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TAKING CARE OF MIT’S CAMPUS SCULPTURE COLLECTION 

Check out The Boston Globe's recent article on MIT's conservation efforts.

 

Thanks to support from MIT alumni, private donors, private foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Council for the Arts at MIT, the List Center is able to give much-needed attention to the highly regarded campus public art collection.

 

In late May over the course of two weeks, La Grand Voile (The Great Sail) by Alexander Calder received a comprehensive cleaning and repainting. For over 40 years this monumental steel sculpture, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott, has stood as the centerpiece of McDermott Court and is identified with MIT by students, faculty, and guests alike.

The forty-foot tall sculpture received a power wash to remove scuffing, staining, and other residues. Rust that had developed along welds was removed and the work treated to prevent further rusting. Once this maintenance was completed, the sculpture was repainted according to the fabricator’s specifications. The project was funded by Elliot Wolk (MIT Class of 1957) and a generous grant from the MIT Council on the Arts.

Beginning in June conservators began work on Three-Piece Reclining Figure, Draped by Henry Moore. This monumental bronze sculpture sited in MIT’s Killian Court measures nearly nine-feet wide, sixteen-feet long, and nine-feet tall. It was a gift of the Eugene McDermott Family and Other Friends of MIT in 1976.

Since the sculpture was placed level with the grass, it has been accessible to climbing and sitting, and has been badly scratched and abraded. Contact with the ground has also rusted the underside. After consulting with the Henry Moore Foundation in England, the List Center is implementing a plan to raise the sculpture two feet on a new granite-faced plinth. After rust removal and treatment, the sculpture will be cleaned of all wax and acrylic coating and washed to remove loose corrosion. A chemical patina will then be applied to the bronze, followed by an acrylic coating and a finish of wax.

Work on this project began on June 8, and will take 6 to 8 weeks to complete. The project costs have been generously funded by The Eugene McDermott Foundation, the Edwin S. Webster Foundation, and The Henry Moore Foundation.

 
In addition to these efforts, the List Center is currently addressing conservation and maintenance of Kenneth Noland’s monumental mural, Here–There located in the Wiesner Building, which houses the List Visual Arts Center galleries, the MIT Office for the Arts, and the MIT Media Lab. Kenneth Noland was one of three artists that collaborated with the architect I.M. Pei when the building was designed and built in 1985. Noland’s monumental mural, painted directly on the metal skin of the building, extends the full height of the main wall of the atrium, and continues on the outdoor surfaces in both directions. It is the artist’s only architectural commission in his long and distinguished career.

Here-There has begun to show wear. The interior colors are as new, but the surfaces have gathered dirt over the years. The exterior colors have faded considerably, and some of the plates are showing flaking and chipping as well as discoloration and staining. After the interior surface was thoroughly washed, the crew is cleaning and repainting the exterior surfaces, using the interior colors as a guide.

The work is done by John W. Egan industrial painting contractors, who originally painted the mural by hand in 1985. They consulted with Gianfranco Pocobene Conservation Studio on the project. Cleaning of the interior is now complete.  Work on the exterior will begin later in the summer.

 

The project is funded by The National Endowment for the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, the Eugene S. McDermott Foundation, and Ruth Bowman.

Two additional public art works will receive maintenance, repairs, and conservation this fall. Louise Nevelson’s painted steel sculpture Transparent Horizon will be pressure washed and welds will be repaired. The sculpture will be repainted. Sarah Sze’s sculpture, Blue Poles, at the Sidney-Pacific residence needs structural repairs where welds have failed, and it will also be repainted.

 

 

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE PUBLIC ART CONSERVATION IMAGE GALLERY>>

 

 

 

 

NEW ARTWORK IN MEDIA LAB COURTYARD

 

Richard Fleischner’s new design for the lower courtyard embraced by E23, E-15, and E-14 (the Media Lab Expansion) is now beginning to take shape.

Richard Fleischner was at the forefront of artists who began to work environmentally in the 1970s. His participation with artists Scott Burton and Kenneth Noland and architect I. M. Pei in the Wiesner Building project, in 1985, redefined the process of public art as a collaborative dialogue among designers, architects, and artists in planning and carrying out public art, which soon became an influential model. Fleischner’s part was the design of the two-level plaza between Ames Street and the Medical buildings, including sculptural elements, paving, landscape, lighting, and furniture. Fleischner’s subsequent career has involved numerous public commissions at sites across the country.

The expansion of the Media Lab, a connected building designed by Fumihiko Maki, substantially alters the spatial relationships and circulation patterns of the lower plaza. Accordingly, the artist has been asked to redesign the lower plaza in response to this new architectural configuration. He has proposed an elegant pair of double arcs in cast concrete on subtly shifted grass planes, with new paving and landscape material. The arcs will serve as informal seating and gathering spaces bracketing the main circulation axis through the space. Adjustments to the landscape, paving, and lighting will be introduced to complement the new design. The work is expected to be completed in the fall of 2009.

 

 

 

 

LIST CENTER ANNOUNCES NEW CURATOR

 

The MIT List Visual Arts Center is pleased to announce its selection of João Ribas as its new curator of exhibitions. Mr. Ribas, currently curator of the Drawing Center in New York, NY, was selected from an extensive field of national and international candidates by a search committee comprised of Ute Meta Bauer, Associate Professor, Visual Arts program, MIT Department of Architecture; Caroline A. Jones, Professor, MIT History, Theory, and Criticism program; Jane Farver, Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center; David Freilach, Assistant Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center; and Joan Jonas, artist, Professor, Visual Arts program, MIT Department of Architecture; and Leila Kinney, Director of Arts Initiatives at MIT. Mr. Ribas will assume his curatorial position in mid-September, 2009.  Ribas replaces Bill Arning who served as curator at the List Center for nine years. Arning is currently director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

List Center director Jane Farver says, "We are delighted that Mr. Ribas has consented to join the staff of the List Visual Arts Center. The search committee was extremely impressed with the high quality of his work at the Drawing Center and with his writing and editing experience. We are very much looking forward to welcoming him as a new staff member of the List Center and to working with him in the future."

João Ribas has said about his new appointment. "The MIT List Visual Arts Center plays an indelible role in the field of contemporary art, as well as being an integral part of the broader intellectual mission of the university. I am thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to this unique integrative and investigative program. The List continues to be a place where the most innovative and interdisciplinary work is allowed to flourish--where art and inquiry are brought together in a singular way. It's truly an honor to take on the challenge of continuing such a rigorous engagement with contemporary art."

Born in Portugual and currently based in New York, João Ribas is the curator of over thirty exhibitions and projects in the U.S. and abroad and a widely published critic. He has been curator at The Drawing Center in New York since 2007, where he organized exhibitions of the work of Frederick Kiesler, Alan Saret, Matt Mullican, Unica Zürn, and Ree Morton, among others. He is the winner of a 2008 AICA (International Association of Art Critics, United States Section) Award for Best Exhibition in a Non-Profit Space. His writing on visual culture, literature, and film has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Sun, Art Review, Time Out, The Guardian Unlimited, and the Review of Contemporary Fiction. He is a former editor at Art Review and LTB Media, and has contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogues and monographs.