11/14/2024
Let’s see how this works with Isabella, the museum’s outdoor sculpture by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.
11/13/2024
*Warning: puns and silly wordplay ahead! If that’s not your thing, this may not be the pLACE for you!
10/22/2024
More than 2,000 years ago, people living in the Nazca Desert in Peru discovered an artform using the unique earthen materials of their harsh environment.
10/10/2024
In the textile conservation lab, a three-piece 1890s cotton muslin ensemble arrived for treatment!
10/3/2024
The dark grime on its surface is thick and unevenly embedded in the layers of a degraded wax coating.
9/27/2024
For this edition of SketchCAM, let’s take our sketchbook and pencil into Discovering Ansel Adams, featuring the landscape photography of Ansel Adams (1902–1984) on view from September 27, 2024 to January 19, 2025.
9/26/2024
After a very close and extended examination by our conservator , it seems certain Madonna and Child was originally part of an Italian Renaissance altarpiece.
9/18/2024
You ever have had a project lingering around your house or work that just … bugs you? A thing that needs to be done if only someone would just DO it? This bodice was one of those projects!
9/4/2024
SketchCAM is a quick sketch showing how the museum’s mission and art work together. Our mission: Through the power of art, we contribute to a more vibrant Cincinnati by inspiring its people and connecting our communities.
8/29/2024
A few weeks ago, we posted about cleaning this landscape painting by British artist John Constable (1776–1837). The conservation treatment proceeded as quickly as we expected.
8/22/2024
Denison Museum at Denison University (Granville, Ohio) will show nine Cincinnati Art Museum pieces in different media from August 29 to November 29, 2024, in their exhibition Portraying Identity .
8/8/2024
This week in objects conservation, we are cleaning marble.
8/1/2024
We brought this lovely landscape, Waterloo Bridge by British artist John Constable (1776-1837), into the conservation lab to be examined for the British catalog project. Not conserved for more than 60 years, the painting’s varnish is now noticeably yellow.
7/25/2024
One of Bellow’s larger lithographs, Introducing John L. Sullivan, is torn in places along its right side; these tears could worsen with handling if not mended.
7/18/2024
Wanting to do a little more analysis of this piece, I took the jacket back to the museum’s Conservation lab and created a toile, which is like a test version of a pattern used to study and perfect how an original flat pattern works.
7/11/2024
This pair of art deco lamps, designed by Joseph Urban, was last on view in 2022 as part of the exhibition Unlocking an Art Deco Bedroom by Joseph Urban.
7/4/2024
A few weeks ago, two scientists from the Center for Archaeometry & Art Research Palatinate (CAAP) in Germany spent the morning in one of our European galleries to analyze Toilette of Venus, a painting by French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649).
6/20/2024
It was time for the ladderback chairs in Gallery 218 to get a refresh! The chairs’ silk upholstery wasn’t original and over the years, while on display, the fabric had grown dingy and stained. Curator of Decorative Arts & Design Amy Dehan selected some appropriate, modern fabric in consultation with me, and I recovered the seats!
5/23/2024
Remember the blue dress from a few weeks ago? This week she’s back—with a secret.
5/9/2024
Boy with Grapes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), is the 45th painting examined in the paintings conservation lab over the last eighteen months, for the British catalog project.
4/30/2024
The CAM+ Accessibility Cart is a self-serve welcoming point with tools to enhance any and everyone’s experience.
4/25/2024
This week in the textile conservation lab, I am working on a day dress dating to the 1910s. It has a very delicate silk net stand-up collar edged with a metal ribbon and stiffened with wire stays.
4/18/2024
In our last post about the Miss Mariko Okinawa doll’s tea set, we discussed re-joining all of the tiny ceramic fragments.
4/5/2024
Two prints by Lesley Dill featured in the recent post by Curator of Prints Kristin Spangenberg are now on view in Gallery 150. While preparing the prints for framing, I had the opportunity to examine them closely and photograph details that reveal the artist’s creative use of materials.
3/14/2024
As paintings conservators, we may use chemicals, but we certainly don’t give facials.
3/7/2024
Two prints by Willim Hentschel came through the paper lab with old hinges and pressure sensitive tapes. The artist’s work is unlike any other in the collection.
2/29/2024
These elegant pale blue kid leather shoes came to the lab for a new storage tray and interior padding, but they are interesting because they bear tell-tale damage from a specific collection pest: silverfish.
2/22/2024
This week in objects conservation, we are working on several pieces of micromosaic jewelry made in Italy during the late-19th century.
2/15/2024
Last month, three Northwestern scientists brought their highly specialized scanning and imaging equipment to the museum and spent a week in our Paintings/Objects lab.
2/1/2024
Something is afoot with these shoes! Can you put your finger (or toe) on the difference?