Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report
Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark (May–September 2006). A total of 243 objects were on loan to Queensland Government offices as at 30 June 2006. For exhibition purposes, a total of 533 objects were received on loan, including items from the Cook Islands, Fiji, the United States and New Zealand for ‘The 5th Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’. Some 493 objects were also received for consideration for acquisition, and included items from England, Fiji, Japan, Malaysia, China, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the United States. The Provenance Research Project — which was initiated in December 2001 to confirm the Gallery’s good title to works of European origin that may have been confiscated during the 1933–45 period of Nazi rule — was completed during the year, and the results published on the Gallery’s website. The stocktake of the Collection also continued. During the year 45 objects which, following curatorial assessment, no longer met the standard considered appropriate for the Gallery’s Collection were deaccessioned. CONSERVING THE COLLECTION The Conservation section continued its crucial role in preventive conservation, treatment and research relating to the care of works in the Gallery’s Collection. In preparation for the new displays of historical collections in the original Queensland Art Gallery building, major projects completed during the year included the reframing of works by Ian Fairweather. Some 12 paintings and works on paper from the Collection underwent research and conservation treatment, and reproduction frames were constructed. Reframing of the Papunya board collection was also undertaken, with all works now framed in blackwood mouldings. The reporting year saw the naming of the new Centre for Contemporary Art Conservation (CCAC) in August 2005. The Centre is an initiative of the Gallery of Modern Art, and is dedicated to programs of contemporary art conservation. The Centre will conduct activities in addition to current programs involving collection management, exhibition and loan preparation, and research and restoration of the pre-1970 collections. With the opening of GoMA in December 2006, ongoing conservation work will be carried out at both sites of the institution, with CCAC’s research activities to be conducted at GoMA on the post-1970 collections. The cleaning of The Café Balzac mural 1962 — a key Collection work by artists Colin Lanceley, Mike Brown and Ross Crothall — has been a major undertaking for the CCAC during the year. It has been a collaborative project involving painting, works on paper and sculpture conservators. Previous cleaning tests revealed the paint and sculptural elements had been cleaned adequately, but the paper and collage elements remained dark and degraded in appearance. Ethical dilemmas arose regarding the patina — given the work’s important link to its home of 26 years, the Café Balzac in Melbourne — and the impossible task of balancing colours due to the level of degradation of paper parts. This work has now been successfully cleaned, and information about the project disseminated through the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials (AICCM), and the Modern Paints Uncovered Symposium at the Tate Gallery, London, in May. Other major treatments during the year included the conservation of two electronic sculptures by Nam June Paik, namely The elements 1989 and TV cello 2000. These two works have been case studies in the conservation and preservation of art works susceptible to technology obsolescence. The sculptural components of The elements and TV cello underwent treatments to rectify electrical malfunctions, while the original audiovisual material was archived for long-term storage and copied for exhibition and research access. The majority of work on the Old Master Project is now complete, with works conserved as part of the project — 35 paintings and icons — featuring in new displays of historical works in the Gallery. During the year, six seventeenth-century Flemish paintings were reframed, while Jan Brueghel the Younger’s Christ calling the Disciple Peter 1641 and Gerard Soest’s Portrait of a lady c.1640 were restored. The Old Master Project has fostered relationships with the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, Caboolture; the Australian Catholic University, Brisbane campus; and the University Art Museum, The University of Queensland, Brisbane; and it has provided valuable training for conservation interns. The important thirteenth-century icon The Archangel St Michael remains the last major treatment to be completed as part of the project. 22 QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06 / collection Thomas Ruff Germany b.1958 Substrat 19 1 2003 Chromogenic colour print on paper with Diasec (acrylic sheet), ed. 3/5, 183.5 x 108.4cm (comp.) Purchased 2005. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund © Thomas Ruff 2003/VG Bild-Kunst. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2006
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