200 YEAR OLD PAINTING NEWLY RESTORED RETURNS TO MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

This is a startling photo of Mission San Juan Capistrano if you know the mission today. It was taken prior to its restoration at the beginning of the 20th century. This last month, May 2014, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories completed the art conservation or painting restoration of the biggest most important painting in the Father Serra Chapel, Station of the Cross XII or The Crucifixion. This extremely large Spanish Colonial work of art is 12 1/2' tall x 7' wide. Here is the article about the project: http://tipsforfineartcollectors.org/oil-paintings/200-year-old-painting-newly-restored-returns-to-mission-san-juan-capistrano/

Scott M. Haskins, professional art conservator from FACL, Inc.  explaining the details of the project.

Pollock's 'Mural' restoration nearing completion

• One of the main influencing "founding fathers" of Post War Abstract Expressionism in the United States was Jackson Pollock, hence one of the elements of his great fame and the astronomical values his paintings have. Perhaps one of his most famous paintings is this painting entitled "Mural" which belongs to the University of Iowa.
  
  
  Pollocks influence on both "schools" or centers of production in the Bay Area (Berkley) and in New York cannot be understated and influenced generations of artists. Fine Art Conservation Laboratories consistent work on Post War Abstract Expressionist paintings over the years have included most of the notable artists from the Berkley School.
  
  
  
  
  
  FILE - An Oct. 17, 2002, file photo is of the University of Iowa's painting titled: "Mural" by Jackson Pollock. The 70-year-old painting has been in the conservation department of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles where it will go on display in March before a 10-month display in Sioux City, Iowa. The 8-foot by 20-foot piece was removed from the University of Iowa Museum of Art because the building was damaged by flooding in 2008. Photo: Deb Barber, AP

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An extensive 19-month effort to study and restore a Jackson Pollock painting is nearly finished, officials say as they prepare to have the famous piece displayed in California and Iowa this year.

The 1943 painting "Mural" has been in the conservation department of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles since the summer the 2012, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported (http://icp-c.com/1l0s9k6 ). Restoration has included stabilizing the piece's physical structure, which had been sagging, and removing a varnish added in the 1970s.

"The painting started sagging very early in its life, probably as Pollock was painting it, because he probably himself didn't make strong enough of a stretcher for such a large painting," said Yvonne Szafran, head of the Getty's paintings conservation department. "That's keeping in mind this was the largest painting he had painted up until this point, and maybe the largest painting he ever does paint — it's certainly the widest."

The restoration work involved examining slivers of paint under a microscope and using imaging technology to virtually see layers of color. The research has dispelled the myth that Pollack created the famed artwork in a 24-hour session, as well as determined that the artist used some house paint on the piece.

University of Iowa Museum of Art Director Sean O'Harrow called the restoration, which was done pro bono, the most important modern art conservation effort in recent years.

The 8-foot by 20-foot painting was removed from the University of Iowa Museum of Art before the building was damaged by flooding in 2008. The painting is owned by the university, which received it through a donation in 1951 by art collector Peggy Guggenheim. It is insured for $140 million and is considered one of the most important modern American paintings in history.

The painting will go on display at the Getty in March before a 10-month stint at the Sioux City Art Center beginning in June.

Officials hope to take the painting on an international tour with other Pollock works. It would return to Iowa City once a new space is built for the university's 14,000-piece art collection. The touring plans are still in its early stages.

"While we build a new museum, we thought it would be the one, great opportunity to engage the world before it comes back to Iowa City," said O'Harrow.

LA ART SHOW - Mega cool expo at the LA Convention Center

LAST YEAR THE LA ART SHOW HELD AT THE LA CONVENTION CENTER HAS ITS BIGGEST ATTENDANCE EVER WITH LOTS OF CREATIVITY AND BEAUTY TO SEE AND ENJOY. ITS THE PREMIER ART GIG IN THE WESTERN US FOR THE YEAR. VINTAGE AND CONTEMPORARY PAINTING DEALERS FROM ALL OVER THE US AND FROM ABROAD COME TO SHOW OFF THEIR BEST PAINTINGS. THE TRADITIONAL WORKS OF ART ARE SEPARATED FROM THE CONTEMPORARY ART WHICH MAKES FOR TWO DISTINCT VISUAL EXPERIENCES... ACTUALLY THREE! DON’T MISS THE ART PRINT SHOW.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE A VERY SHORT VIDEO REVEIW, CLICK HERE:http://tipsforfineartcollectors.org/travel-and-events/la-art-show-booth-of-fine-art-conservation-laboratories/

FINE ART CONSERVATION LABORATORIES WILL BE THERE TO TALK TO COLLECTORS, GIVE COLLECTION CARE TIPS,  DISCUSS AUTHENTICATION QUESTIONS AND, OF COURSE, ANSWER RESTORATION QUESTIONS.  LAST YEAR WE HAD IN THE BOOTH A PAINTING SOME FOLKS FOUND IN A CLOSET. IT SOLD A FEW MONTHS LATER FOR $1.4 MILLION AT CHRISTIES IN HONG KONG. THE WINNING-THE-LOTTERY-TYPE STORY IS TOLD IN THIS QUICK VIDEO:

WHEATHER YOU WOULD LIKE TO GIVE THE EXPO A QUICK WALK THROUGH OR COME BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN, CALL US FOR FREE TICKETS FOR THE FULL 4 DAY EVENT WORTH $100 BEING HELD AT THE LA CONVENTION CENTER ON JANUARY 16 -19, 2014. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE AT THE REALLY FUN PARTY, COME TO THE EVENING OPENING GALA WED. JAN. 15^TH. CALL US FOR DETAILS AT 805 564 3438

Cowboy Painting by Maynard Dixon Newly Discovered - Time Lapse Cleaning Video

Maynard Dixon is usually a favorite of the Old West, Western Art and early Impressionism so its always fun to see a "new" painting, that's been hidden away (and in this case unappreciated!) resurface after 110 years! Steven Stern Fine Arts brought this gorgeous painting to us for art conservation treatments. Its hard to believe that someone tried to clean it before us! See the short 2 min time laps video of the process of cleaning a painting at  http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/in-lab/maynard-dixon-painting-restoration-art-conservation/

We've cleaned some of Dixon's great paintings over the years like the one here below. Enjoy the video!

Art conservation questions? Call Scott M. Haskins 805 895 5121
Art appraisal questions? Call Richard Holgate 805 895 5121

Insights into Art Masterpieces by Scott M. Haskins, Art Conservator

Many of you have enjoyed the art history video tours where I've taken you through some great galleries/museums. Here's another I think you will enjoy no matter how little you know about art or history: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZITYx1QmBc 

Be sure to "like" the video and this page. 

Pass it around/share this?

For a video tour of the art conservation lab go to

http://www.fineartconservationlab.com

Painting restoration questions? Call Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438

Art appraisal questions? Call Richard Holgate at 805 895 5121

“Monuments Men” and "Saving Italy” How did Europe's great works of art survive the destruction of World War II?

How did Europe's great works of art survive the destruction of World War II? Robert Edsel, author of “Monuments Men” and "Saving Italy” gives you the details and incredible story.

I just download “Saving Italy” in audio format and can't wait to get into it. But right now, I'm listening to the precursor to this book which is “Monuments Men” which is due to come out in a movie with George Cloonie and Matt Damon this Sept. When the author was gathering info for his book, it became too massive and he couldn't whiddle it down... so he published the very interesting details of saving Europe's art during WWII in these two separate books.

The books and audio are available on Amazon. Click on the book’s name for the link.

A Great Story that Will Make You Gasp - Finding a treasure at a garage sale

I was on the phone yesterday with Scot Levitt, the head of the painting department for Bonham and Butterfields Auction House and he told me a story that he said I could tell you. The story came up because we were talking about the successful sale the evening before and how a painting had sold for twice its $175K estimate. I mentioned to him that is must feel great for him when he helps people to sell their items so successfully and that he must be awash in bottles of wine etc given in gratitude. He mentioned that this never happens and he almost never hears again from the sellers even if the sale is great for them. “Well”, I said, “I can that because most people don’t live their lives with an attitude of gratitude.”

Then he said that he had an exception to that comment: Several months ago a “picker” (a name in the art trade for people who scour the garage sales etc for paintings of value, then resell them to the auction house or to dealers for a quick profit) found a painting in a Pacific Palisades garage sale (a rich residential community by Santa Monica, CA). 

The lady watching over her sale was selling a poorly framed item she thought was a poster. He mentioned to her he thought it was a real painting. She blew him off and treated him with indifference so he bought it for the $15 she was asking.

He drove the painting immediately to see Scot Levitt (about 30 minutes) where it was confirmed that it was a painting. It sold a few months later for $375,000.00!!! He was so thankful that he bought Scot an entire case of a fine wine, a highly unusual gesture. But he did next made me gasp… he drove back to the lady’s house where the garage sale had been and he surprised her with a check for $100,000!!! So, what do you think of THAT??!!

One of the most valuable analytical tools that a picker, a collector, an antiquer can use is a UV black light to help see invisible characteristics and details on paintings. For an article on this and a short video go to this page: http://tipsforfineartcollectors.org/blacklight-package/

For info on using Infrared go to this link: http://tipsforfineartcollectors.org/authentication/infrared-reflectometer-used-for-looking-at-paintings/

Questions about analyzing artwork? Call Scott M. Haskins at 805 564 3438

Questions about appraisals? Call Richard Holgate at 805 895 5121

Hidden Paintings, Covert Art: Once lost is now found- Intriguing and mysterious. Why would someone do SUCH a thing?!

Hidden from the IRS? The Nazis? Technology and luck help to find lost masterpieces.

Hidden Paintings: Lost and Forgotten, But Now They Are Found

By Scott M.Haskins, Painting Conservator

Do I hear and “Amen!” to the fact that one of the most entertaining thoughts as a collector is to find another painting under the one you bought?! OMGosh, the stories that are told about hiding art from the Nazis or the IRS (no, I won’t comment), artists reusing their canvases and many more are plentiful and we hear them often here at Fine Art Conservation Laboratories. I have so many great stories of our adventures that my office manager keeps insisting that I write a book. Many of these stories involving “discovering hidden art.” I don’t think I’ll be a threat, however, for Daniel Silva! I do get comments once in awhile that I remind people of his main character who is an art restorer and spy. I read one of his books on a plane trip a few months ago. It was a page turner and I read the whole thing on the round trip.

One of the investigative tools that I use in professional art conservation is an infrared reflectometer to look under the thin layers of paint to see what we can see. In fact I made a video about “Hidden Signatures on Paintings Discovered with Infrared” that has been quite popular and educational for art collectors. In fact, I was called and then used as the main expert on the hugely popular CNBC television series Treasure Detectives for their final episode of last season.

I used an infrared reflectometer when we received into the lab a really nice California Coastal scene by Orrin White, perhaps the nicest painting by this artist that I had ever seen. The back of the painting was painted white. An odd thing. So, we looked at this white backside and saw a ghost image in the monitor of a mountain, trees and perhaps a lake. The owner agreed to a cleaning test and we were able to remove some white paint to reveal the nice colors of the painting underneath. Finally, the curiosity was too much for the owner and we cleaned the white paint off to reveal…

At this point, I’m almost always asked, “Can you split the canvas so to end up with two paintings?” No, paintings on canvas cannot be done. However, I have done this work on a double sided artist pulp board panel that was made from layers of paper and that was thick enough to split safely for the paintings.

Cleaning off the overpaint from a painting that’s been “hidden” is a sketchy proposition. It worked to perfection in the painting mentioned above. But was less successful, yet super intriguing, with a portrait of well know LA art dealer, Earl Stendahl by an artist named Werner in 1932. The painting belonged to the old art dealer’s grandson but on the back of the painting was noted the Guy Rose estate stamp and an exhibition label for Rising Mists by Guy Rose. Whaaa?!?!?!  After inspection with infrared and the above described cleaning tests, it was decided to get into the removal of the portrait to rediscover the long lost painting by Guy Rose. Here’s what the result of the portrait removal was…

While the final picture matched the post-mortum exhibition catalog illustration for Rising Mists, the sale of the painting afterwards has not been successful. Personally, I like the picture a lot.

We’ve got another painting in the lab that has an abstract figurative painting over what appears as a landscape underneath. The top painting is flaking badly. The family history on the painting is that it was being hid back in the 1930’s from debt collectors cause it was super valuable. We’ll see… I’ve also had paintings brought to me that were painted over treasure maps being hid from the Nazis and smuggled out. A waste of time? Well, at least there’s a good story and a “look” in the eye of the owner.

I also once found an ad for a horseless carriage stretched over stretcher bars UNDER another stretched canvas of a historical building done in 1906. That was fun, but not as interesting as the recent article you can read here:

Museum has one more painting than it thought

Another work discovered during restoration of Frank C. Ashford painting  July 20, 2013|Staff reports

When a Frank C. Ashford painting was sent to Minneapolis to be restored, the Dacotah Prairie Museum found it had one more Ashford painting than it thought.

 The museum has long owned an original Ashford oil painting called “Portrait of a Young Woman.” With the support of the Yellow Brick Road Quester Club, the museum hired the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis to restore “Portrait of a Young Woman.”

 While the painting was in Minneapolis, the conservator removed the canvas from the frame to discover another painting of another young woman underneath.

 “This new Ashford painting, which will become part of the museum collection, is truly a gift since no one knew of its existence,” according to a museum news release.

 The two pieces will be jointly unveiled at a reception on Tuesday.

 The revitalization of “Portrait of a Young Woman” was completed with money raised by Aberdeen's Yellow Brick Road Quester Club and a South Dakota Preservation and Restoration Grant from the state Questers organization.

http://articles.aberdeennews.com/2013-07-20/lifestyle/40699714_1_ashford-painting-museum-collection

So, if you’ve read this far you are seriously in love with the art world. I trust you know the in’s and out’s of utilizing UV to inspect paintings for previous restorations and monkey business? It’s a major point of focus to learn to use this technology well, as an art collector. This is the due diligence that will raise questions that will save you $10,000’s or more, depending on your budget. Here’s a link to some videos and more info: UV Blacklight info

For a news article featuring Scott M. Haskins’, Click here: http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/media-room/art-restorerconservator-scott-m-haskins-featured-in-life-section-of-newspaper/

For art conservation and painting restoration questions call Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438 or faclartdoc@gmail.com

For art appraisal questions call Richard Holgate at 805 895 5121 or jrholgate@yahoo.com

See short videos by Scott M. Haskins on art conservation related subjects at YouTube channel “Bestartdoc” http://www.youtube.com/user/bestartdoc?feature=mhee

See short do-it-yourself videos on collection care and emergency preparedness for art collectors, family history items, heirlooms, memorabilia at Youtube Channel “preservationcoach” http://www.youtube.com/user/preservationcoach

To learn more about what you can do at home to take care of your stuff, download now a copy of Scott Haskins’ book, How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster at 50% off! CLICK HERE to know more: http://saveyourstuffblog.com/products-supplies/

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Art Restoration, Painting Conservation, Art Conservation, Repair Art Los Angeles, Santa Monica

A new video shows a summary of our art conservation and painting restoration work in the Los Angeles, CA area. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5K5CIUWVp8

http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/  Highest quality professional art conservation and restoration services. Door to door service. Conservation questions? Call Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438  Also, fine art insurance claims consultant and expert witness in art related matters.

See who our clients are and about our background.

Testimonials: http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/testimonials/

Consultation resume: http://tipsforfineartcollectors.org/consultationsurveys/

About Scott Haskins: http://tipsforfineartcollectors.org/about-scott-haskins/

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/bestartdoc?feature=mhee

Keywords:

faclinc, Art Restoration, Painting Conservation, Restoration of a painting, Painting restoration, Art Conservation, Repair Art, Clean a painting, fix a rip in a painting, Scott M. Haskins, Japanese American National Museum, mural conservation, mural restoration, Jonathan Club, WPA murals, Olympic Murals, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Marina del Rey, Brentwood, Belair, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Glendale, Alta Dena, Encino, Pacific Palisades, Mailbu, West Los Angeles,

Goddess Diana Art Conservation Treatments at Philadelphia Museum of Art

A couple of years ago I made a video wile I walked through the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I was surprised how many people commented and enjoyed that walk through with me. Here's the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFULHuqJ6kw

In that video I highlighted the statue of the Goddess Diana the which was just announced that the Bank of America is funding conservation treatments and regilding. Here's an interesting article about it: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=63474#.Ucn3jhb9NjQ

The question comes up every once in awhile, "How ethical is it to redo, repaint, refinish artwork"? That's a good question! If you strip and refinish important valuable furniture, you will seriously impact the value. But, stripping a vintage car down to the metal and redoing it can enhance the value. If you repaint a damaged painting, the value goes into the toilet. But the Chinese restorers cover over damage on old ceramics so to make the damage undetectable (they think)... the value of its original nature is greatly compromised. A historic structure gets completely redone from top to bottom and it adds value to the property. If you over clean valuable wood duck decoys, the value is nil.

In this case, the worry is not about its monetary value but concerns the original nature of a historic statue. The idea with this art conservation intervention is to take it back to its original appearance but I question whether this is heavy handed. Goddess Diana has a history. Let her show off the testimonial conditions and let her be what she is now, today. She will be stunning in gold I'm sure. But her historic wrinkles will be botoxed away.

For a video tour of our lab go to http://www.fineartconservationlab.com
Art conservation questions? Call Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438
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