WUDPAC Class of 1983 alumnus Chris Stavroudis is partnering with colleagues at the Getty Conservation Institute to treat a work by Jackson Pollock in the galleries of the Museum of Contemporary Art. From the December 13, 2017 article by Jori Finkel for The Art Newspaper:
An important drip painting by Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1949, housed in the Museum
of Contemporary Art (Moca LA) in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years, is
about to get a very public cleaning. The nine-foot wide canvas covered
in tangles of gray, cream, gold and black paint will be restored in an
open gallery at the museum’s Grand Avenue location from 4 March to 3
September, with a conservator from the Getty Conservation Institute on
hand to take questions during set times (although the schedule has yet
to be announced).
The GCI’s head of science,
Tom Learner describes the painting’s condition as “good for its size”
and gives a simple reason for the conservation treatment. “The canvas is
dirty—think about all the exposure to the environment, especially on
days like this, with ash falling,” he says, referring to the recent
wildfires in Los Angeles. “It looks a little dull, it’s in need of a
little TLC.”
The
partnership with the GCI allows MOCA, which does not have its own staff
conservator, “to lift the veil on this kind of work” and share the
science of the restoration as it goes along, says the museum’s director
Philippe Vergne. . . .
A very early test cleaning
of one small area, done by Chris Stavroudis, a private conservator who
works with the Getty who has signed on for the project, has already
yielded good results. “In a lot of the off-white, almost cream-coloured
enamel paint, he’s seen a significant level of dirt coming off,” Learner
says.
Do they
anticipate any challenges? Learner mentions some “undulations” in the
canvas that need to be properly assessed and treated as well as “exposed
parts of the canvas when there’s no paint at all, which are looking a
bit discoloured. Sometimes those areas can be evened up, sometimes not”.
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