The Dallas Museum of Art will open its new Paintings Conservation Studio on November 22, 2013, as part of the Museum’s initiative to establish a more comprehensive in-house conservation program. The Paintings Conservation Studio features state-of-the-art technology—including a digital X-ray system—and will serve as a center for study and treatment of works of art as well as research into cutting-edge conservation methodologies. Brightened with natural light from new skylights and enclosed by glass walls, the Studio’s design will allow visitors to observe daily activity, providing audiences with a singular behind-the-scenes experience. Activities in the Studio will also be visible from the adjacent outdoor Sculpture Terrace.
The opening is accompanied by an exhibition of paintings from the DMA’s collection—including works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Childe Hassam, Julian Onderdonk, and others—in the Conservation Gallery adjoining the Studio. Behind the Scenes highlights the artists’ original materials and techniques, as well as the conservation histories of the works on display, exploring the various treatments they have undergone. This adjoining gallery will regularly rotate works, providing a space to explore the conservation process in greater detail through visual representations. Paintings from the DMA’s collection are inside the Studio itself—including a Renaissance portrait by Alessandro Allori and a 19th-century seascape by Gustave Courbet—and are currently undergoing conservation study and treatment. The launch of the Studio coincides with multiple other conservation initiatives at the Museum, including the development of a regional network of conservation partnerships and the dedication of Daniel Buren’s Sanction of the Museum, 1973, a large-scale installation that was recently acquired and conserved by the DMA following nearly three decades in storage. The installation, which consists of six massive canvas sheets suspended in space, underwent a substantial conservation process upon entering the Museum’s collection last year, including treatments to all six panels. The newly conserved work was installed in August in the Museum’s Concourse. The conservation program at the DMA is led by Chief Conservator Mark Leonard and is supported by the newly appointed Associate Conservator of Objects, Fran Baas. The Conservation Gallery exhibition Behind the Scenes is co-curated by Leonard and Sue Canterbury, the DMA’s Pauline Gill Sullivan Associate Curator of American Art.