The history of art tells us that contemporary art can be traced back to Marcel Duchamp and his Fountain (1917), a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt". According to “The Blind Man” magazine’s article on the piece: "Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - and created a new thought for that object." Also, café Voltaire’s regulars, Dada artists, and their “ready-mades” revolutionized the meaning of art and opened a new world of ideas and materials.
Today, in contemporary art materials range from female stockings to mayonnaise, anything that could be available on an art store, a supermarket, a hardware store, a trash container and everything else out there dead or alive. These are now components of the fine arts palette.
Today, in contemporary art materials range from female stockings to mayonnaise, anything that could be available on an art store, a supermarket, a hardware store, a trash container and everything else out there dead or alive. These are now components of the fine arts palette.
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| Detail of Julianne Schnabel painting. |
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| Julianne Schnabel, mixed media. Paint on canvas with broken ceramic pieces. |
For the AIC (American Institute of Conservation) professional conservators who uphold the institution’s standards, respecting the artist’s intention not only refers to salvaging the materiality of the artwork, but also the statement implied in the artwork. Conservators have become the new Cenino Ceninis, the custodians of the artist’s cuisine, by recording, writing, and videotaping their methodology and concepts. In the last two decades, the field dedicated to save these documents for the present and future generations is facing new challenges everyday with these new art components, from perishable products (such as salami or chocolate) to pristine finishes and electronic media.
A whole new set of relentless questions have arisen: More traditional heritage objects have well-established hierarchy of values, and so does the well-established conservation philosophies. However, when it comes to contemporary art, the conservator works with a range of different and varied conservation philosophies and approaches. For example, I was once contacted by the City of Atlanta Cultural Affairs Division to conserve a wall drawing by Sol Lewitt from, a leading artist of the Minimalist and Conceptual movements, located on one their office building. Lewitt's mural were and still are to be executed by other people other than the artist himself, the wall drawings are executed on-site and the destroyed after the exhibition and re-done someplace else. There are only a few permanent murals and Drawing # 581(89/90) is one of them. Overtime the mural was neglected and was severely damaged accidentally. The event left the drawing with a large loss. The restoration of the artwork was done according Lewitt's principles instead to following the conservation traditional standards. In other words, minimum intervention by treating only those areas with losses.
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| Detail of the Living Room by Roy Lichtenstein, wallpaper series |
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| Detail of the Living Room with damaged (loss) on center |
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| Lithograph of Asger Jorn founder of COBRA (Copenhagen, Brussels +Amsterdam) movement. The group who's working methods were based on spontaneity and experiment, using found objects and materials in general. To read more click here |
In terms of Street Art, once considered vandals and vagrants, graffiti and street artists are now the celebrities of major capitals of the world. The painted walls are currently viewed as a great free art expression, taking the streets of large urban developments and beautifying the once forgotten walls. Worthy of being preserved.
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| Detail of Mural by Swoon. Painted with mixed media and xerox paper pasted on top. . |
Nowadays, conservators are not only trained in art history, scientific methods for material analysis, and environmental impact and treatment protocols of the artwork, but also on interviewing capabilities. The conservator keeps the dialogue open with the artist in regards to the preservation of their artwork. Also, we are being trained on rescuing art after a natural or man-made massive disaster, such as the work being done by AIC-CERT (Collection Emergency Response Team) at national and international level.
Viviana Dominguez, the author of this blog, is an AIC professional conservator and a member of AIC-CERT.
