Wishard Hospital Murals

When you walk into the exhibition, you are greeted by a rare glimpse of art conservation.  The first painting you will see is Carl C. Graf’s Three Muses, which is presented in a partially conserved state.  The left side of the painting has not yet been conserved and is obscured by dirt, discolored varnish, and heavy restorer’s overpaint.  Walking into the gallery is like a behind-the-scenes visit to the conservation lab.  Take a look for yourself in the image below.

Three Muses

The difference in color speaks for itself.  Beneath those heavy darkened layers of the previous restorer’s materials there are delicate details and soft colors of the original painting.  Did you know that the human eye perceives value (dark and light) and color differently?  The discolored varnish effects both value and color, drastically altering the way you visually perceive the painting.  Once the exhibition closes, the conservation treatment of The Three Muses will be completed and this rare opportunity to see the process in person will be gone.

The Three Muses isn’t the only glimpse of the conservation work; there is a whole wall in the gallery that gives you a chance to observe and compare the process.  On the same wall as The Three Muses, there are two landscapes by Jay H. Connaway.  One has been conserved by the IMA and the other still retains the discolored materials from the 1967 restoration attempt.  Can you tell which one has been conserved?

two landscapes by Jay H. Connaway

As with The Three Muses, the color difference clearly shows how the current, careful conservation treatments have helped reveal the true palette of the painting.  With all the old restoration materials removed from the painting, the original colors and details can once again be seen and appreciated in Connaway’s Landscape with Rolling Hills—the painting on the right.  For a detailed, step by step, account of the IMA conservation treatment of Jay H. Connaway’s Landscape with Rolling Hills, check out the Flickr set here.

If you look closely at the Connaway landscape on the left, you can see the areas of damage and overpaint.  Conservators begin the examination and detection of these restored areas by simple observation of the surface.  The over paint is often discolored and no longer matches the surrounding original paint.  There is also a textural difference between the overpaint and the original paint; often the overpaint is more thickly applied.  Can you spot the overpaint in this detail?

Landscape with Rolling Hills

Perhaps you noticed right away that some of the details in this area of the composition (the bottom center of the painting) looked a little clumsy and heavy?  If not, the arrow in the image below will point you in the right direction.

overpaint detail

The portion of the bent tree indicated by the blue is much thicker and heavier that the original brushstrokes applied by the artist.  The color of this over painted area is also different from the original paint.  That makes this areas appear very flat; it lacks the same delicacy and detail that works in the other original areas of the composition.

Of course, looking at these paintings in person gives you a chance to better see these details and understand the importance conservation has on the visual appearance and interpretation of these murals.

Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals closes on March 29, 2009.

The portion of the bent tree indicated by the blue is much thicker and heavier that the original brushstrokes applied by the artist.  The color of this over painted area is also different from the original paint.  That makes this areas appear very flat; it lacks the same delicacy and detail that works in the other original areas of the composition.

Of course, looking at these paintings in person gives you a chance to better see these details and understand the importance conservation has on the visual appearance and interpretation of these murals.

Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals closes on March 29, 2009.

William Edouard Scott, American, 1884-1964, “Simeon and the Babe Jesus,” oil on canvas mounted to Masonite, 98 x 44 inches, Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Indiana

It was a monumental undertaking one that had never been attempted at another American hospital.  Murals in public buildings were a new concept in 1914. Only the Library of Congress and the Boston Public Library had successfully completed similar projects.  The idea of bringing art to Wishard, then known as City Hospital, started on a very small scale with the idea of commissioning a local artist to create an oil painting for the new Burdsal units which had just opened in 1914. A committee of local artists was asked to select the artist, but the committee came back with a better suggestion.  Why not enlist several Indiana artists to paint murals on the hospital walls?  William Forsyth, a prominent member of Indiana’s famous Hoosier Group, agreed to oversee the project. At the conclusion of many months of work, sixteen Indiana painters had created thirty-three different murals that covered a quarter mile of the hospital’s wall space.

This included well-established artists such as, T. C. Steele, Otto Stark, Clifton Wheeler, Wayman Adams, J. Ottis Adams, and Forsyth himself, and younger painters and local art students such as Simon Baus, Walter Hixon Isnogle, Carl Graf, Jay Connaway, Emma B. King, Dorothy Morlan, Martinus Anderson, Francis E. Brown, Helene Hibben and an African American artist, William Edouard Scott, who would make a name for himself as a mural painter along with his other successful artistic endeavors.  Most of this group received housepainter’s wages, slept in empty wards and ate in the hospital kitchens, while the established artists painted in their studios and received no more than $150 a month for their work.

Despite the success of this mural project and the national accolades it received, only a fraction of these murals survive, many having been badly damaged, lost, destroyed or given away over the years.  It is the goal of the IMA conservation department and Wishard Hospital to conserve those murals that can be salvaged.  Since 2003 the IMA has been working on the conservation of the Wishard murals.  To date 13 of these murals have either been conserved, are in the process of being conserved or will be conserved in the near future.  The IMA will host an exhibition of these murals opening January 17, 2009 that will run through March 31, 2009.  The purpose of this exhibition is to recognize the importance and quality of these murals and to show the various stages of conservation required to preserve them.  The original mural project was monumental, the results spectacular, the legacy stunning. It is with great pride and pleasure that the IMA presents the exhibition Preserving a Legacy: The Wishard Hospital Murals in honor of those artists who gave of their time to bring a measure of joy to the lives of the hospital’s patients.

Check out this photo on Flickr to see a diagram of my crazy.

This is a super-busy time for the Nugget Factory and it just sort of happened.  For a couple of days last week, Daniel was out of the office with Dan shooting some video in San Francisco for the upcoming show, Power and Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty. I found myself sitting at my desk, working at a normal pace…and bored out of my mind.  Two days later, with the full factory back in action, things sort of erupted, with new tasks flying in at every angle.  I guess I prefer it that way…Check out this selection of stuff we have coming soon:

• A new Flickr project giving you a look at some conservation work done by IMA conservators in conjunction with the exhibition, Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals (coming January 2009)
  
• The website for Power and Glory, which will integrate video in a way we have never tried before (coming October 2008)
• A full length documentary on Maya Lin that is in the home stretch, we hope you can see this late 2008
• The special web presence featuring Type A, in the final stages of editing, getting ready for the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park groundbreaking on September 18th
• A new Flickr group called “Class Picture Day” – submit your own class photo inspired by the exhibition, Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey (You should submit your class photo, but even if you don’t you can find mine on there!)
• Two audio tracks recorded by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for you to enjoy, inspired by works of art in the American Galleries

So that is a just a taste for the next couple of months.  We’ll keep you posted as new things come up.  Next year will be bringing some super exciting things that you will definitely hear about here, so stay tuned!!