Conservation and Paintings by Iconic Canadian Artists focus of new exhibition
May 15, 2014
The McMaster Museum of Art presents a new permanent collection exhibition:
Spring Snow | Near Mongoose Lake | Algonquin Park:
CONSERVING CARMICHAEL, HARRIS AND THOMSON
on view May 15 – August 23, 2014
In 2013, the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) undertook conservation of three early 20th century Canadian national school works from the McMaster Museum of Art collection.
Conservation is an ongoing and necessary part of a museum’s custodial responsibility. The works by Tom Thomson and founding Group of Seven members Franklin Carmichael and Lawren Harris have been returned to the Museum and will be given their first post-treatment showing. The Harris painting is being shown for the first time since it was acquired by the donor’s father in 1951. Another work to be displayed for the first time is an unrecorded painting on the back of the Carmichael, which was discovered by the Museum prior to conservation.
In addition to the three conserved paintings, this exhibition includes a second Franklin Carmichael and a small selection of unframed paintings by their Canadian contemporaries including A. J. Casson, Edwin Holgate, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald and Albert H. Robinson.
The process of conservation is more than restoration; it involves a thorough examination using imaging technologies—such as ultraviolet fluorescence and infrared reflectance photography, revealing what is not visible to the naked eye—analyzing the materials used by the artist and comparative archival research. Importantly, ethical decisions must be made—the what-not-to-do as much as the treatment to undertake—because restoration can never achieve a freshly minted condition.
McMaster’s CCI conservation project was the subject of a Hamilton Spectator story earlier this year. Read it here
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