CONSERVATION

Our Conservator of Sculpture & Decorative Arts oversaw the planning and implementation of the Cypriot conservation project, reviewing condition reports for up to 200 objects slated for installation in the new Cypriot Gallery in 2024, and consulting with a contracted objects conservator (Dimitra Pantoulia) and a guest Cypriot curator (Joanna Smith). She also ensured the successful preparation, shipment, installation, and return of 35 objects from the Circus collection for loan to an exhibition at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montreal, Canada. In addition, she treated Anne Truitt’s sculpture Morning Air for the exhibition, As long as there is sun, as long as there is light

Major painting conservation treatment projects completed in the Conservation Laboratory included the Nicolás Rodríguez Juarez Holy Family with Saints Anne and Joachim and the Alexis-Simon Belle Portrait of John Tucker. The Joshua Reynolds John Manners, Marquess of Granby—the oil sketch for our monumental painting of the same name—neared completion.

Contracted conservation projects included the treatment of several works on paper for exhibition (Sonja Jordan-Mowery) and treatment of ten bronze objects for the 2024 installation of the Cypriot Gallery (Dimitra Pantoulia).

In May 2022, a major conservation project was started on the cast stone cornice and balustrade on the façade at the east entrance to the Museum of Art (EverGreene Architectural Arts and Standard Restoration). Failed mortar, caulking, and waterproofing materials were removed. The cast stone was cleaned, treated to remove and discourage biological growth, and then stabilized, caulked, patched, and waterproofed. Failed corbel brackets—most of which were not original— were replaced by replicated elements using a less corrosive anchoring system. Maintenance treatment of the bronze statue of David in the Museum of Art Courtyard was completed (EverGreene). In addition, a conservation assessment of the terra cotta and stained glass windows and doors on the ground floor West face of Ca’ d’Zan was conducted (EverGreene) in preparation for the next major phase of treatment. Grants were secured from the Wohlers Family Foundation and the Dalbeck Memorial Trust for maintenance treatment of the Bolger Family Reflecting Pool and associated elements at Ca’ d’Zan, to be carried out in the fall of 2022.

Emily Brown delivered her annual lecture on the history of glass manufacture to graduate students of the Winterthur-University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She was awarded a $1,500 scholarship by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation to support participation in a three-day workshop, Rigging Basics for Conservation Professionals, in Los Angeles, CA.

Barbara Ramsay and Dr. Nick Barbi co-authored an article in The Ringling Magazine, “Science in the Service of Art: X-ray Fluorescence” (Oct–Dec 2021). Ramsay co-authored, with former staff conservator Megan Salazar-Walsh and ArtCare conservators Oliver Watkiss and Rustin Levenson, an article on the Emperor Justinian Conserving Canvas project for the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Paintings Specialty Group Postprints titled “Training the Next Generation: A Conserving Canvas Collaboration between The Ringling and ArtCare Conservation.” Ramsay and Brown attended the AIC annual conference in Los Angeles in May 2022, where Ramsay also participated in the Getty Publications book launch and signing for the book Clyfford Still: The Artist’s Materials, which she co-authored with Susan F. Lake. Ramsay received the Award of Distinction 2022 from the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators.