OUTDOOR SCULPTURE CONSERVATION: On June 20-22, 2012, Robert Lodge, company president and industrial coatings specialist for the company’s sculpture conservation projects, attended the meeting:
The Conservation of Twentieth-Century Painted Outdoor Sculpture
Painted OUTDOOR SCULPTURE EXPERTS MEETING
The three day meeting for painted outdoor sculpture experts was organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and hosted by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together a small group of conservators, representatives from artists’ estates/foundations, and professionals from the paint industry to outline, discuss and address some of the key issues in the conservation of outdoor painted sculpture, and to explore potential research and collaboration. Thirty-two were in attendance.
All issues were “on the table” and to manage that the conference organizers implemented break-out groups, each taking a smaller portion of issues to further organize, discuss and report back to the whole body where an attempt was made to identify an organizational structure of all the issues and find priorities.
Tom Learner, Getty Conservation Institute head of modern art and research, deftly shepherded the attention to all issues to varying conclusions, agreements, as well as on consensus on areas clearly needing further defining, and did so within the allotted time.
The meeting concluded with a ferry ride for the painted outdoor sculpture experts from lower Manhattan to Governor’s Island to view sculptures by Mark di Suvero, led by Ivana Mestrovic (Spacetime) and David Collens (Storm King).
A summary report on topics discussed with comments made by participants during the meeting was produced by the Getty Conservation Institute.
ATTENDEES (and their places at the time):
- Sarah Auld,
Director, Tony Smith Estate, New York, NY - Lydia Beerkens,
Senior Conservator of Modern Art, SRAL Maastricht, Wijchen, The Netherlands - Fredirke Breder,
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Duisburg, Germany - John Campbell,
John Campbell Conservation, Long Island City, NY - David Collins,
Director, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY - Crosby Coughlin,
Crosby Coughlin Fine Art, North Salem, NY - Jack Cowart,
Executive Director, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, New York, NY - John Escarsega,
Senior Research Coating Chemist, US Army Research Laboratory, Coating Research Office, MD - Jennifer Gibson,
Director, Art in Architecture and Fine Arts, U.S. General Services Administration, Washington, DC - Tom Learner,
Head, Modern and Contemporary Art Research, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA - Felix Lehner,
Kunstgiesserei, St. Gallen, Switzerland - Alfred Lippincott,
President, Lippincott’s, LLC, Wassaic, NY - Robert G. Lodge,
President, McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc., Oberlin, OH - Rosa Lowinger,
Principal, Rosa Lowinger & Associates, Conservation of Sculpture and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA - Abigail Mack,
Principal and Objects Conservator, Abigail Mack Art Conservation, LLC, Red Hook, NY - Gary Mattison,
Department Coordinator, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA - Katy May,
Objects Conservation Department, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC - Richard McCoy,
Conservator of Objects and Variable Art, Indianapolis, IN - Ivana Mestrovic,
Director, Spacetime C.C., Long Island City, NY - Maria Nevelson,
Founder, Executive Director, Louise Nevelson Foundation, Inc., Philadelphia, PA - Janet Passehl,
Curator, The LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT - Tracy Power,
Conservator, Tracy Power Objects Conservation. San Francisco, CA - Marla Prather,
Curator, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY - Rachel Rivenc,
Assistant Scientist, Modern and Contemporary Art Research, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA - Kendra Roth,
Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY - James Sejd,
President, ASCO, Manassas, VA - George T. Smith,
Consultant, Florida Protective Coatings Consultants, Inc. Lake Mary, FL - John Steele,
Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, MI - Ann Strauss,
Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY - Jeanne Marie Teutonico,
Associate Director, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA - Julie Wolfe,
Conservator Associate, J. Paul. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, - Lynda Zycherman,
Conservator of Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY