AIC's 43rd Annual Meeting

A series of five paintings known as Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals were painted in 1962 and installed in the Holyoke Center, Harvard University, in January 1964. The paintings changed color due to the presence of Lithol red, a fugitive red pigment, and excessive exposure to natural light in a room with large windows. They were removed from display to dark storage in 1979 and rarely displayed. Traditional painting restoration would have resulted in a non-reversible treatment due to the matte and unvarnished nature of paint surfaces thus considerably limiting treatment possibilities. An innovative treatment using projected light to compensate for the lost color on a pixel-by-pixel basis was recently developed. The original color of the works was determined by the digital restoration of Kodak Ektachrome photographs taken in 1964, and also with comparison to unfaded passages of a sixth mural. With a camera-projector system, a compensation image was calculated – in effect a map of the lost color over 2.07 million pixels. The compensation image was then aligned and projected onto the original canvas resulting in a restored color appearance. This was repeated for each of the five paintings. As a result the original color appearance was created without physically altering the painting and is therefore completely reversible. In fact, one can easily compare the unrestored and color corrected object by switching the projector on or off. The group of murals now works together in a way that has not been possible for many decades. This approach of inpainting with light is compared with considerations of cleaning and inpainting in conventional conservation treatments. Overall lighting and architecture play a key role in the treatment of the Mural cycle as an environment. In addition, a detailed examination of Rothko’s materials and methods for these paintings was carried out to understand how the murals were made, and why they have aged differently. To our knowledge, this novel approach has not been used for the display of paintings before. Microfading tests ensured that the paintings will not alter as a result of this treatment. As a result, Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals, which had fallen out of step with each other, can now be viewed as a single harmonious installation. The murals form the basis of first exhibition, Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals, in the renovated Harvard Art Museums opening in November 2014 and will be on display until August 2015. The AIC presentation will take place during the exhibition and will include a discussion of critical feedback, and also bring the exhibition to the attention of the audience who may wish to experience this unique exhibition first hand.

Primary Presenter: Narayan Khandekar; Non-Presenting Authors: Jens Stenger, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Christina Rosenberger, Mary Schneider Enriquez.