Modern Art, Modern Conservation

Most people might not think of modern art in conservation.  Usually restoring, preserving, and taking care of older, archaeological objects often comes to mind.  This is what I was thinking when I was assigned Lisa Krigel’s sculpture “Wardrobe” from the Newport Museum.

This beautiful ceramic sculpture is of a wardrobe with a female figure and all of her ceramic clothes hanging on the walls.  I admit that I was completely confused as to why I was repairing a piece that was only about ten years old.  That was when I did some research and discovered how incredibly awesome modern art conservation really is.  You actually get to talk to the artist!  Obviously this is not possible with ancient artefacts that need conserving so I was very excited about being able to have conservation input from the source of the art.

"Wardrobe" By Lisa Krigel complete in the lab after treatment.

The first thing that I did was test adhesives to check which one would work best in repairing the earthenware ceramic which the broken female figure was made out of.  I broke a plate and tested different adhesives as well as researched their characteristics.  Out of cellulose nitrate, Paraloid B-72, and epoxy resin, I decided the consistency and adhesion of the B-72 was ideal for my little three-legged female figure.

Taking good care of the female figure.

Another conservation skill that I got to learn with this piece was gap filling.  The back of the wardrobe had a small gap which I decided would be more aesthetically appealing to have filled for future display.  There was also a bit of corroded copper that was coming through from the inner frame that I wanted to protect.  I basically had to make a putty that would match the colour of the surrounding area and fill the gap.  This was easier said than done—I found out the hard way that a little bit of pigment goes a long way.  I used calcium carbonate and B-72 again (it’s so versatile!) to match the grainy, porous earthenware texture.  I then tried to match the pale pinkish colour of the wardrobe and instead created a giant mess of bright pink bubble gum coloured goo.  Unfortunately, I did not manage to take a picture of this disaster before I had help from my tutor to finally get the right colour for the gap fill.

After it dried, I decided that there were too many bubbles in my gap fill and I wanted to re-do it.  Luckily, B-72 is very easily reversed and I removed it straight away with acetone.  For round 2 I used epoxy as it doesn’t involve a dissolving solvent that would cause bubbles.  This worked out much better and the finished fill matched the rest of the back of the wardrobe very well.

Bubbles: Paraloid B-72 is an adhesive that is mixed with a solvent to get the right consistency for application.  So as the acetone in my gap fill evaporated, it left the B-72 behind as well as some un-appealing bubbles.

Spot the fill!

The main interesting conservation aspect of modern art is that it is… modern!  This means that as a conservator, you may not have to try and retain all the original material of the object as you can probably still get it or make it today.  Instead, priority is often given to making sure the modern art piece maintains the artist’s concept and meaning.  Sometimes, with modern art, display is more important than preservation for generations to come.