From Restorer to Conservator
The Conservation Department of the Art Museum of Estonia is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an exhibition in three different locations: the Kadriorg Art Museum, the Niguliste Museum and the Adamson-Eric Museum. Carefully selected works displayed or marked in the permanent expositions introduce the fascinating profession of the conservator and present their diverse work through five decades.
The exhibition and the accompanying book, which provides an overview of the history of the department through selected articles and case studies, are an homage to colleagues and teachers, whose pioneering work has safeguarded the consistent preservation of the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia. They also invite art connoisseurs to acquaint themselves with the nuances and beauty of the somewhat mysterious work of a conservator.
The jubilee exhibition in the Kadriorg Art Museum looks into the world of painting conservators: a field in which the hidden life of art works and stories of restoring them become intertwined in a coherent whole. Restoring older paintings is like having a dialogue with time: traditional materials and techniques are known to the conservator, yet each work conceals layers and surprises that make the conservation process unique in each particular case.
The display at the Kadriorg Art Museum is dedicated to the conservation of classical painting. One part of the exhibition provides a systematic overview of the conservator’s most important work processes and technical studies, offering visitors a behind-the-scenes look at conservation through videos and multimedia. Exceptionally, the exhibition also features a painting in a complex condition whose conservation has only just begun, allowing visitors to grasp the kinds of challenges conservators face on a daily basis.
The second part of the exhibition presents twelve masterpieces from the permanent displays of the Kadriorg Art Museum and the Mikkel Museum, each accompanied by fascinating and insightful stories about their conservation.
The title of the exhibition – From Restorer to Conservator – refers to a significant change in the mindset and practice of specialists: striving for the restoration of an object to its appearance in the past versus regarding the authenticity of the material and the historical layers as being equally valuable. Having a research-based approach to the conservation of an object is just as important as having manual skills: it provides the guarantee that the intervention is well informed and justified.
Curators: Grete Nilp, Alar Nurkse and Mihhail Staško
Graphic design: Inga Heamägi
