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Inside
the Blue Book
The Craft of Creation
March
2000
by Bruce Fellman
History
of Art 403b
Aspects of Connoisseurship and Conservation
Faculty: Theresa Fairbanks-Harris
Professional
connoisseurs of art have it rough.
Not only do they have to know what they like, they also have to
be able to separate the artistic wheat from the chaff as well as
tell an original from a fake.
Since
1983, Theresa Fairbanks-Harris, who heads the conservation laboratory
at the Center for British Art ("Details," Mar. 1999),
has offered students the opportunity to develop both their powers
of discernment and familiarity with the techniques involved in properly
conserving prints, paintings, sculpture, rare books, and the like.
Fairbanks-Harris, who this semester shares the teaching duties with
Mark Aronson and Patricia Garland, conservators at the Art Gallery, explains that the course actually began in the School of Art.
"In
the Renaissance, artists would serve a lengthy apprenticeship to
learn the craft of making art -- and making it last," she notes.
"We wanted to teach art students the techniques which ensured
that their creations would be around for awhile."
Initially,
the course dealt with the permanence and durability of artistic
materials and proper matting and framing techniques. In its present
guise, however, the history of art offering is a seminar geared
towards upper-level undergraduates and graduate
students whose career track is more likely to involve them in
the evaluation, purchase, and protection of art than in its production.
"We
give them the vocabulary and exposure to modern scientific tools
they need to analyze artwork from a technical perspective,"
says Mark Aronson, "and then we send them into the galleries
to look directly at how artists manipulated their materials and
at what time has done to the art." The instructors also make
sure that their students come away with an appreciation of the process
as well as the final product. The course always features a field
trip to a studio where the budding connoisseurs have watched everything
from copperplate printing to parchment making. Says Fairbanks-Harris,
"You can't really understand art until you've seen it being
made."  |
