May - June, 2010
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CONSERVATION
Conservation
of Pieta,
Wood Relief by
Malvina Hoffman
by
Ryan Greene
Bernacki & Associates, Inc.
Malvina Cornell Hoffman (1885-1966), an American
sculptor who studied with Auguste Rodin, is
perhaps best known for her monumental bronze
series, The Races of Mankind, commissioned in
1930 by Chicago's Field Museum of Natural
History. In 1985, The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
accepted Hoffman’s Pieta (1960) as a gift along
with other notable pieces. The Pieta, carved on a
walnut panel, (54 ¼” H x 42 ¼” W x 3”
D) had
never been exhibited at CRMA, but in 2008 was
exposed to flood waters, and rediscovered during
the conservation treatment.
Read more...
PARMA Conservation
The Story of a Post Office Mural
May 25, 2010
WAPAKONETA, OH – Like stepping into the past, the visual impact of
downtown Wapakoneta evokes nostalgia like an Edward Hopper painting.
The streets are bustling with historic architecture, proud designs from the
1840’s through the 1930’s. Sixty-Five of these buildings are in the National
Register of Historic Places, comprising the Wapakoneta Commercial
Historic District. (Barber, 93)
One of these historic buildings, the Wapakoneta post office (1938) received
a nice surprise in May. Conservators from Parma Conservation traveled there
to clean and conserve a treasured New Deal mural in the post office lobby.
The piece, an oil triptych on masonite, depicts the story of Wapakoneta in
“American Scene”, an artistic style made famous by artists such as Grant
Wood and Thomas Hart Benton.
Read more...
