Volume 14, Number 1, Jan. 1992, pp.7-12

Regional News

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has welcomed two new advanced-level interns to the Conservation Department. Theresa Andrews joins Paper/Photographs Conservator Jill Sterrett, and Tammy Flynn is surveying the permanent paintings collection, with funding from a Kress Fellowship.

Paula DeCristofaro was the West Coast courier for paintings by Richard Diebenkorn, which were included in his first major European exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. The show will travel to Spain and Germany.

Former SFMOMA NEA Intern Dee Ardrey is conservation consultant on an exhibition of Clyfford Still paintings which will travel internationally in 1992 and 1993.

SFMOMA recently acquired a color reflection densitometer which will be used in the Paper/Photo lab as part of an ongoing project to monitor condition of the photography collection.

Will Shank and the conservation staff at SFMOMA are playing an active role in the planning of the new museum, to open in its South of Market location in early 1995. Ground-breaking will be in the spring of 1992.

The Western Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory will move from the Legion of Honor to Crown Point Press in mid-December. The new phone number will be (415) 597-7938. In addition to participating in the Achenbach Collections Management Project, the lab will be conducting business as usual.

The staff at WRPCL trained a group of Fine Arts Museums technicians in hinging and matting in order to prepare over 250 drawings and photographs from the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow for an exhibition entitled "Constructivist Theater: Russian and Soviet Avant Garde." The project provided an opportunity to test- drive Bob Futernick's new computer assisted system for calculating and marking mat windows. This system will be used to accurately measure prints and drawings and speed up the matting portion of the Achenbach Collections Mgt. Project.

Susan Grinols is working for Eddie Jose, conservator of Asian paintings in Alameda.

Dale Paul Kronkright has relocated to the Bay Area, where he will set up a private practice specializing in the conservation of anthropological art, historic objects, and sculpture. Dale's new address is 2183 29th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94116, phone (415)661-4498. He remains a Conservation Affiliate of the Bishop Museum and the Pacific Regional Conservation Center.

Bay Area Conservators Respond to East Bay Fire

Conservators from The Oakland Museum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Asian Museum, and several Bay Area conservators in private practice will be available, free of charge, to consult with those who may have suffered damage to their artwork as a result of the East Bay fire.

In early January, the auditorium of The Oakland Museum will be open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm for residents to bring in smoke- damaged or water-damaged objects. Specialists in the conservation of paintings, works on paper, textiles, decorative arts, sculpture and ethnographic arts will assist with advice on the proper cleaning and repair of these materials. Those who cannot bring in original artwork are requested to bring a photograph of the damaged piece.

For those who may need earlier access to such information, conservators at The Oakland Museum may be contacted at 415/273- 3806, or at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at 415/750- 3649. --Therese O'Gorman and John Burke

Regional Reporter:
Therese O'Gorman
Oakland Museum
1000 Oak Street
Oakland, CA 94607
415/273-3806

Rocky Mountain Region

The RMCC has a new Conservator of Photographic Materials and Paper. Paul Messier worked most recently at the Conservation Analytical Lab, of the Smithsonian Institution, on research focusing on the properties, degradation and treatment of albumen photographs. Paul will be concentrating a large part of his attention on conserving the Denver Art Museum's Wolfe Collection of l9th century American landscape photographs.

M. Randall Ash, Head of the Paintings Department, is in La Paz, Bolivia on a Fulbright Award. She is teaching conservation for the next four months.

Lori Mellon, Director of RMCC, attended three conferences in October. The NIC and the Association of Regional Conservation Centers meetings were held in Washington, DC, and the MPMA meeting was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Object Conservator Judy Greenfield attended "A Symposium on Ancient and Historic Metals," a course presented by the Getty Conservation Institute in November.

Paintings Conservator Cynthia Kuniej and Conservation Assistant Hays Shoop recently traveled to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to conduct a survey of the murals in that city's courthouse/post office as part of a GSA project to restore and renovate the building.

Gina Laurin, Head of the Objects Department, has been traveling a great deal performing surveys for various institutions including the Aspen Historical Society, the Oscar Anderson House in Anchorage, Alaska, Raspberry Island Lighthouse Station (a National Park Service site in Apostle Island, Wisconsin) and the Pioneer Museum in Lander, Wyoming. She is scheduled to survey the State Agricultural Heritage Museum in Brookings, South Dakota.

RMCC conservators will be conducting Collections Care Workshops for five small/rural Colorado museums/historical sites over the next several months, thanks in part to a grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities.

Carl Patterson has joined the Denver Art Museum (DAM) staff as conservator. After completing several survey commitments, Carl has focused his efforts on setting up DAM's first conservation lab and installation activities for the reopening of the Asian and New World floors in late 1992. Led by associate registrar, Deb Ashe, the DAM's Collections Management Team has just rehoused over 35,000 diverse objects in a state-of-the-art centralized storage facility. As a member of the team, Carl will be participating in presenting a series of lectures on the storage facility and collections care. Carl may be reached at (303)640- 2431.

The Denver Art Museum recently hosted a reception, both to honor Carl Patterson and to welcome other new conservators to the Denver area. Newcomers include Camilla Van Vooren, assistant paintings conservator at Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts, Cynthia Kuniej, associate paintings conservator, and Paul Messier, paper and photographic materials conservator, Rocky Mountain Conservation Center. The gathering of representatives of Denver's Civic Center Cultural Complex, RMCC and WCCFA enjoyed an opportunity to socialize with new and old acquaintances.

In September, Laura Wait attended a workshop on manuscript and parchment repair and conservation taught by Abigail Quandt at the Campbell Center. With Bob Hagerty, Laura is expanding her bookbinding and conservation services to include fabrication of archival boxes.

Beverly Perkins has joined the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming, as conservator. As well as overseeing the conservation activities of four museums, she is equipping a conservation lab for treatment of objects. Beverly has developed a disaster plan for the center and is now focusing on upgrading the Plains Indian installations and redoing storage. She may be reached at (307)587-4771.

David Bauer, associate paintings conservator, WCCFA, presented a lecture on "The Impact of Art Forgery on the Western Art World" at Jackson Hole's Western Art Symposium, Jackson, Wyoming, this fall. Robert McCarroll, WCCFA chief paper conservator, was a member of the faculty for the Out-of-Print and Antiquarian Book Market Seminary/Workshop held in Denver in August. Carmen F. Bria, Jr., chief conservator, WCCFA, is presently working on a mural by Louise Ronnebeck for the General Services Administration's office in Grand Junction, Colorado. The large, lunette shaped canvas was created in 1940 under a Treasury Department program which decorated 1,100 U.S. post offices.

Regional Reporter:
Constance K. Mohrman
WCCFA
1225 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
303/573-1973

Pacific Northwest

Helen Alten spent July and August as Site Conservator on Stanford's Panakton Excavation Project in central Greece. She worked on Neolithic, Mycenean, Classical and Frankish material. Since returning, she has surveyed historic totem poles in Ketchikan, modern art in Anchorage, and airplanes and transportation equipment in Palmer. She gave a presentation to Museums Alaska annual meeting (October 21-25) on "Improving the Artifact's Experience." She is grateful for help from Scott Reuter at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Preparation Department, for lists of tested materials.

SOS! Grant: Alaska is working on a cooperative grant which would address needs of outdoor sculpture, especially totem poles. Two totem pole symposia have been held this year, one in Sitka (sponsored by the National Park Service) and one in Haines (sponsored by Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan). Outlined needs include a comprehensive inventory of standing poles and known documentation on them; a condition survey, and a prioritized plan of action. Interested groups include the State of Alaska, the National Park Service, the Native Corporations, city governments in southeast Alaska, and individuals.

Nancy Barr spent July in Los Angeles with Sharon Shore (Caring for Textiles) and with Catherine McLean (LACMA Textile Conservation) learning about the care and conservation of textiles. She will give a presentation at the Alaska State Museums during November about her summer training experience.

Jack and Troy Lucas removed five murals from the US Post Office in Burns, Oregon, for conservation treatment in the Lucas laboratory. They are currently finishing treatment of a large (16'x3') Sydney Laurence painting for the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham, Washington.

Jack and Jane Lucas attended the AIC meeting in Albuquerque.

Barbara Roberts is completing a grant-funded project at the Illinois State Museum entitled "At Home in the Heartland" involving preparation and conservation work. She has recently finished treatment of two cabinets attributed to Pierre Golle, from the Reves Collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, funded by a grant from the Getty Foundation. Barbara will be in Paris during December for the ICOM exec. meeting, to discuss plans for the ICOM ad hoc Committee on Hazard Mitigation which she heads.

Jonathan Taggart and Taggart Objects Conservation have moved. The new address is: 1573 Grand Ave., Astoria, OR 97103; (503)325- 7279.

Sandra Troon has recently completed treatment of twenty-four dolls for an exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and nine textiles for the Seattle Art Museum. Troon, Jack Thompson, and James Reiss presented a Heritage Preservation workshop series at the Maryhill Museum of Art, October 25-27.

Patricia Tuttle-Leavengood has shortened her name; she is now using Patricia Leavengood.

Regional Reporter:
Patricia Leavengood
At Conservation Services
215 2nd Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104
206/587-3725

Greater Los Angeles and Santa Barbara

Rosanna Zubiate of the Textile Conservation Studio in La Canada Flintridge--also WAAC Newsletter column editor--married Peter Brenner, head photographer at LACMA, on September 1. She has changed her name to Rosanna Zubiate-Brenner.

Steven Cristin-Poucher has changed his name to Steven Colton.

Michael Duffy has joined the staff at LACMA's Conservation Center as Assistant Paintings Conservator. He returns to LACMA after a two year absence during which time he worked at the Guggenheim Museum and the Worcester Art Museum.

Nancy Barr volunteered this past summer with Sharon Shore of Caring for Textiles and with Catherine McLean at LACMA. Nancy visited Los Angeles from Juneau, Alaska, where she volunteers part-time for Helen Alten, State Conservator.

Maureen Russell has joined the staff of the Conservation Center at LACMA as Associate Objects Conservator. Previously, Maureen worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Fogg Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Emily Dunn has begun a one year NEA intemship in the Objects Conservation Laboratory at LACMA. This follows a one-year intemship at the J.Paul Getty Museum.

Susan Sayre Batton continues her work in the Paper Conservation Laboratory at LACMA with a one-year NEA intemship. Her work will focus upon a variety of projects drawn from the permanent collection including preparing 75 Goltzius prints for loan. She and Victoria Blyth-Hill will be organizing a half-day symposium on the conservation of Tibetan thangkas at the WAAC meeting next fall (see page 2, this WAAC Newsletter).

Alexander Kossolapov, former head of the scientific department at the State Heritage Museum in St. Petersburg, has completed a one- year special fellowship at LACMA's Conservation Center. He will continue to work for an additional year at LACMA on computerized x-ray tomographic images and the development of new methods of infrared reflectography and infrared absorption.

Lisa Courtney Forman is currently working on the conservation of an archive of over 50,000 objects in association with Aitchison and Watters, Inc. Deborah Derby, a conservation assistant at the Getty Conservation Institute, is working with Aitchison and Watters, Inc. on a weekly basis, assisting with several large photographic conservation projects.

Susana Zubiate has begun a one-year internship with Robin Chamberlin at UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History. The internship is in fulfillment of her requirements for a M.S. degree from the Winterthur University of Delaware Art Conservation Program. Her current projects include the examination and treatment of mold on painted wooden folk art.

Volunteering one day a week for Robin Chamberlin is Tanya Collas, a UCLA student who is interested in attending conservation school. She is helping with the vacuuming of ethnographic objects containing fur or hair.

Susanne Friend and Duane Chartier of ConservArt Associates presently are carrying out conservation of a WPA Mural painting by Helen Lundeberg in the Fullerton (CA) Police Station. One- third of the painting was covered with several layers of house paint in the 1960s and '70s and poses an interesting problem in that both the original paint layers as well as the first overpaint layers are oil. This necessitated the development of mechanical removal techniques. The project is being carried out with the assistance of Viviana Dominguez and Brian Linke.

Judith Walsh, newly appointed paper conservator at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, visited Los Angeles for a week to work on projects in the studio of Paula Volent. During this visit, Judy taught a workshop on new techniques for paper pulp fills. She will be back in California to repeat the workshop at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino some time next year. Susanne Deal Booth is working one day a week on paper conservation projects at Paula's studio. At the beginning of the year, Paula Volent will be teaching a workshop on the treatment of oversized contemporary works of art at the graduate program in conservation at Buffalo State College in New York.

Rosa Lowinger of Sculpture Conservation Studio in Santa Monica announces that the Studio will move to a new location in the Los Angeles mid-Wilshire district. The new address is: 1142 South Stanley Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90019. Moving will be completed around 20 December 1991.

Chris Stavroudis (AIC Painting Specialty Group Vice-Chair) with the help of Eric Hansen (AIC Conservation Science Task Force) and Christine Daulton (PSG Chair) prepared the Paintings Specialty Group Questionnaire for the AIC Task Force on Conservation Research. It is hoped that the results of the survey will serve as a catalyst to inspire work in those areas of conservation most needed by practicing conservators. For more information on the work of the Task Force, see the AIC Newsletter.

Laura Mau arrived in October to begin a one year internship. Laura is a graduate of the Winterthur Art Conservation Program. She spent her third year internship last year at the Center for Conservation & Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museum.

At The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Antiquities Conservation Department co-sponsored with Decorative Arts Conservation and the Getty Conservation Institute a "Symposium of Ancient and Historical Metals: Conservation and Scientific Research." The symposium was held at the J. Paul Getty Museum November 21-23.

Brigette Bourgeois, Curator in Charge of Archaeology, Conservation Service, Director of French Museums attended the Metals Symposium and then on Wednesday, November 27, she gave a seminar at the museum on "Conservation in France: International Projects and the Restructuring of the Grand Louvre."

In December, LACMA will lend the Getty Museum one Egyptian sarcophagus and two sarcophagi lids dating to the 21st dynasty. The polychromed wood sarcophagus and lids will be conserved in the Antiquities Department and then will be displayed in a temporary exhibition commemorating the completion of the conservation of the wall paintings in the tomb of Nefertari. The conservation project, which will be completed in the spring of 1992, has been sponsored by The Egyptian Antiquities Organization and the Getty Conservation Institute. The exhibition will be hosted at the Getty and is scheduled to open in November of next year.

Maya Elston, Associate Conservator Antiquities Conservation JPGM, presented a paper at the International Symposium for the Conservation of Glass and Ceramics, organized by the ICOM Ceramics and Glass Working group. The meeting was held in Amsterdam in September 1991. Maya's presentation was the "Conservation of a Red Figure Kylix from the Cleveland Art Museum." The piece is currently on loan at the Getty Museum.

Elizabeth Mention and Yvonne Szafran are preparing an exhibition detailing the conservation of Orazio Gentileschi's "Mother and Child." The show will be called "Innocent Bystander", and will open December 12th. Elizabeth Mention made a presentation about this project at the WAAC annual Meeting in Seattle (see WAAC Annual Meeting: Presentation Summaries, this WAAC Newsletter).

Fine Art Conservation Laboratories in Santa Barbara, CA, directed by Scott M. Haskins is pleased to announce that Glancaria Zanardi will be joining the conservation staff as a visiting conservator for the next three years. Ms. Zanardi comes from Bergamo, Italy, and will begin work on January 1, 1992. Her past experiences include fresco work by Paolo Veronese in the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto by Andrea Paladio in Vicenza, Italy, paintings by the Tiepolo brothers, work the plasters by Antonio Canova and experience with l9th century paintings. Ms. Zanardi will be joining WAAC and she looks forward to meeting professionals from this organization.

Shirley Purcilly has joined Glenn Wharton and Associates as office manager. Shirley has most recently served as an administrative assistant at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum.

Claire Dean recently spent a week working with John Griswold on several studio and site projects.

The Decorative Arts Conservation Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum welcomes Jane Bassett as their new Associate Conservator. Jane, formerly of the Pacific Regional Conservation Center in Honolulu, is on the speaker's roster for the Getty's metals symposium.

Regional Reporters:
Catherine McLean
Conservation Center, LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
213/857-6169
and
John Griswold
Glenn Wharton and Associates
549 Hot Springs Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
805/565-3639

Texas

In September, Sue Murphy left her position as Senior Conservator of the Conservation Department in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas to become the Curator for the Center's Art Collections. Ms. Murphy spent the month of October working in France and London on a Professional Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She presented a paper at the ARSAG conference in Paris, traveled to three French paper mills, and then spent three weeks in London interviewing staff members in the Collections Management, Conservation, Exhibition, and Registration Departments of the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Tate Gallery, The British Museum, and The National Gallery.

Karen Pavelka has been appointed the Head of the Paper Lab in the Conservation Department at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. In October she gave a talk at the Columbia University School of Library Services on natural aging experiments at the HRHRC, and conducted book repair workshops in Tulsa and Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Conservation Congress.

Jessica Johnson has been appointed Assistant Conservator for the Texas Memorial Museum's Materials Conservation Laboratory at the University of Texas in Austin. Ms.Johnson completed her conservation training degree at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, and comes to the Texas Memorial Museum from a postgraduate internship at the Smithsonian Institution.

Claire Barry has been appointed Chief Paintings Conservator for the Kimbell Art Museum and the neighboring Amon Center Museum in Fort Worth.

In October, Margaret Contompasis began work at the Menil Collection as the Museum's first Mellon Fellow in Paintings Conservation. Ms. Contompasis received her M.A. and Certificate of Advanced Study in Conservation from the University of New York at Buffalo. She comes to the Menil following a third-year internship at the Henry Francis Dupont Museum at Winterthur, and a summer spent on a research grant in France.

James Stroud traveled to the State of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf recently as a consultant to the National Museum there. The project was organized by the United States Information Agency and funded by the State of Bahrain.

In October, Olivia Primamis attended the ARSAG conference in Paris and the Vellum Leaf workshop at the Campbell Center in Mt. Carroll, Illinois.

In November, Cathy Henderson (Chairperson) and Sue Murphy met at the Library of Congress with the six other members of the National Information Standards Organization committee. The committee is drafting a document of standards for the exhibition of library and archival materials.

Lisbeth Pederson has returned to Denmark after approximately two years of employment as Associate Paper Conservator with Perry Huston and Associates in Fort Worth.

Perry Huston is working with Rusty Levenson on the conservation treatment of mural paintings at the Old Custom House in New York City as part of a complete renovation project for the building. Perry Huston and Associates is also completing the treatment of three W.P.A. murals by Lucile Lloyd which were previously removed by Ben Johnson from a state government building in Los Angeles that was being demolished. After the present conservation treatment is completed the murals will be installed in the California State Capitol building in Sacramento.

The Decorative Arts Collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has been temporarily moved from its usual location at the Bayou Bend Mansion to 20,000 square feet of specially prepared exhibition space at the headquarters of Tenneco Gas in downtown Houston. The arrangement is part of a $7.5 million capital campaign which includes upgrading the museum's mechanical systems, replacing the roof, and construction of a recently completed, 40,000 square foot conservation and storage facility. Paintings, Objects, and Furniture Labs are presently being developed in the new building. Steven Pine, Decorative Arts Conservator, and Wynne Phelan, Adjunct Conservator, have begun work in the new labs on a mass fumigation program for textiles and furniture. The fumigation process utilizes carbon dioxide and the B & G Equipment Company's portable Mini Fumigation Bubble.

On October 28th at Trinity University in San Antonio, and on November 2nd at the Kimbell Art Museum, Dr. Fabrizio Mancinelli of the Vatican Museums gave slide lectures on Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and their recent conservation treatment.

Regional Reporter:
Mark van Gelder
Conservation Department
Huntington Art Gallery, U. of Texas
23rd and San Jacinto
Austin, TX 78712
512/471-9204

Arizona & New Mexico

Nancy Odegaard (Arizona State Museum) taught Collections Care in the Collections Management Course of the Smithsonian Institution's Native American Program, November 3-7, 1991, in Wisconsin. Nancy and Vicki Cassman with Jayne Fife completed an archaeological materials stabilization project at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at Brigham Young University. Nancy was assisted by 3rd year conservation interns Scott Carroll, Rebecca Snyder and Michelle Hebert on a CAP survey in Utah in October.

Robert Arnold is opening a private conservation practice in the Phoenix area; he can be reached at (602)990-2742.

Steve Weintraub came to Santa Fe in August to conduct an environmental study of three museums in the Museum of New Mexico system. He is returning in November under an IMS grant to do an environmental study of the Palace of the Governors, the Museum of New Mexico's history museum.

Bettina Raphael gave a talk about CAP surveys as part of a panel on collections management at the Mountains-Plains Museum Association (of the AAM) Meetings in Albuquerque in October. The expertise of the other panelists, neither of whom are conservators, reflect a growing trend in museums toward specializations in areas which have previously fallen under the conservation umbrella. The other panelists included Linda Weiner, a.k.a., "the Bug Lady," from the Museum of International Folk Art, and Willow Roberts, the archivist and archival storage specialist at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/ Laboratory of Anthropology. Collections management specialists such as these, often working in consultation with a conservation lab, can offer museums the kind of in-depth programs and solutions that a busy conservation lab often cannot devote enough time to.

Regional Reporters:
Landis Smith
208 A Gonzales Rd.
Santa Fe NM 87501
505/989-9379
and
Nancy Odegaard
Arizona State Museum
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
602/621-6314

Hawaii

Dale Kronkright has left PRCC/Bishop Museum to open a private practice in the Bay Area; he will continue his association with PRCC and Bishop Museum in the capacity of Conservation and Managerial Affiliate to carry out management and treatment functions.

Jane Bassett has also departed PRCC/Bishop Museum, to take up a position at the J. Paul Getty Museum as Associate Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts.

Larry Pace, Downey Manoukian and Linda Hee led a question and answer session on recovery techniques as part of a Disaster Preparedness Workshop presented by Hawaii Museums Association.

Larry Pace recently completed treatment of a number of paintings by Hawaii artists from the last 150 years, for an upcoming Honolulu Academy of Arts show.

Linda Hee gave a lecture on Archival Materials for the Fabrication of Quilts, to the Hawaii Quilt Guild.

The Objects Lab at PRCC is heavily involved in the treatment of the Bishop Museum's Ruff Collection. Received in March, 1990, the collection numbers 1600 ethnographic artifacts collected over a 25-year period from Papua New Guinea, by Ruth and Wallace Ruff. Bishop Museum and PRCC were awarded an N.E.A. grant to fund the treatment and stabilization of the collection.

Regional Reporter:
Jeffrey Kimball
Pacific Regional Conservation Center
Bishop Museum
P. 0. Box 19000-A
Honolulu, HI 96817
808/848-4112