Seeing Beyond the Frame

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Experiment Station

The “Seeing Beyond the Frame” Station in Seeing Nature, which invites visitors to contribute their imagined conservation discovery and a resulting new story about a work of art in the exhibition. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

As part of the exhibition Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, the Phillips encourages visitors to “see beyond the frame” with an interactive station focusing on conservation. In this space, you’re invited to learn about discoveries made while conserving works in the exhibition from the short videos playing in an adjacent gallery and peek into the part scientific, part detective work of an art conservator.

Each month, a different work of art from Seeing Nature is highlighted at this station and visitors are invited to create their own imagined conservation discoveries, explaining how their discoveries might change the known story about a work of art. From hidden underpaintings to long lost owners or artists, here are a few of our favorite creative submissions so far.

Visitors to Seeing Nature have submitted a variety of contributions to “Seeing Beyond the Frame.”

Picasso’s Blue Period From A Conservator’s Perspective

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Conservation

Associate Conservator Patricia Favero presenting at Museu Picasso in Barcelona.

Last week, Associate Conservator Patricia Favero headed to Museu Picasso in Barcelona along with colleagues from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago to present findings at The Blue Period: New Interpretations by Means of Technical Studies, a seminar of restoration and conservation. You may recall news from last June that a portrait of a man was discovered under the Phillips’s painting by Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room; Patti discussed the research and process behind this revelation.

UPDATE: For a limited amount of time, you can watch the full presentation video on the Museu Picasso’s website.

Associate Conservator Patricia Favero presenting at Museu Picasso in Barcelona.

Stieglitz and Marin: Together, Apart, and Together Again, Part 3

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Conservation

In this three part series, Conservation Assistant Caroline Hoover outlines the process of treating a photogravure by Marius de Zayas. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

(clockwise from top left) Spraying to wet up for pulp fills; using an eye dropper to get blended color matched pulp; dropping pulp into loss areas to correct thickness and transparency on light box; adjusting pulp fills to correct thickness

Paper pulp was prepared from a high quality artist paper to fill in the losses around the edges of the brittle backing paper. The backing paper was wet up in order to attach these areas of pulp. Using an eye dropper and tweezers, the pulp was dropped into the areas of loss and built up to the same thickness of the original paper. Excess water was removed and the fills were then coated with a sizing agent to ensure attachment. The paper, with its new fills, was dried between felts. Afterwards, the pulp fills were trimmed to the edge of the original paper.

(left) Using a bone folder to get rid of excess water and flatten fills (center) coating fills with methyl cellulose to size (right) drying whole piece with fills

(left) photogravure next to pulp filled paper (right) detail of fills

(left) trimming excess fills (right) Alfred Stieglitz and John Marin backing page

Two tiny, thin Japanese tissue hinges were used to re-attach the photogravure to its backing paper at the top edge to secure the artwork. The picture is now ready to join its companions in a future exhibit.

Attaching hinges

The piece after treatment