State of the art: Art Conservation in Canada.

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Many chemists have never thought of a career in art conservation. Yet few areas allow such close contact with beautiful, historic objects--whether a ceramic piece with a lustrous glaze or an intricate watercolour. Only in conservation might you work with paintings by Michelangelo on the next table, as I did one winter at the National Gallery in London. This wonderful field provides insight into how art objects were made, educates us about their history, and enables us to step behind the galleries to the laboratories where art objects are treated and analyzed. It promotes collaboration among art historians, artists, archaeologists, chemists, and engineers. This article gives an overview of the field, discussing the specific education and work of conservators and conservation scientists. It describes several ongoing art conservation projects in Canada and worldwide.

Education

Art conservation is an exciting multidisciplinary field involving the examination, interpretation, analysis, and conservation of cultural, historic, and artistic objects. In Canada, the Art Conservation Program in the department of art at Queen's University offers the only master's program for both conservators and conservation scientists.

Conservators evaluate the condition of the object and formulate a plan for treatment, perform the hands-on conservation, and document all these steps. Objects being conserved may be paintings, works of art on paper (including fine art, photographs, and books), or objects made of metals, organic materials, ceramics, or textiles. Applicants to the conservation program at Queen's often have an undergraduate degree in studio art, art history, or archaeology and need prerequisites in general chemistry and organic chemistry. Conservation students with a humanities background learn to work with scientists and engineers to solve conservation-related problems using appropriate analytical techniques. Conversely, scientists and engineers who train to be conservators need to have prerequisites in the humanities. All conservation students must have taken studio art courses and present a portfolio of their work to demonstrate manual dexterity.

Conservation scientists work with conservators, analyzing objects to identify their components, investigating reasons for their degradation, and developing conservation treatments. This can involve many branches of chemistry including analytical, organic, inorganic, and polymer science, as well as other sciences and engineering disciplines. Conservation scientists need extensive training in one or more of these disciplines--positions usually require a PhD or MSc. There has been much discussion in the conservation community about the best path for a career in conservation science. Many of today's conservation scientists only discovered conservation when applying for jobs or fellowships. Conservation science students in the master's program at Queen's complete a thesis and take courses with the conservation treatment students. More PhD opportunities would be welcomed. For example, we would like to see joint research programs between professors in chemistry or materials science departments and conservation programs or institutions.

Conservators and conservation scientists are often Renaissance people, having been interested in a number of fields before happily discovering that all their talents could be combined in conservation. I attended a physics tutorial given by Fred Hedgcock when I was a chemistry undergraduate at McGill, and was thrilled to be introduced to conservation and the work of the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI). Although jobs are not plentiful, those who are persistent often find employment in the field. Recent graduates usually start with internships in museums, galleries, archives, libraries, or universities before going on to work for such organizations or in private, commercial labs.

Art conservation projects

Modern Art--Who Cares? was the provocative title of a conservation conference held in 1997. The answer is that increasingly more people do care. At Queen's, we have been investigating the uncharted conservation challenges presented by modern art. Since the 1960s, approximately 75 to 80 percent of artists in North America have used acrylic paints, which are quicker to dry than oil paints and offer other novel properties. The resulting paintings now need to be conserved. We are characterizing the changes brought about by cleaning, aging, and environmental conditions such as extremes of relative humidity and temperature. Chemical, mechanical, and surface methods of analysis are used to identify the materials removed by exposure to cleaning solutions and to record any changes in material properties. The Getty Conservation Institute recently published the proceedings from Modern Paints Uncovered, a conference held at Tare Modern in London, U.K. in May 2006. The discussion focused on the latest in conservation science research on modern materials.

One technique used extensively in the Queen's Art Conservation Program is Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy equipped with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) accessory. The FTIR-ATR instrument, overseen by H. F. (Gus) Shurvell, FCIC, professor emeritus at Queen's department of chemistry, is a key part of courses, research, and conservation treatments undertaken by students. Using FTIR-ATR, students have analyzed varnishes, pigments and grounds in paintings, surface coatings on paper, ancient ceramic objects, and dark patinas on Egyptian bronzes. Students have also monitored the degradation of objects, such as contemporary latex sculpture.

At Queen's, plans for a new centre for technical art history are being developed by the head of the department of art, Ron Spronk, who recently came to Queen's from the Straus Center for Conservation at the Harvard University Art Museums. In the new centre, art history and art conservation students will work jointly on actual art works, bringing together the various strands that contribute to the whole work, from the materials and techniques to the historical context.

Similar analytical work is performed on paintings by CCI in Ottawa. The Canadian Artists Painting Materials Research Project has investigated works by many Canadian artists including David Milne, Alfred Pellan, Paul-Emile Borduas, and Norval Morrisseau. The project has been critical in enabling the correct attribution of works of art and in developing an understanding of how artists created them. CCI hosted a very successful international conference, Symposium 2007-Preserving Aboriginal Heritage, last September, which focused on various approaches to the preservation of Aboriginal material culture. One scientific session discussed the detection of pesticides containing mercury and arsenic in art objects--pesticides originally intended to protect the art. Detection is carried out by means of newly available handheld X-ray fluorescence units. The increased handling of Aboriginal objects resulting from repatriation and strengthened ties between museums and Aboriginal groups makes such detection critically important.

The National Research Council Canada and various partners have used the three-dimensional laser scanner to examine not only Canadian objects, including the Royal Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, but also the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and Michelangelo's David in Florence, Italy. Doug Goltz, MCIC, at the University of Winnipeg and his collaborators have used hyperspectral imaging when examining paint, written documents, and maps in conservation and archival projects.

The world of art conservation is full of possibilities for scientific exploration. Art galleries and museums throughout the country have conservation departments that would welcome visits from interested scientists and look forward to future collaborations.

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Art Conservation Program at Queen's www.queensu.ca/art/ programs_artc.html

Panel Discussion on Modern Paints Uncovered Conference www.goldenpaints.com/justpaint/ jp15article1.php

Conservation Sources and Education Opportunities www.cci-icc.gc.ca/resources/links/ cons-sour_e.aspx

Alison Murray is an associate professor in the Art Conservation Program in the department of art at Queen's University in Kingston, ON. She is conducting a research program for characterizing and conserving modern materials and is keenly interested in science education for conservators and other non-scientists.