Tag Archive for Conservation and Restoration

Talk | For the Nobility, Gentry and Curious in General: Richard Dubourg’s Classical Exhibition, 1775-1819 | Melbourne Museum

Richard Duborg, Cork Collosseum, circa 1800. Melbourne Museum.

History, Culture & Collections | Humanities Department Museum Victoria Seminar Series 2014 For the Nobility, Gentry & Curious in General: Richard Dubourg’s Classical Exhibition, 1775-1819 Dr Richard Gillespie and Sarah Babister Museum Victoria has a cork model of the Colosseum made by English artist Richard Duborg circa 1800. This extraordinary model was part of Dubourg’s collection of cork models of sites from classical antiquity, exhibited in London in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The exhibition brought the Grand Tour to London, aiming to educate and entertain a diverse audience – antiquarians, architects, nobility and gentry planning or recalling tours to the actual sites, families, tourists and students. Dubourg also adopted theatrical effects such as scenic set pieces and special lighting…

Lecture | Preserving Afghanistan’s Rich Heritage - Robyn Sloggett

A collapsible nomadic crown, (Tillya tepe), 100 BC - 100 AD National Museum of Afghanistan Photo © Thierry Ollivier / Musée Guimet via Melbourne Museum website

Preserving Afghanistan’s Rich Heritage Afghanistan’s cultural objects tell the stories of some of the world’s most significant events, interactions and exchanges. They have been collected as part of war and conquest, peace and scholarship, through legitimate trade and illegal looting, and are preserved in institutions around the world. In this lecture Robyn Sloggett examines the ways in which these rare and precious objects have been cared for and explores the threats that make cultural objects vulnerable to destruction, deterioration and loss. Robyn Sloggett is Director of the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include attribution and authentication of Australian paintings, the development of materials conservation in the Asia-Pacific, collection development and history, scientific…

Lecture | The science of conserving Gija art: How Indigenous and Western knowledge systems come together

Left: Ngalangangpum School, Nancy Nodea. © Copyright in this artwork and text remains with the Artist and Warmun Art Centre respectively. Right: Distribution of iron in pigment sample as determined with PIXE. Courtesy of Petronella Nel.

 The science of conserving Gija art: How Indigenous and Western knowledge systems come together   The Melbourne Materials Institute (MMI) and the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC) are pleased to invite you to “The science of conserving Gija art: How Indigenous and Western knowledge systems come together”. In March 2011, floods destroyed the Warmun Community and seriously damaged the significant Warmun Community Art Collection. From this catastrophic event has emerged an exciting engagement between scientists, artists, conservators and art managers that is expanding ways of thinking about art, science and cultural material. Come and join us for a unique insight into the art and science of Indigenous cultural materials conservation and the culture of the Gija people. Speakers A/Prof…

Exhibition and Discussion | Made to last: the conservation of art

Image detail: Penny Byrne, H5N1 Mutant Strain 2011, porcelain figurine, vintage action man gas mask, epoxy resin, re-touching medium, powder pigments, 31 x 13 x 9.5cm. Courtesy the artist and Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney.

Made to last: the conservation of art Ever wondered how to conserve your works of art? What’s involved with keeping your precious paintings free from wear and tear? How do you restore works after damage by flood or fire? Conservators from the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne will be visiting the Latrobe Regional Gallery to discuss all aspects of conservation in a series of special activities on Saturday 22 September 2012. Visitors are invited to bring along small works of art and objects for the conservators to view. During the day the conservators will demonstrate some basic cleaning techniques and will discuss issues of conservation as well as hosting a conservator’s clinic for patrons to bring…

News | NGV unveils restored Poussin ‘The Crossing of the Red Sea’

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Today the National Gallery of Victoria unveiled Nicolas Poussin’s The Crossing of the Red Sea’ after an intensive, twelve-month conservation project. The painting is one of the NGV’s, and arguably Australia’s, finest European masterpieces. It was painted by Poussin in 1633-34 along with its companion piece The Adoration of the Golden Calf, which is housed in the National Gallery in London. The restoration project was sponsored by BNP Paribas Australia & New Zealand, who have for the past eighteen years helped to restore over two hundred paintings, including works from the Chateau de Versailles, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Neue Pinakotheque in Munich and many other collections. The painting was cleaned twice during the twentieth century,…

NGV Lecture: The Poussin Project

Poussin_Crossing of the Red Sea

NGV Lecture The Poussin Project Carl Villis, Conservator or European paintings before 1800 Nicholas Poussin’s Crossing of the Red Sea (c. 1634) is one of the National Gallery of Victoria’s most prized paintings. For NGV conservator Carl Villis, thanks to a special grant from French bank BNP Paribas, a full year has been set aside to complete restoration of the work, and to publish weekly updates on the NGV website. Join Carl for a discussion of the work undertaken so far, and the opportunity to ask questions. Speaker: Carl Villis, Conservator or European paintings before 1800. Date: Saturday 4 June, 2pm. Venue: Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, NGV International. Cost: $12 NGV Member / $18 non-member. Bookings: Ph +61 3 8662 1555, 10am-5pm…

Symposium: Scoping the future of cultural enrichment through cultural materials conservation

EPSI setup Photo: Nicole Tse

Symposium Scoping the future of cultural enrichment through cultural materials conservation 16th June 2011, Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, The University of Melbourne Background Understanding the conservation of material culture is framed by the values obtained from diverse and broad disciplines. Together the values identify the line of best fit to inform our understanding of a material that is uniquely constructed and aged in an array of climatic conditions. This one-day conservation symposium organised by the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC) includes five panels on current materials based research in Australia across the themes of conservation methodologies, data management, climate and materials, imaging and non-destructive analysis and materials analysis. Research draws on a number of research grants awarded by…

Lecture: Conservation Challenges of Contemporary Art - Jane Norman

Contemporary art challenges

Melbourne University, Faculty of Arts Public Lecture: Conservation Challenges of Contemporary Art Ms Jane Norman Museums develop standards for protecting works of art under their care and this process, while constantly evolving, is tested most vigorously with the acquisition, installation and collections care of contemporary art. The ephemeral nature of many works, the involvement of living artists, and the questions raised when preserving the integrity of conceptual artwork with replacement components: these are some of the issues facing conservators working to protect and conserve contemporary art. The talk will highlight several examples from American collections where collaboration, compromise and tradition-based conservation training helped find solutions to new challenges in the field of conservation. Biography: Jane Norman is an objects conservator, currently in private practice in Washington, D.C. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and a Master of Arts degree in Ethnographic and Archeological Conservation, both from…

EVCS: Carl Villis ‘Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Algarotti and The Finding of Moses’

Giambattista Tiepolo The finding of Moses (formerly attributed to Sebastiano Ricci).

The European Visual Culture Seminar presents: Carl Villis, Conservator of Paintings before 1800, National Gallery of Victoria Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Algarotti and The Finding of Moses in the National Gallery of Victoria Between 1958 and 2008, the NGV’s large eighteenth-century Venetian canvas The Finding of Moses carried an attribution to Sebastiano Ricci. In 2009 this was changed to Giambattista Tiepolo after an extended technical examination and a major conservation treatment. This talk will trace the long history of the ‘new’ Tiepolo attribution, and will introduce the theory that the work is another product of the fruitful collaboration between Tiepolo and his friend and patron, Count Francesco Algarotti. Date: Monday 28 March 2021 6:30 pm Venue: Room 150 Elisabeth Murdoch Building,…

Lecture: Restoring our Icons – The Royal Exhibition Buildings

Melbourne International Exhibition, September 25, 1880. Image from the State Library of Victoria

Restoring our Icons National Archaeology Week 2010 Lecture Series Tuesday 18 May 2010, 6-7pm Peter Lovell and Fraser Brown talk about work on Australia’s first built World Heritage Listed site. Major conservation and restoration work has been undertaken on the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens over the past four decades. Architecture and heritage consultants Peter Lovell and Fraser Brown from Lovell Chen have actively contributed to the renaissance of the complex that culminated in its 2004 inscription on the World Heritage List. Projects undertaken at various times included the removal of massive additions, external and internal fabric conservation, and subtle adaptive reuse works. They were responsible for reroofing works, including the stabilisation and re-slating of the dome, and extensive…