246

Denis Serjeant

He is an architect who has worked on the designs of schools and colleges. For ten years, he was involved in the organization of a school of architecture in a college of art, an unusual situation today for an architectural school, but one which emphasized the relation between all art. For six years, he has been the Surveyor to the Royal Academy of Arts in Lon- don, an appointment which involves him in all aspects of the life of the institution, as well as the care ofBurlington House, the beautiful home of the Academy.

The Great International Art Exhibition will be with us for a long time. The author has argued the case that this must be accepted, that the conservation prob- lems generated by such exhibitions are special and beyond the normal standards for permanent exhibitions, and that con- servators, owners, exhibition designers, gallery directors, and those entrepeneurs who mastermind the exhibitions, should all recognise the specid responsibilities of indulging in this questionable interna- tional trade. Unfortunately, the reasons which inspire the participants are many and varied and few place care of the paintings as a first priority. These notes aim to provide a closer look at some par- ticular perils.

Let us start by being positive. Those who handle the works of art are superb. Unconfhased by any thought other than that of protecting the masterpieces, they will tenderly remove the ~ o r k from its permanent position on the wall, pack it in its special container, and despatch it on its journey happy that they could do no more. The best ofthe international ship- pers are using magnificently designed travelling cases, structurally strong, with secondary linings, providing controlled environmental conditions. These cases are of such beauty that one waits for the day when they will be exhibited with (01

without) their contents (Figs. Gone, one hopes, are the days when a

Duke would send great paintings to the restorer on the back of an open farm cart, in the care of the estate workers, a form of transport observed by the author. The confidence that the works will travel well when placed in the hands 5fprQfesSiQnds today can be extended to the care of the works during the prepaxation, exhibi-

tion, and repacking, when the new generation 05' young conservators are responsible (Figs. 82, 83). Metkulous in- spections at the beginning and at the end of the exhibition, and continual observa- tions during the exhibition will ensure that any possible damage is reduced t~ a minimum. In short, the art world owes much to the loving care of the workers who make our exhibitions possible, and it would be wrong not to praise them (Pigs. 84, $5) .

It is when one C Q R ~ ~ S to the parts played by the eminent that anxieties begin. It is the common story of divided loyalties and responsibilities. How does an ambitious art historian, determined to create the greatest show of the decade, reconcile his desire to have a unique painting with the thought that the work in question may be structurally unsound and better left in peace (and in one piece) on the wdl of its permanent home? After all, he is dealing with opinions, perhaps the advice from the conservators is not ab- solute, perhaps there won't be any real danger. And it is such a very beautiful painting. The temptations are great. These are &e temptations facing one who acknowledges that conservation matters. Would that this were universally true. Bn murkier areas, the acrions of the great may give off an odour of hypocrisy that is really very unpleasant. Demands that works be exhibited unda certain condi- tions and answering promises that they will be, are exchanged with all the dishonest abandonment of dictators carv- ing up a continent. Unfortunately, con- servation in the art world contains enough confusions, doubts, and dis- agreements to allow plenty of I Q Q ~ in which the dictators can maneuvre. Only

The protection of pai&ng.r in loan exhibitions 247

greater knowledge and better under- standing can provide the foundations for improved defences.

When sharp minds lay fresh and il- luminating scientific propositions before the world, reactions commonly fit into a pattern. First, the revelation is greeted with generosity by many as a useful addi- tion to human knowledge, bringing new understanding to the world around us. Then a period of consolidation follows, while fellow workers repeat and extend the observations to reinforce the accuracy of the propositions. Happily this process frequently supports the original idea and turns it into an accepted law. It is the belief of the author that in conservation matters much of our thoughts are some- where between the two positions. There is a generally accepted set of standards laid out by the pioneers, and we all ought to be grateful for their devotion to the crusade. But have we reached the stage of the final and universal transference of these standards into laws? Certainly I am not suggesting those standards are wrong; that would be impertinent. Rather, it is because those laws are still not yet universally accepted by all that I suggest much remains to be done. Only then can curators be adequately armed to control the situation and bring protection to the great art which is in their care without the problems which are all too frequent today.

The knowledge sought is simple but collecting it is a monumental task. We do not have extensive records of the condi- tions in which great paintings have sur- vived. Of course the major galleries with adequate staff to monitor and record can provide such records, but even these may be less than fully informative for the

80 Ron Douch and Bob Ashby begin the excavations into a packing case.

81 Further excavations by Ron and Bob in the

presence of two Royal Academy conservationists, Isabel Horovitz and Mandy

Pavlley .

~ 82 The Fhing of Marsyas, a late Titian. Details are being recorded by a photographer watched by an art historian.

83 Norman Rosenthal, the Royal Academy Exhibitions Secretary, starts a jig of pleasure at the first sight of a painting; Piers Rodgers, t h e Royal Academy Secretary, is more controlled; and three couriers watch the unveiling through cool professional eyes.

248 Denis Serjeant

growth of such recording has accom- panied changes in the galleries as im- provements have been made in the en- vironmental conditions. These very changes can destroy the evidence of the conditions under which the paintings have lived for so long. But we are talking here of the great galleries which ate reasonably fïmded. Outside these gal- leries SO many paintings exist in private collections, in churches, and in minor art museums where there are no conser- vators and no records. Often these are the sources from which the bulk of the organised exhibitions. with a painting which has same place in the same house for many yeas and is in reasonable condition, curiosity at least suggests that the records of the environmental conditions should

ithout the knowledge that such records could provide it is dif- ficult tQ speak with CeEainty ofthe condi- tions required for this work of art. Infor- mation which tends to indicate that some paintings have survived for many years in srandards of temperature and humidity outside the conventional norms does ex- ist, but does this information justify the application of generalised standards in all situations? This must not be taken to mean that the accepted figures are wrong and that this discussion is an attack upon those figures. We know many paintings have not survived, those that have might

~~ ~

be healthier if the conditions had been nearer to our norms, and, ofcourse, some are from the studios of painters who had defective technical skills and who created works of great fragility which are at risk. Would that they had been cosseted by conservators in past years.

But to return to OUT particular paint- ing, seemingly happy though slumming in improper surroundings, a situation which should arouse curiosity a d pro- voke comment. Is it luck that it is still in good condition, though living dange- rously? Why has the rackety life not in- duced damaging stresses? Or rather how has the painting accommodated such stresses? Por, in an uncontrolled environ- ment, they must exist. With some cau- tion a tentative answer is attempted. If a painting, its frame, and its stretcher are all in good structural condition, then very slow mCJvementS induced by very slow changes in humidity and temperature can be acceptable because everything moves together. Observation suggests that heavy buildings with great mass in the construction, with few air changes, and probably few visitors, move between the summer heat and the winter cold very gently and smoothly. Such buildings seem to be safe homes for paintings. Cer- tainly in such conditions pianos remain in tune longer. Perhaps gdleries should have pianos as well as hygrometers! If this observation is correct, then it demon-

84 Ron Douch and Willie Jasper move the

Gephalus and Procris of Veronese into position.

strates how our painting can live within a band of temperatures and humidities wider than &e accepted norms. If these limits are known it would be reasonable. to suggest that it could be exhibited elsewhere if the gallery had stable condi- tions within the same limits, provided that the transition were made skilfully. A pattern for the move might be to pack the painting into a heavily buffered case, SO

that it arrives at the gallery in its home climate. The exhibiting gallery would ad- just those conditions to those of the gallery in a ‘decompression chamber’ over a period of time minimising the stress before exhibiting the work. At the end of the exhibition, the process would be reversed. Such a system would involve exhibiting galleries in the expense of pro- viding equipment, space, stat=€, and time, an additional burden on strained budgets, but it would be a responsible course of action. Beyond these ideas for robust paintings lie specialized methods for sensitive works, when it is necessary to create micro-climates either in the galleries themselves or within frames and display cases for the works.

In conclusion, international loan ex- hibitions involve risks of many sorts of which disturbing environmental condi- tions is one. To minimise these distur- bances, the history of the conditions of the permanent home must be known, the gallery for the exhibition must offer

85 The final act, a painting is f i e d to the wall.

The protection ofpaintings in loan exbibitions

stable humidity and temperature, and discrepancies between the two (if they ex- ist) have to be reconciled. In all, a heavy task, but surely better than the exchange of empty demands and promises com- mon today. Such a programme will pro- vide the conservator with the precise and developed knowledge to protect each

249

painting from the pressures of those whose ambitions may lead them to gambles in which the only losers will be the paintings.

l. The photographs Were taken at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, during the installation of the exhibition The Genius of Venice, 1500-1600. From November 1983 to March 1984, 147 paintings were shown, together with drawings, prints, sculptures and documents in a grand total of 355 works of art. It was an astonishing exhibition with great names and great works and the public loved it, coming in their thousands day after day.

5

R. H. Marijnissen

Born in Ghent, 1923. Entered into close collabora- tion with P. Coremans in 1948. Was appointed Deputy Director in 1958 of the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels, since when he has been in charge of the conservation department. His doctoral thesis Het Sescbua’igde kunstwerk (Univer- sity of Ghent, 1966) was published in French under the title Dégrua’ation, consewation et restauration de I’aeuvre d’art (Brussels, Arcade, 1967, 2 vols.). He has also published monographs on the allegorical aspects of Brueghel (1969) and Bosch (1972). Since 1970 he has been a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Science, Literature and the Fine Arts.

Muy we beep the Brezcgljed?

Most people tend to think of the typical museum curator as someone surrounded by books and priceless objects, commun- ing with great minds and working in monastic serenity, far from the world and its madding crowds. Only a frew long- dead scholars correspond to this stereo- type. Gone are the days of the distin- guished absent-minded intellectual, well past the age of retirement, but still holding sway over the artistic clutter in his office while his successor is provi- sionally installed in a spare corner.

The museum has changed. For some time now its raison d’être has been challenged. While Marinetti and the Futurists were for burning it down, the post-war avant-garde called for the in- terpenetration of the museum and the street: the museum would be merged in- to the street, and the street into the museum.

The museum has been described by some as afflicted by rigor mortis. But the museum is not the only institution sub- ject to rust and decay. Any human under- taking that fails to change is nearing its end. The fact that things are now moving in the museum world is a welcome piece of news.

What will the museum be like a few decades hence? To caricature what it has been in the past is not difficult, for the museum lends itself to such caricature. As to its future, only a crystal-gazer could hazard a guess.

Threatened by an ultimate cataclysm which defies the imagination, faced with age-old ethnic conflicts for which there is no solution, disrupted by industrial revolutions and population explosions, this world of ours seems ill-disposed to listen to those who study the vestiges of

the past. It may indeed seem ludicrous for us in our comfortable archairs to discuss the future of museums at a time when each and every one of the world’s inhabitants is sitting on a bomb. It seems that the written, printed or spoken words which until recently were instinct with meaning have now become defined by a semantic discipline devoid of any context.

‘I am one of those who believe a human life to be more important than Chartres Cathedral,’ declared Jean-Paul Sartre (Sitzzations, ZlI). And Giacometti is reported to have said that, froin a house on fire, he would have saved the cat before saving the Rembrandt. To be sure, ‘the Cathedral will not produce new men to replace us if we die for it’; however, let us not anticipate the eventuality that any survivors would rebuild Chartres, by making idle comparisons between in- commensurable concepts: both living be- ings and works of art should be saved. In any case, Giacometti never suggested that the Rembrandt should be left to be consumed by the flames.

Aware as we are of the possibility of disappearing once and for all like a luminous green spot fading from the radar screen, let us leave these interstellar spaces and return to our subject: museums. It will be seen that this is asubject which fre- quently and rapidly changes ground.

Exhibitions have become the fashion:

Everyone is for them: scholars and scientists call for scientific demonstrations, the public is thirsting for the topical and the contem- porary, politicians regard masterpieces as diplomatic instruments and curators wish to display their know-how. In the old days, a good curator was someone who built up a