Page 54 - Studio International - May June 1975

Keinholz While Visions of Sugar Plums avoid bending his best efforts to
Danced in their Heads preservation.
A cynic might suggest that the problem
2 Rauschenberg — Odalisque
will disappear of its own accord. The
present swing in art away from the
abstract and the collage may carry many
such works to unlit basements. If the
swing goes far enough the next
generation of artists may combine the
craft experience of centuries with modern
chemical knowledge to provide exhibits
more permanent than any previously
known. •

the philosophy of the artists themselves,
the staff of an art gallery has a
responsibility to preserve the exhibits
from change as far as possible. The main
limitations preventing optimal
preservation are (I) our scientific
ignorance of the causes of change; (2) a
partial incompatibility between
preservatoin and display (we cannot keep
exhibits in the dark), and (3) money.
Within these limitations we try to
see them in adequate light free from control the environment surrounding
glare and distraction. This job in itself is the exhibits as follows.
enough to concentrate the energies. The air should be free from dust and
Problem number one, the need for gaseous pollution and should be
excessive light, may then turn out to maintained at a constant Relative
be largely imaginary. A much more Humidity day and night throughout the
important problem peculiar to modem year. 55% Relative Humidity is a good
art concerns the use of unorthodox level for most of Europe. Large
materials. variations in temperature should also be
While it could be argued that art has avoided, though the level of temperature
always been exploratory, exploration has is set by the needs of people rather than
become the very essence of modern art, exhibits.
to the extent that lesser artists strive above Light does not damage stones,
all to produce a new style that can be ceramics or metals, and, though it may
recognized as their very own from the change the surface colour of wood, it
other side of the room. New effects mean does not affect its bulk. But for many
new materials, or new methods of applying objects, particularly textiles, tapestries
old materials, and these are untested by and watercolours, it is the most potent
time. Also a disapproval of the orthodox destructive force in the museum.
has sometimes extended to a disapproval Therefore it must be limited. For
of every aspect of the old orthodoxy, paintings in traditional oil technique and
including meticulous craftsmanship. All in acrylic media illumination should not
this has loaded the conservator of the exceed about 15o lux.
modern art gallery with problems. But The recommendation for textiles and
this is not all. art on paper is an illumination not
There used to be an unwritten exceeding 5o lux, and this should
contractual relationship between the strictly also apply to all those works
artist and the buyer of his work which which include miscellaneous organic
was very little different to that between material such as low-grade paper and
any buyer and seller of merchandise. It cloth. 5o lux is not a high illumination
was part of this unwritten contract that level. It can quite easily be made REFERENCES - SOME BOOKS AND ARTICLES
the artist should provide a durable object. satisfactory under artificial light in the ON CONTROL OF THE MUSEUM
A portrait of his patron, for example, absence of glare, but daylight is so widely ENVIRONMENT
would take its place on the wall with variable that it is the normal Control of the museum environment —
ancestors and later with successors. recommendation to exclude it from this a basic summary. Available from the
At that time art and life were in category of extra-sensitive material. International Institute for Conservation,
separate categories. But Rauschenberg All ultraviolet radiation should be 6o8 Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square,
has now said, 'Painting relates to both art excluded from daylight and London WC2N 5HN. (1967).
and life. Neither can be made. (I try to fluorescent light by means of filters. 1967 London Conference on Museum
act in the gap between the two).' And This is the preservation framework in Climatology. Also available from IIC.
indeed this attitude was born before brief. Recommendations for control of Information sheet no. 6: Conservation
Rauschenberg, in the bus tickets and biodeterioration and theft should also be and Museum lighting. Available from
newspaper of Kurt Schwitters and borne in mind. the Museums Association, 87 Charlotte
Duchamp's urinal. Though this latter Street, London WO 2BX. (1974).
is a remarkably permanent object, bus The future La lumière et la protection des objets et
tickets, newspaper and bits of old cloth It is one thing for an unimaginative specimens exposés dans les musées et
are not. But the work of such artists is scientist like myself to lay down rules, galeries d'art. Published by the
regarded by them as an object in time, and quite another for the curator who International Council of Museums and
and therefore subject to change. What must decide whether a stuffed cock in a available from l'Association Française
is the poor conservator to do now ? Rauschenberg should shed its feathers in de l'Eclairage (1973).
the strong light of day or keep them for a Lighting of Art Galleries and Museums.
The preservation framework rather longer period under rigorous Technical Report no. 14 from the
This is not the place to go into details lighting control. It seems that, though Illuminating Engineering Society, York
which have already been extensively many of the artists of today would prefer House, Westminster Bridge Road,
written up (see refs.). However, whatever the former regime, the curator cannot London SE1 (1970).