Hand in Hand: Collaboration in Art and Conservation

An essay collection that explores the successes and challenges of collaboration in art and conservation, as presented at BAPCR’s Hand in Hand conference. Contributors examine joint approaches to treatment, technical study, and public engagement across paintings from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century, highlighting how conservators work closely with artists, historians, scientists, and others to care for complex, multi-authored objects.

One stereotypical image of a conservator – or an artist – is of a lone figure absorbed in their work at an easel. This is, of course, rarely the full picture: whether in the making of artworks or the conservation of them, collaboration is often fundamental to the process. Conservators work with each other and with art historians, scientists, artists, stakeholders and many others. The objects they encounter are themselves not always the work of a single hand. The successes and challenges of working collaboratively are brought to the fore in this volume of papers presented at the British Association of Paintings Conservator-Restorers conference Hand in Hand: Collaboration in Art and Conservation. Through a focus on working together, the contributions explore a wide range of questions addressing practical treatments, technical investigations, ethical questions and public engagement in relation to paintings dating from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century.

Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction The Venetian Painting Project: an interdisciplinary research study in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich Ronja Emmerich, Anneliese Foldes, Johanna Pawis, Annette Kranz, Andreas Schumacher, Eva Ortner, Jens Wagner, Jan Schmidt and Heike Stege Collaboration in the conservation of Baldassare Peruzzi's Nativity Olivia Stoddart, Marika Spring, Eugenia Geddes da Filicaia and Anne Stewart From record to image: creating The Field of the Cloth of Gold Rosanna de Sancha, Claire Chorley and Claire Shepherd Indigo: collaboration, collections, conservation, chemistry Jenny Williamson, Cecile Charbonneau and Ann Hunter Bridging the gap: reconsidering the artist's involvement in the conservation process Virginia Nouwen, Yetunde Odediran, Olympia Diamond and Julia Nagle A facsimile for a lady: Glasgow Museum's Unfinished Portrait of an Unknown Lady Maria Jose Prieto Pedregal The lost Atlantic City: the discovery of a painting by Helen Saunders beneath Praxitella by Wyndham Lewis Helen Kohn and Rebecca Chipkin Early Jackson Pollock: the conservation treatment of Naked Man with Knife, Tate collection Francesca Secchi Collaboration across centuries? Investigating the reworkings of Hexham Abbey's 'Ogle' altarpiece Alice Limb and Lucy Wrapson Distanced but connected: investigation and treatment of the Poynter cartoons from the Heritage Collections at UK Parliament Chloe Head, Elsa Guerreiro, Caroline Babington, Guan-Lin Liu and Sergei G. Kazarian Conserving chip by chip: collaborations and challenges in the conservation of a painting on chipboard Andrei Azzopardi, David Frank Bugeja, Anthony Spagnol and Rachel Vella Challenges for consolidation and cleaning Franciszka Themerson's unvarnished white oil paintings: a case study, Abstract (1949) Aviva Burnstock, Melissa Barton and Silvia Rita Amato,

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction 

The Venetian Painting Project: an interdisciplinary research study in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich
Ronja Emmerich, Anneliese Földes, Johanna Pawis, Annette Kranz, Andreas Schumacher, Eva Ortner, Jens Wagner, Jan Schmidt and Heike Stege 

Collaboration in the conservation of Baldassare Peruzzi’s Nativity
Olivia Stoddart, Marika Spring, Eugenia Geddes da Filicaia and Anne Stewart 

From record to image: creating The Field of the Cloth of Gold
Rosanna de Sancha, Claire Chorley and Claire Shepherd

Indigo: collaboration, collections, conservation, chemistry
Jenny Williamson, Cecile Charbonneau and Ann Hunter 

Bridging the gap: reconsidering the artist’s involvement in the conservation process
Virginia Nouwen, Yetunde Odediran, Olympia Diamond and Julia Nagle

A facsimile for a lady: Glasgow Museum’s Unfinished Portrait of an Unknown Lady
María José Prieto Pedregal

The lost Atlantic City: the discovery of a painting by Helen Saunders beneath Praxitella by Wyndham Lewis
Helen Kohn and Rebecca Chipkin 

Early Jackson Pollock: the conservation treatment of Naked Man with Knife, Tate collection
Francesca Secchi

Collaboration across centuries? Investigating the reworkings of Hexham Abbey’s ‘Ogle’ altarpiece
Alice Limb and Lucy Wrapson 

Distanced but connected: investigation and treatment of the Poynter cartoons from the Heritage Collections at UK Parliament
Chloe Head, Elsa Guerreiro, Caroline Babington, Guan-Lin Liu and Sergei G. Kazarian

Conserving chip by chip: collaborations and challenges in the conservation of a painting on chipboard
Andrei Azzopardi, David Frank Buġeja, Anthony Spagnol and Rachel Vella

Challenges for consolidation and cleaning Franciszka Themerson’s unvarnished white oil paintings: a case study, Abstract (1949)
Aviva Burnstock, Melissa Barton and Silvia Rita Amato

• Edited by Miranda Brain
• Edited by Alexandra Gent
• Edited by Amy Griffin
• Edited by Lucy Odlin
• Edited by Caroline Rae
• Edited by Claire Shepherd