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.

   Read the rest of this entry »

The state of Indiana owes much of the documentation of its history of art and artists to Wilbur Peat, artist, instructor, historian, and director of the IMA from 1929-1965.  Among his books are: Portraits and Painters of the Governors of Indiana, 1800-1943, (1944), Indiana Houses of the Nineteenth Century (1962), and Pioneer Painters of Indiana (1954).  This last title is well-known among those interested in early Hoosier art.  Peat spent years corresponding with people all over the country as he gathered small pieces of information about artists long dead.

Correspondence from Eli Lilly to Wilbur D. Peat, 1940, Box 004, Folder 28, Wilbur D. Peat Papers, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Indiana

 Read the rest of this entry »

The IMA’s silent film series continues on April 12, with a rare showing of WC Fields’ So’s Your Old Man (1926), followed by its sound remake You’re Telling Me (1934).  Although Fields is well remembered for his talking pictures, his silent work is nearly forgotten today.  Most of the films are tied up in complex rights issues, none of which got more complicated than So’s Your Old Man.

Based on an award-winning story by Julian Street, the film tells the story of eccentric inventor Sam Bisbee (Fields), who has invented a shatterproof glass and wants to sell the patent in the big city.  A series of tragic and comic circumstances keep Bisbee from selling his patent, and, dejected, he boards a train bound for home.  Unable to face the shame of failure, he contemplates suicide.  Fortune belatedly intervenes and a foreign princess, traveling on the same train, comes to his rescue.

 Read the rest of this entry »

For the next two weeks, the IMA will be presenting a series of unusual silent films.  Each night a double feature will be presented.  Following a “before and after” theme, the first film will be an original silent, while the second is a related version, altered in some way.

Tonight, April 5, the main feature will be The Matrimaniac (1916) with Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and Constance Talmadge.  IMA regulars will remember Fairbanks from his starring role in last year’s showing of The Mark of Zorro (1920), accompanied by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.  Zorro was the first of Fairbanks’ swashbuckling hero roles.  Up until that time, he had generally played an athletic, go-getting young man out to win the heroine.

The Matrimaniac is a film in that earlier Fairbanks tradition.  As Jimmie Conroy, Fairbanks tries to marry his young love (Talmadge), while her father tries to put a stop to the whole thing, giving a long and merry chase.  As with most Fairbanks pictures, the plot is secondary to the breathtaking stunts.  The Matrimaniac was a huge hit in 1916, and, indirectly, it helped Fairbanks become popular enough that he left the studio, Triangle, to pursue more money elsewhere.

 Read the rest of this entry »

A Post-It seems rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things—its only purpose to remind you of things you have yet to do (and often don’t want to do). But when it says something interesting, and you have the ability to post it ANYWHERE, a Post-It suddenly becomes a powerful little tool, like a primitive Tweet.

For the next several weeks, the IMA will be placing Post-Its all over the city. The Post-Its ask a simple (sort of) question: Who is Ai Weiwei? And if you don’t know, you should.

Image courtesy Lindsey Lord

 Read the rest of this entry »