INTERVIEWS TO THE CONSERVATION WORLD: KYOKO NAKAHARA
REFLECTIONS
WHEN DIAGNOSTICS CHANGES ART HISTORY: PICASSO BLUE PERIOD
MARAT BY DAVID: WHAT HAPPENS TO REVOLUTIONARIES?
KANDINSKY FAKES, ANYONE?
A TABLE BECOMES A CROSS: ART-TEST @ THE RESTORATION FAIR 2022:
DO NOT MISS FLORENCE HERITECH
PORTFOLIO: CARLO DOLCI: A MASTER OF THE SEVENTEEN CENTURY
KYOKO NAKAHARA interviews to the art conservation world
"Who would have imagined that I was to meet the restorers I was reading about in magazines in Japan, and would have had the honor of their teaching?
Restorers have a beautiful job.
A bit like diagnosticians, not easy, but beautiful.
We share the passion for materials that translate into art.
And they know the matter, in ways that sometimes overlap, sometimes complement that of scholars or of scientists.
Their point of view adds always something new
When diagnostics calls the certainties of art into question. Picasso’s works of the Blue Period
The results of scientific investigations on 3 important Picasso paintings are on display in Washington: a real wealth of information that confirms how analyzes can change the course of art history
Until 12 June 2022, the Phillips Collection in Washington DC hosts the exhibition Picasso: Painting the Blue Period, which brings together over ninety works including paintings, drawings, sculptures and works on paper, created by Picasso at the beginning of his career, in his Blue Period.
The American exhibition offers the public interesting points of view on Picasso’s creative process, revealing some details “hidden” under the surface. The exhibition in fact brings to light studies and investigations begun in 2014 and then continued to date on three different works by the Spanish painter dated between 1901 and 1903, all three made by Picasso on recycled canvases, an operation that the artist performs many times.
These are the “Blue Room” painted in 1901, of “The crouching mendicant” dated 1902 and “The soup“, 1903.
The research was conducted by the Sherman Fairchild Conservation Studio, which is part of the Phillips Collection itself, and which used sophisticated techniques, such as infrared imaging and X-fluorescence mapping, allowing details hidden under the paint layer to be visualized, and revealing the tumultuous and rapid creative process adopted by the Spanish painter.
Scientific analyzes reveal how David composed the famous painting "The Death of Marat" and how he hid it during his exile in Brussels
In these times of war, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels dedicates an exhibition to David‘s canvas which stages the murder of Jean Paul Marat in 1793, painted just a few months after the crime. It is a political work, commissioned by the revolutionary command, as a tribute to the martyrs of the French Revolution.
With this image David intended to contribute to the sanctification of an activist who is represented here as if he were a Christ – inspired by the compositions of Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio -, who, to keep faith with his ideals, chooses to sacrifice his own life. In reality it did not happen quite like that.
Crypto currency, NFT and a (fake?) Kandinsky for sale on a Russian website “to help the soldiers of Donbass”
The Terricon Project, Art for Victory, selling art, is being advertised online apparently “to help those in need” because of the war, i.e. Russians, trying to grasp the opportunity offered by cryptocurrency: “in Russia, as well as Russians living abroad, there is more than 30% of the world’s total cryptocurrency. Now many are faced with the problem of blocking accounts, the inability to send finances. (…). It is here that you can absolutely anonymously help the Russian people right now”.
However, although signed and dated to 1909, the Kandinsky artwork for sale is likely to be a fraud. It was actually already questioned in 2005 when it was published in an “alternative” catalogue raisonné that provoked a scandal and the sharp criticism of the Kandinsky Society.
This is not surprising as the Russian Avant-Garde authentication world is a disaster, where the forgers are abundant and there are more fakes than genuine pictures.
Dialogues at the Salone Monday 16 May from 5.15 pm to 6.30 pm - Sala Brambilla
Two years ago, just in these days, we were given the opportunity, timidly but finally, to resume our work. Florence was silent and lonely
Now, after months of virtual meetings, the time has finally come to see each other in person: the Salone del Restauro returns to Florence, from 16 to 18 May, in a new location in the center of the city, in the Palazzo della Borsa of the Chamber of Commerce, next to Ponte Vecchio. An the entrance is free.
As announced, Art–Test will be there and will present the first evidence of the diagnostic campaign on the fourteenth-century “Painted Cross”, a work attributed to date to the Master of San Lucchese but whose authorship is yet to be confirmed or rediscovered.
After an “online only” last edition and with the goal to create synergy between Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, the conference Florence Heritech will take place in Florence from 16 to 18 May 2022, in same place and at the same time as the Florence Biennial Art and Restoration Fair.
Florence is since century a recognised cultural hub and it has an unrivalled tradition in the conservation and restoration field, as well as in the diagnostic one, with several private and public centres.
Florence Heri-Tech was launched in 2018 by the Department of Industrial Engineering of University of Florence (DIEF) and Association that runs the Fair. With its dense 3 days programme, articulated in 5 main topics: ICT and digital heritage, Diagnostics and monitoring, Engineering, Environment for CH and Materials Science and sustainable architecture for CH, this year the conference will be held both on line and on site, with free access to all.
Carlo Dolci,
a great master of the seventeenth century
Carlo Dolci, also known as Carlino, was a beloved and acclaimed artist by the critics of his time, he was considered the greatest Florentine painter of the seventeenth century, contended by European nobility (although he almost never left the Tuscan territory). He was back in the spotlight thanks to the monographic exhibition at the Galleria Palatina of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The exhibition brought together works from numerous European museums: the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, the Alte Pinakothek of Monaco Bavaria, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, theAshmolean Museum in Oxford, the Burghley House in Stamford, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest, the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and the British Royal Collection, reflecting the international scope of his works.
