Above: after-treatment view of a copy of The Green Box; Below: before-treatment view of the same copy By 1934, when pioneering conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp assembled The Green Box, he was already well-known for his controversial and sardonic style that, while not formally aligned with any...
Earlier this year, the World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum in St. Augustine, Florida, contacted CCAHA with a project in preparation for the interactive exhibition “Tales from the Collection,” which opened in summer 2018. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Jack Nicklaus, a silkscreen portrait of the...
At CCAHA, we’ve noticed a trend. We’re fielding an increasing number of requests for housing-only projects—clients are bringing us their stable objects and asking that we make sure they’re framed or stored in boxes that are up to the highest housing standards. There are many reasons for this uptick...
The American Battle Monuments Commission recently brought a soldier’s memorial certificate from c. 1914-1919 to CCAHA for conservation treatment. The 19” x 13” certificate, written largely in French, has this handwritten inscription: “Charlie P. Monroe / Private, 13th Battalion, Infantry Replacement...
By the turn of the twentieth century, Algeria’s Biribi—a colloquial term for the French military police regime—was under increasing scrutiny. In 1909, news of a 22 -year -old soldier’s fatal beating at the hands of three superiors incensed the French people. As a wave of popular sentiment called for...
In World War I, American soldiers served in segregated regiments. Like many troops of color, the men serving in the 369th Infantry Regiment, commonly called the “Harlem Hellfighters,” were sent to France to serve under the French Army. It was there, on the Western Front, that two American privates...
Treating pastels is always challenging due to the delicate, crumbly nature of the media. They also present handling and transport issues that must be considered during housing. When two large pastels from the University of Delaware Museums came to CCAHA, conservators had to balance improving their...
The most famous photograph of Sigmund Freud depicts the psychoanalyst standing with his signature cigar in a stark, chiaroscuro contrapposto. Perhaps fittingly for Freud, the portrait was actually taken by a relative: his son -in -law, a man named Max Halberstadt. Halberstadt —who’d married Freud’s...
Born in Warsaw in 1907, Feliks Topolski moved to England in 1935. Topolski is remembered as a talented draughtsman, muralist, and chronicler. He painted the 1959 Coronation murals of Buckingham Palace and ran a serialized publication, Topolski’s Chronicle, for several decades toward the end of his...
Russian artist Ilya Kabakov lived through three tumultuous decades in Moscow during the height of the USSR. From the 1950s to the 1980s, his work spanned a variety of media and subjects as he fell in and out of favor with the Soviet regime. In his capacity as a member of the prestigious Union of...
