Industry Voice: David Stein

I am one of those lucky ones. From an early age I found a life-long career that I adore. I am a fine art conservator. I care for artworks and my specialisation is the conservation of paintings.

Restoration and the repair of art has been around ever since art was created. Art conservation, however, is a newish profession and when I went to university to start my studies straight after leaving school in 1980, it was a brand-new profession in Australia. Conservation is the scientific approach to the maintenance and preservation of works of art and historical artefacts and the protection from future damage and deterioration. Today, a qualified conservator needs to have a recognised university degree in conservation. I graduated with my degree in 1985 from the University of Canberra.

Most conservators work in government art institutions such as museums and galleries and I started my professional life as a conservator at the National Gallery of Victoria, then the Art Gallery of New South Wales and later the Museum of Contemporary Art. In the early 1990s as the art market began to really gain momentum in Australia, it struck me that there was a growing demand for museum-quality conservation in the private sector. I started my conservation practice in 1991, (almost thirty years ago). Today, I employ seven qualified conservators in a busy, state-of-the-art studio in Alexandria.

My interest in art started at school and with family travels abroad visiting museums and galleries. It was the 1970s and my art teachers were psychedelic abstract painters, hippy tie-dyers and ceramicists. Materiality of art objects started to become interesting to me. I loved learning history, particularly art history. I loved visiting museums and galleries. When Robert Hughes The Shock of the New screened on the ABC in my final year of school, I was enthralled. I became entranced by the exciting new American avant-garde artists and particularly the ABEX’S (abstract expressionists) as they became known. I was not drawn into creating artwork myself, I’m not that creative, but rather drawn to the artworks themselves and the history behind them. Artworks, did then and as they continue to do today, speak to me. I like to understand their context, their purpose, their spirit and emotion. When I was considering doing conservation at university, I organised a visit to the conservation laboratory at the Art Gallery of NSW, for which I am forever grateful. There I saw, for the first time, a painting undergoing treatment – a Camille Pissarro out of its frame, fragile, vulnerable, having some tiny areas of paint flaking stabilised under a microscope and to my impressionable eye, it was the point where micro surgery met art history, a fusion of science and art, this was better than anything I knew (and still is!). I always enjoy taking people through my studio, showing and discussing the conservation process.

As a conservator I work with paintings every day. From all periods, all areas of the globe and of all financial values. I’m often asked what my favourite painting or my favourite period or movement is, but there is no single favourite. When in the moment anything can become my instant favourite, as my emotional response captures me.

As a collector, my interests are mid-century Australian Abstraction and African and Oceanic art. I started collecting from the moment I could afford to. Our house is filled, wall to celling, with abstract art, sculpture, African and Oceanic objects, books and ceramics. I come home from a studio filled with art to a home filled with art. That is happiness.

Conservation is a technical skill. It’s not creative, but a considered, behind the scenes, slow and meticulous labour of love. It can be extremely rewarding and satisfying for the conservator, but the real rewards are for the artworks. Conservation, in the right hands, will maintain what the artist intended so that they can continue to excite, inspire and thrill for future generations.

Follow David Stein

Website: artrestoration.com.au Instagram:@davidsteinandco_artrestoration