Against time – the conservation of art

NYT art critic John Russell once called an oil painting a “vegetable construct that changes in time.” Conservation steps in to manage change, whether it evolved slowly or happened in a second.

A case of the latter: Jeff Koons’ St. John the Baptist probably cracked its arm during a short ride through Seattle from Artech storage to the Bagley and Virginia Wright Exhibition Space in 2004.
Produced in an edition of three with an artist’s proof, Saint John is from the 1988 Banality series of large-scale, ceramic sculptures.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles from the same series is the largest porcelain sculpture ever made. Saint John is a close second, at 56 inches high, 29 inches wide and 17 inches deep.
Story about the conservation efforts that left John whole but with a scar here.

Thursday night at Cornish College of the Arts is a panel discussion with the overblown title, Eros-Bios-Thanatos: Conundrums in Conservation of Contemporary Art, at 1000 Lenora Street, 7:30-9 p.m., 7th floor.

The panelists are worth hearing: Mitchell Hearns Bishop from the Getty Conservation Institute & curator, Los Angeles County Arboretum;
Nicholas Dorman, chief conservator, Seattle Art Museum;
Claire Gerhard, independent conservator, now in Seattle recently working at the Whitney, MoMa & Mozambique, and moderator Elizabeth Darrow.