This artwork, an oil on canvas by an unknown artist from the late 16th to early 17th century, has an unusual history: it was given to Union College by Margaret Hale Bushnell, granddaughter of Edward Everett Hale Jr. The painting belonged to her grandmother, Annie Dunbar Potts Perkins (“Mrs. Perkins” of Mrs. Perkins’ Garden), and it hung in the Hale apartment in South Colonnade (now part of Hale House).
This artwork was purchased from the artist in 2021 prior to her solo exhibition in the Mandeville Gallery. Due to the enormous size and fragile nature of this work, the conservation treatment required two phases. The first consisted of creating large, archival folders in which to sandwich the two separate pieces that comprise this work so that they could be transported to the conservation center without being rolled.
This mixed media work by Jessica Stockholder was purchased by the Permanent Collection in 2009. Due to the weight of the materials used by the artist and a frame that was too shallow, the Japanese paper hinges adhering the piece had mostly detached or were loose and the artwork was in contact with inside face of the plexiglas.
This painting was a gift of the artist following her solo exhibition in the Mandeville Gallery in 2020. During routine condition reporting, we noted some areas of paint that appeared to be potential bloom or mold on the surface of the canvas. However, upon inspection by conservators at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, it was determined that the variations in sheen are due to a difference in consistency and viscosity in the paints used and the manner of the application.
This painting by Robert Swain Gifford, (American, 1840-1905), is in need of cleaning and possibly relining or re-stretching the canvas. The surface of the painting is irregular, and the color appears to have yellowed with time. Born on an island in Massachusetts, Gifford studied under the Dutch painter, Albertus van Beest, and later traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa before settling in New York, where he taught at the Cooper Union.
The Union College Permanent Collection presently owns a copy of Josef Albers’ Formulation: Articulation. The 1972 set of two boxed portfolios of screenprinted “folders,” or double-page prints, presents selections from forty years of Albers’ work, placed in a sequential, rather than chronological, order so that the visual interaction between the prints is more apparent. A recent donation of six prints from another edition of these portfolios is in need of conservation so that they can be used for teaching and viewing, allowing the boxed portfolios to remain pristine and intact.
Arnold Bittleman was a member of the Union College faculty from 1966 to 1984 and founded the Studio Arts program. We were recently gifted two works by Bittleman to add to our collection of his work: an etching on paper of his familiar “thicket” and an abstract drawing in pen and ink. Formerly the possessions of a former colleague of Bittleman’s, the drawings are in need of conservation treatment to restore them for exhibition.
This collection of ancient bronze weaponry and horse fittings was originally acquired in the 1960s by Union College Professor Emeritus, Carl George and his wife, Gail George, in Tehran, Iran, and gifted to the Permanent Collection. Presumed to be from the famed Luristan region and dated to the Iranian Iron Age (1300- 650 BCE), many of the bronzes are representative of artifacts from this area and can be stylistically compared to excavated examples at notable institutions. There is a sequential method of treatment needed for the bronze artifacts, involving first testing for bronze disease, then following a protocol to render the corrosion inactive.
Michael Gallagher is a Californian artist (b. 1945) who received his MFA from Yale. His work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Jewish Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This large, expressive painting was donated in 1995 and is comprised of layers of paint and epoxy, as well as some airbrushing, in order to create a three-dimensional, brush stroke effect. It is in need of conservation to reframe and seal it properly, and also to replace the outer Plexiglas.