3/30/2023
Treatment is complete for this 1920s silk chiffon and velvet dress which showed loss in several places, including the right shoulder.
3/29/2023
Congratulations to museum member, Caroline Gollar, the winner of our 1881 Member Magazine “Try Your Hand” contest for Spring 2023.
3/23/2023
After removing all the old adhesive and over paint, we revealed several areas of loss to the painted scene on the glazed surface. This loss was likely caused by the same incident that damaged the foot causing the piece to break into multiple fragments.
3/16/2023
This portrait of an anonymous lady by an anonymous British artist was so dirty that only the most basic details were visible before conservation.
3/13/2023
Happy AmeriCorps Week! This week ServeOhio (Ohio’s commission on service and volunteerism) celebrates and recognizes AmeriCorps members who serve Ohio communities.
3/9/2023
Paper conservation often involves undoing repairs by others who don’t have the knowledge or materials needed to best preserve the art. I recently examined a drawing by Cincinnati artist John Ruthven (1924 – 2020) with a long tear that had been mended with pressure sensitive tape, often referred to as “Scotch tape.”
3/2/2023
Are you a pal of Indian textiles? Then be sure to see the palampore currently on display in the South Asian Gallery!
3/1/2023
Explore works by women artists in the museum's collection.
2/23/2023
While cleaning and conserving our Jain shrine, we discovered several layers of paint from different periods of its history. The carved wooden designs would have been repainted several times during its use as a devotional object.
2/22/2023
This story begins with Samantha Gaier, the museum’s Associate Director of School-Based Learning, asking about my personalized Super Bowl XLI Bengals jersey during a “visual arts professional development day” for art teachers with Cincinnati Public Schools. Little did she know, the jersey was just a small part of a larger story, a love story that began almost 40 years earlier.
2/16/2023
Inspired by the brilliant photography of Georgia O’Keeffe, Montessori students from the Xavier University Montessori Lab School experienced a novel three-part lesson about the innovative female artist.
2/16/2023
These three portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792) have come out of storage and into the conservation lab for the museum’s British catalog project . They are due to be examined, and perhaps treated, before heading to our photography department for high resolution imaging.
2/15/2023
From greeters to grounds keepers to gallery attendants, our frontline staff experience the museum’s collections firsthand, every day. Check out these six artworks—curated by staff members in Visitor Services, Building & Grounds, and Museum Security—and discover why each represents a favorite work of art.
2/9/2023
A larger portion of the painting is currently on view in New York until May 7, after which the scroll will travel to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and be on exhibit June 16–September 18, 2023.
2/9/2023
In honor of Black History Month, the library is currently displaying the artist file of Thom Shaw (1947–2010), one of Cincinnati’s best known and most admired contemporary artists.
2/6/2023
February is Black History Month, and we’re celebrating by sharing stories of contemporary Black artists through Google Arts & Culture’s Black History and Culture hub.
2/2/2023
Getting beautiful objects on display is a multi-stage process that often includes a stop (or several!) in Conservation. This week we installed some new objects in the Forecourt Gallery of the museum, including this child’s dress.
1/30/2023
Join the Cincinnati Art Museum during this time of celebration by exploring works by Black artists in the museum’s collection.
1/26/2023
We are working on conserving a new piece of the shrine—which is cleaning up very well—revealing beautiful bright red and yellow pigments underneath the coating.
1/19/2023
Before the work was shipped to the museum from out of state, our curator of American art, Julie Aronson, PhD, contacted a professionally trained paintings conservator in that region to examine it. He noted a few areas with cracks and lifting paint that might be jeopardized during transport. With permission from the owner , the conservator applied the three tissue paper patches you see here to make sure that no paint flakes were lost in transit.
1/11/2023
See these and other woodcut prints (including Himeji Castle in the Morning, a variation of the print seen here) by seven members of the talented Yoshida family spanning most of the twentieth century until April 9, 2023.
1/10/2023
January’s Evening for Educators will feature a tour of the exhibition Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art. This interactive art exhibition explores the power of dance, not only in everyday life, but in religious thought and worship in South Asia.
1/5/2023
Heat and moisture melted the missing sequins on this 1925–1926 party dress at the wearer’s armpit.
12/22/2022
Let’s look back on some unique and noteworthy moments during 2022.
12/21/2022
Many of the carved items (such as the bow held in the hand of the figure on left side of the archway) had broken and required repairs to be carried out under a microscope.
12/15/2022
A few months ago, I posted about the complicated surface coatings on Cézanne’s Still Life with Bread and Eggs.” But what was going on under the surface was even more of a surprise.
12/8/2022
You can see the conserved Dancing Horse in the special exhibition Galloping Through Dynasties through January 1, 2023
12/1/2022
We are “dyeing” to find the perfect shades of pink silk chiffon to repair this 1920s dress!
11/18/2022
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, the late autumn and early winter is a time for reflection and celebration.
11/17/2022
This week in objects conservation: Almost 12 months from when we first started the treatment, half of the Jain shrine has been conserved, and a new batch of pieces has moved into the lab to begin treatment.