaeological excavation for the Haifa University in Israel. While at the Museum of Cultural History, Judy will intern under the supervision of Benita Johnson.

As part of her Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nancy Conlin Wyatt took a five week study trip visiting museums and conservation laboratories in Europe this summer. Her travels included: London, Prague, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Florence, and Rome. In Paris she met with Laura Juszczak, who was also visiting museums in Europe as part of her Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum.

Caroline Black traveled for the Hammer Foundation to China; Florence, Italy; and Edinburgh, Scotland. During her travels she had the opportunity to visit museums and conservation laboratories. While in China she visited the Palace Museum in Peking. Of particular interest is the traditional methods by which artists copy original works of art. It is not uncommon for the original work of art to be safely stored away while a copy is on view. It takes about two years to complete a scroll. She also had the opportunity to see Botticelli's "Primavera" during restoration in Florence, Italy.

With funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has recently added David Mitchell to its staff as a one-year Furniture Conservation Intern. Before moving West, David was employed as an Assistant Conservator at Furniture Conservation Services, Haverhill, Mass. and earlier as an Assistant to the staff of the Intermuseum Lab, Oberlin, Ohio. In addition to his conservation experience, David has a background in furniture and musical instrument construction. During his year at LACMA, David will be involved in a comprehensive review of the furniture collection and appraising its condition.

The Paper Conservation section of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This grant has been shared by Leslie Kruth and Robert Aitchison, working with Victoria Blyth-Hill. Leslie and Bob will be working on special projects such as surveying and conserving the photography collection of LACMA and doing research and treatment using enzymes. Their grant will continue through May of 1983.

Robert Aitchison and Mark Watters have recently moved to Los Angeles from New York. They are pleased to announce the opening of their studio for the Conservation of Art on Paper at: 6754 Wedgwood Place, Los Angeles, CA 90068, telephone (213) 851-1172. Robert Aitchison received his M.S. Degree from Winterthur/ University of Delaware and was most recently employed by the Department of Paper Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mark Watters graduated with an M.A. Degree from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. He was most recently employed by Carolyn Horton and Associates of New York.

Bay Area

The San Francisco Museum of Modern An Paintings Conservation Lab is undergoing major renovations and the work space has been relocated for the months of August and September. Readaptations of health and safety features include the installation of a flexible, local exhaust station as well as additional sound baffling and lighting. The work is scheduled for completion in October. The Lab has two new staff members: Holly Huston and Jay Krueger. The new intern this year is Cooperstown graduate student, James Wright. Susan Duhl begins as a new Student/ Apprentice in September.

James Bernstein, Co-Director of Conservation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will be speaking at the Western Association of Art Museums Annual Meeting in October as part of a program on conservation in which Dr. Pieter Meyers, Senior Research Scientist, Los Angeles County Museum of art, and Anthony Knapp of the State Department of Parks and Recreation.

Congratulations to Inge-Lise Eckmann on her marriage to Bruce Rosenblatt and to Holly Huston and Jay Krueger on the announcement of their engagement.

The Decorative Arts Conservation Lab at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum will temporarily lose staff member Elisabeth Cornu, as she is one of a four member teaching team giving a seminar on Museology to Museum Professionals at the Museum of Anthropology, Lima, Peru. Elisabeth will be dealing with preventive conservation and handling techniques for the course offered through the J.F. Kennedy College, Center for Museum Studies, sponsored by the Peruvian Government National Tourist Office. The Decorative Arts Lab has been working on twenty five pieces of American furniture from the collection of the Carey Estate and has a new Volunteer Assistant, Rene Wallace.

The Paper Conservation Lab at the Palace of the Legion of Honor has been working on techniques for leaf casting (pulp filling of losses in paper) using th vacuum suction table. The Lab will be open for a short time during the October WAAC Meeting and the suction table apparatus will be set up for viewing for the tour.

The Bay Area Art Conservation Guild has elected new Officers for the 1982-83 term:

President: Elizabeth Cornu
Vice President: Anita Noennig
Secretary: Judith Reiniets
Treasurer: Geoffrey Brown
Rotating Member, Board of Directors: Elizabeth Crumley

The Guild will have a new mailing address as of September: Bay Area Art Conservation Guild, c/o Daedalus, 6020 Adeline Street, Oakland, Ca. 94608.

Susan Tintori received an International Telephone and Telegraph Fellowship for study in painting conservation at the L'Instituto per L'Arte e Il Restauro in Florence, Italy. She received volunteer apprenticeship at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Painting Conservation Lab of the de Young Museum.

Bruce Miller bicycled through France last spring for a month. Bruce now has expertise in the cooking of the provinces and dodging cloudbursts.

The staff of the Paintings Conservation Lab of the de Young has been working on an exhibition of fifty American paintings from the Rockefeller Collection which will travel to Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan.

Denver

The Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. James Swope to the position of Conservator of Painting. Mr. Swope comes to the RMRCC from the Center for Conservation and Technological Studies, Fogg Museum, Harvard University. The RMRCC is continuing its search for additional personnel in the Paintings Department.

Mrs. Rosamond Westmoreland of the National Portrait Gallery and Mr. Richard Trela of the Montana Historical Society will each spend periods of time during the next year at the RMRCC as visiting colleagues in the Paintings Department.

Mr. James Greaves of the Los Angeles County Museum was the first visiting colleague earlier this year. Jim's visit resulted in the Center establishing a continuing series of visits. Colleagues, in any conservation specialty, who are interested in spending from one to three months in Denver during 1983 or 1984 should contact Arne Hansen, at the RMRCC, 2420 South University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208.

Portland

Mobile Conservation Laboratory

The Thompson Conservation Laboratory has begun a survey to study the feasibility of fielding a mobile conservation laboratory next year to serve the conservation needs of archives, libraries, and museums in the Pacific Northwest. For a copy of the survey form, write to: Thompson Conservation Laboratory, 1417 N.W. Everett, Portland, OR 97209.