ART - Conservators Light on the Irreplaceable

"Conservators shine new light on irreplaceable art" PBS NewsHour 12/26/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A series of paintings created by Mark Rothko for Harvard University was thought irreparably damaged by years of sun exposure and removed from view.  Thirty-five years later, the paintings have returned, thanks to art historians and curators using digital projection, which offers viewers the appearance of restoration for works too fragile to touch.  Special correspondent Jared Bowen of WGBH reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now, an art restoration breakthrough.

An international team of art historians and curators have developed a new technique to restore works of art without ever touching them.  It’s being used for the first time on a Mark Rothko mural.

Jared Bowen from WGBH in Boston has this report.

JARED BOWEN, WGBH in Boston:  Even in 1960, it was a coup, when Harvard University landed Mark Rothko to paint a series of murals for its new penthouse dining room.  Rothko was already considered one of the country’s greatest artist, and this was to be among his biggest commissions.

NARAYAN KHANDEKAR, Senior Conservation Scientist, Harvard Art Museums:  He really wanted you to be up close and surrounded by his work so that you could feel the — feel the painting.

JARED BOWEN:  Rothko paint panels to envelop the space.  They and the studies and sketches he produced in planning them are now on view in the newly renovated Harvard Art Museum’s first special exhibition.

They were robustly read, says curator Mary Schneider Enriquez.

MARY SCHNEIDER ENRIQUEZ, Associate Curator, Harvard Art Museum:  He had been focusing on these kind of purples and crimson, as we like to say, of course, at Harvard.

The ground of crimson or purple is then set off with these extraordinary contrasts of this red that is just incredible.  As you look at any of his paintings, the play of color and contrast blending and then working against and with each other has always been essential to his work.

JARED BOWEN:  The panels were officially installed in 1964, but were in steep competition with the room’s Harvard Yard views.  The penthouse shades were rarely drawn and the light-sensitive murals suffered substantial damage.