PART 2

Liz WildConservator, Sculpture Conservation Department, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Illustrated Case study QAG | GoMA’s Contemporary Art Collection

WANG Qingsong / Night revels of Lao Li 2000 / Type C photograph on paper / ed. 7/9 / Purchased 2002 with funds from James C Sourris through the Queensland Art

Gallery Foundation / 127 x 972cm

GoMA rolled storage

TreatmentRe-enforcement of enlarged pinholes

• Securing tabs were adhered to the back of the artwork to attach the photo to the installation roll.

Installing QINGSONG Night revels

Installing QINGSONG Night revels

Holding roll and holding work against wall

Installing QINGSONG Night revels, Pinning the work onto the wall

CCAC – Centre of Conservation of Contemporary Art

Launched in 2006, the Centre for Contemporary Art Conservation (CCAC) was developed as an initiative of the Gallery of Modern Art. Its mission is to develop understanding of the conservation implications of contemporary art materials.

Mission

• Unlike traditional artist’s materials, new materials can be delicate or unstable. Understanding the chemical properties of new materials through research and analysis (and thus a material’s lifespan and degradation patterns) is critical to the development of effective conservation plans to ensure an artwork’s long term viability.

• The CCAC is managed by the Head of Conservation and conducts activities in addition to day-to-day conservation duties of collection management, exhibition, loan preparation, and research and restoration of the pre 1970 collections. The CCAC aims to become a resource for conservation of contemporary art both within Australia and throughout the region internationally.

• While there are conservation facilities at both Gallery sites for ongoing conservation work, CCAC activities are conducted primarily at GoMA involving the post 1970 collections.  

• Besides research programs the CCAC provides a professional workshop program, internships and student support, and a conservation public program.

Research projects

• 2009 -2012: ‘Twentieth century in paint’. Three year ARC collaboration with Uni of Qld. Focusing on house paint analysis 1955-2000.

• 2008 : ‘China!’ Painting materials in China 1980-2000. Study into materials of painters. Including Artist and scholar interviews

Conservation internship program

Marie Stewart, USA

• The Gallery in conjunction with the University of Queensland hosts PhD candidate, Gillian Osmond, who is researching the Gallery’s paintings collection, looking specifically at the use and deterioration of zinc in oil paint production in Australia.

• QAG hosts interns from the Conservation course at the University of Melbourne and also from overseas, including the USA and Europe.

Eva Antonsen, Denmark

Professional workshop programConferences

• 2012: Planning is underway for a 20th Century in paint symposium as part of the ARC grant

• 2010: An introduction to the conservation of photographic collections. A Workshop for Conservators & Preservation Technicians, presented by AICCM and hosted by the CCAC and State Library of Queensland.

• 2008: GoMA hosted two five-day intensive courses; New methods for cleaning paintings and New methods for cleaning painted surfaces of 3D objects. These courses were for conservators interested in new cleaning methods for painted and coated surfaces. During the courses, instructor Richard Wolbers presented participants with a general survey of the theoretical principles needed to evaluate and formulate tailored aqueous and solvent-based cleaning systems.

• 2007: In partnership with AICCM and the State Library of Queensland. Three day conference and Public Lecture by Dr Tom Learner, research scientist Getty Research Institute USA. Publication of 270 page Contemporary Collections, AICCM National Conference pre prints edited by GoMA staff.

Richard Wolbers Cleaning Painted surfaces workshop 2008

Published papers 2011:•Pagliarino, A. 2011 Complex Conversions – archiving Tony Cokes’ Pop Manifestos, in The Bulletin, AICCM (edition to be issued)•Pagliarino, A. 2011 Monumental and on the move, in ICOM-CC Preprints, Portugal Meeting 2011, ICOM (in editing)•Wild, L. 2011, Conservation and exhibition preparation of a contemporary indigenous Australian artwork: ‘Tree sculpture’ Lena Yarinkura, in ICOM-CC Ethnographic Newsletter (edition to be issued)2010:•Osmond, G. and Carter, A. 2010 The effect of conductivity on water solubility: cleaning a modern Chinese oil painting, in Preprints of New Insights into the Cleaning of Paintings conference, Valencia, Spain, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia and Smithsonian Institution•Barrett, K. and Shellard, S. 2010 Development of a prototype: a rolling mechanism to aid the installation of oversize works on paper, in Preprints of the 6th AICCM Book, Paper and Photographic Materials Symposium, Melbourne, VIC, AICCM2008:•Carter, A. 2008 100% potential: painting conservation and contemporary art at the Queensland Art Gallery, in Paintings Conservation in Australia from the 19th Century to the present: connecting the past to the future, AICCM•Osmond, G. 2008 The impact of Richard Wolbers, in Paintings Conservation in Australia from the 19th Century to the present: connecting the past to the future, AICCM•Shellard, S. 2008 Stabilising Montien Boonma’s Trio and Flattening Dong Wei’s Snapshot: two case studies involving collaboration and adaption, in Preprints of the 5th AICCM Book, Paper and Photographic Materials Symposium, Canberra, ACT, AICCM2007:•Pagliarino, A. and Osmond, G. (Editors) 2007 Contemporary Collections, AICCM Preprints of the National Conference 2007, AICCM•Wild L. and Pagliarino, A. 2007 Documentation of installation artworks at QAG│GoMA in Contemporary Collections, AICCM

Conservation public programsThe conservation staff continue to be involved in the Gallery’s public programs including My Gen 50+ and regular public lectures related to specific exhibitions.

Paper presented by Liz Wild, A/Head of Conservation, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art

 ©Queensland Art Gallery, 2011

 Copyright in all art work images is owned by the artists or their representatives. No part of this presentation may be reproduced without written permission from the Queensland Art

Gallery and the author.  

All works are in the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, unless otherwise indicated. 

Artwork on slide one: ZHU Weibing and JI Wenyu / People holding flowers / 2007 / Synthetic polymer paint on resin; velour, steel wire, dacron, lodestone and cotton 400

pieces: 100 x 18 x 8cm (each) (installed dimensions variable) / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2008 with funds from Michael

Simcha Baevski through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation

Photography of art works by Natasha Harth and Ray Fulton, Queensland Art Gallery; all other photography by Queensland Art Gallery Conservation staff.

 www.qag.qld.gov.au