The Peony. Not only is it the state flower of Indiana, but these herbaceous perennials are also in bloom all around the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Paeonia lactiflora, also known as the Chinese peony or the common garden peony, flowers in late spring, usually during the month of May.

These large, fragrant blossoms come in a variety of colors ranging from red to yellow, white, cream, pastel pink and even deep fuchsia. They grow to be 2 ½ to 3 ½ feet tall and wide and require full sun to part shade. The flowers can be anywhere from 3 to 6 inches wide. Peonies thrive in rich, fertile, slightly acidic soils. They also do best in well-drained, moist soil.

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Filed under: Horticulture

Commissioned in 1980 for the 20th anniversary of Melvin Simon & Associates (now Simon Property Group), Robert Indiana’s eight-foot-tall polychrome Numbers are iconic works from one of America’s most recognizable artists. The new exhibition Indiana by the Numbers (opening this Friday, May 24) traces the history of their design and fabrication, tells the story of their display before they were donated to the IMA in 1989, and provides a glimpse into their recent restoration and repainting by the IMA conservation department.

Robert Indiana (American, b. 1928), Numbers, 1980-1983, painted aluminum, 8x8x4 ft. (each), Gift of Melvin Simon and Associates, 1988.246. (c) 2013 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

I asked Richard McCoy, conservator of objects and variable art, about the exhibition.

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Filed under: Conservation, Contemporary

Today we have an amazing array of plants available for our gardens. Plants that once would have been available only to the super wealthy can be found at a small independent garden center, a big box store, or even the grocery store. The change may not be so noticeable to beginning gardeners but those of us that have been looking through catalogues for 40 years or so can see a dramatic shift. Many of these new plants are introductions from other parts of the world. Many are “newly discovered” natives (“newly appreciated”?). And many are bred by humans that are able to bring together species that would never meet in Mother Nature’s singles bars. One of those humans is Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries and one of those group of singles he’s brought together is coralbells, Heuchera.

Heucheras were once grown for flowers alone pretty much. And they are mighty fine flowers. Great in the garden and for cuts. I’m sure hummingbirds love them too. But the importance of flowers has changed beautifully in the last two decades, especially since Dan and Terra Nova started their incredible breeding program. Heucheras are better known for foliage now. And why not? The foliage is around much longer than the flowers. As in close to year round. Much as I desire colorful flowers I cannot forget foliage. And with Heuchera I get color from foliage so my desires are satisfied.

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Filed under: Horticulture

On April 5, Ai Weiwei: According to What?—the IMA’s latest featured exhibition—opened to the public. A major retrospective of the artist’s work, this not-to-be-missed exhibition includes examples from the broad spectrum of the artist’s practice, which encompasses sculpture, photography, video, and site-specific architectural installations, as well as the design for the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Walking past some of the works in the show, visitors may be inspired to learn more about the man who created these pieces and the circumstances that drove him to do so. In conjunction with the exhibition, the IMA is employing new in-gallery technology to facilitate these inquiries and help audiences engage with the work of this extraordinary artist.

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Filed under: Exhibitions, New Media, Technology

It is an uncomfortable truth that in showing you an artwork in a museum, we are potentially destroying it.  As a conservation professional, it feels wrong to admit that, but it is true.  Every photon, or packet of radiant energy, that strikes the surface of an art object has the potential to do damage, and we most often see that as a negative change in the artwork’s aesthetics: darkening, fading, yellowing, chalking, crosslinking, etc.  It’s an unstoppable phenomenon, but one that proceeds at a variety of rates.  Certainly color change is one of the most notable alterations that light can cause in an artwork, and so we must dole out the expected lifetime of an object using an informed and rational approach.  Conservators and collections managers go to great pains to protect artwork by limiting its exposure to light.  This can take the form of reducing light intensity, restricting its spectral output, or limiting the duration of an exhibition.  These stewards of the collection get additional insight and data from scientists who study the fading behavior of artists’ materials.

For the past several months the IMA has been conducting a condition survey of its photograph collection, over 800 objects that span the history of the medium.  This program is sponsored by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a wing of the federal government that supports museum and conservation activities.  In addition to the inventory and conservation assessment of each artwork, the grant has also funded a study of the lightfastness of the contemporary color photographs in the collection using a technique called microfade testing (MFT), or microfadeometry.  The goal of the study is to determine the susceptibility to color change for the highest priority color photographs in the collection and to determine patterns of lightfastness among the many photographic processes.  This data in turn informs our exhibition, loan, and lighting guidelines for the collection.

Figure 1. Watercolor paint outs after artificial light aging.

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Filed under: Conservation, Photography, The Collection