Embracing Inevitable Change: The Art of Art Conservation

Nestled on the top floor of the Harvard Art Museums, a panoramic view of the Cambridge skyline envelops the Paintings Lab of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, filling the room with natural light. This light illuminates several paintings laid out on tables and easels — Master of Saint Mark’s “Nativity Scene with Saints” (14th century), Domenico Tintoretto’s “Personification of Fidelity” (c. 1595-1600), Kenneth Noland’s “Karma” (1964), and Edvard Munch’s “The Lonely Ones” (1906-1908) — while automatic window shades keep light exposure at a suitable level. The paintings in the lab are all in need of a conservator’s touch before eventually returning to public display.

“Change is inherent in all life, like we’re constantly changing, materials are constantly changing, but I think we’re more sensitive to the ways that the act of conserving something — the act of putting something on display — are all additional instances of change,” associate paintings conservator Ellen Davis, said.

Pieces will receive individualized care attuned to not only the artist and the artwork’s original intention or appearance, but also to the evolution of future interactions with and appreciation of the artwork.

“This [painting] was made by one person, but there have been a lot of people involved in its life since it was made, like collectors, curators, conservators, art packers, shippers, galleries. There are a lot of people involved in the life of an artwork, and each one has an impact on what it becomes,” Davis said.

The field of art conservation is becoming increasingly conscientious of treating each artwork as unique, each conservator as an individual, and maintaining transparency about any changes made and why they were necessary.

“This is one of the earliest — or the earliest, in the United States — centers for technical study and art history, and the first place where the professionalized conservator worked in a museum,” Davis said.

The Straus Center is the home of the Paintings Lab, Paper Lab, Objects Lab, and Analytical Lab.

“We increasingly are thinking of paintings’ [conservation] kind of as an integrated part of the life of a painting,” Davis said.

Part of this life-cycle may include treating artwork previously restored under a different conservation philosophy, where the same treatment was applied to the same kind of painting.

Davis, who is currently undoing old restorations on Tintoretto’s “Personification of Fidelity,” said: “Some paintings did benefit from the treatments that they got; some did not. But, I think the approach of looking at each object as unique forces us to think in a more stepwise fashion.”

The first step is close examination and detailed documentation to gain an understanding of the artist’s perspective — even talking to them if the artist is still living — and how the artwork fits into the greater corpus. Next comes the technical aspect of conservation, where conservators carefully select and utilize materials tailored to the artwork. One example is varnish, which has evolved in the field to not only represent a method of achieving more shiny saturation in paintings, but also a protective measure. Over in the Paper Lab, the water used to wash artworks on paper has special additives in it like calcium or a cleaning agent.

“Now, in the last five or six years, there’s been a couple conservators who’ve really trailblazed with changing the way our wash water is prepared, so that it’s more effective,” said Penley Knipe, the senior conservator of works of art on paper and head of the Paper Lab.

Even the display of artwork involves consultation with the in-house frame conservator and approval from the curator before the treated artwork leaves the lab.

When the artwork is finally ready to return to storage or display — which may be years later, such as is the case of Knipe’s current project of Paul Cézanne’s “Plaster Cupid” drawing (1886-1889), slated for exhibition in Summer 2025.

Davis said: “The end product will be more transparent about what it is and how it’s been altered over time,” Davis said.

She explained that conservators were historically trained to write treatment reports and proposals with a sheen of objectivity, reliant on passive language such as “The painting was cleaned.”

“Now, there’s a big push to say, like, ‘I did that,’ name yourself, have more transparency about where you’re coming from, like your positionality. ‘What is my background?’ ‘What am I bringing to this?’,” Davis said.

Furthermore, the Harvard Art Museums are including more labels detailing any conservation undergone by corresponding artworks. Public Relations Manager Jennifer Aubin pointed out the distinctive blue color of the labels can be identified by and said they share information about the work done in the conservation lab in order to prepare the artwork for view.

“We’re thinking more carefully about ‘What can we share?’ ‘What is interesting?’”Aubin said.

Conservators also increasingly incorporate “exit ramps” into their work, which allow for future reconfiguration of the artwork.

“Ideally, any treatment we do shouldn’t limit future conservators’ options for how to work on something,” Davis said.

The dynamic, ever-changing nature of art conservation is exemplified in the field’s rare usage of the term “restoration.”

“‘Conservation’ is really an umbrella term for both ‘preservation’ and ‘restoration.’ We don’t use the word ‘restoration’ a lot just because the truth is that we are unable to restore anything to like the moment it was made. It’s just an impossibility because we can’t turn back time,” Davis said.

Preservation, on the other hand, is preventative conservation, preventing artworks’ additional or prolonged future visits to the Straus Center.

“Historically, conservation has been something that happens behind a heavy curtain that nobody knows about; it’s like a secret,” Davis said.

The Straus Center embodies not only figurative but also literal transparency, however, as the glass-walled labs are accessible to the public eye by visiting the fifth floor.

“We are designed so that people can see in,” Knipe said.

Davis emphasized that the Straus Center is here to support Harvard students’ and classes’ interests in conservation, but also recommends regional professional associations and Boston-area museums as places to learn more about the many forms and techniques of conservation.

“This is just one little sampling,” Davis said of the historic Straus Center amid ongoing innovations in conservation. “It’s wildly diverse,” Davis said.