Seventy fifth anniversary of the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Most readers know what a meringue -- that airy mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar -- tastes and looks like. Can such a dessert become part of a work of art, not mere confectionery art but the kind of serious art that is displayed in a museum? Well of course it can, provided its creator appreciates the visual and metaphorical qualities of the meringue.

This is precisely what the Polish artist Marek Kijewski, known for his astonishing yet ambiguous sculptures made entirely of non-classical raw materials, who died prematurely in 2007, accomplished in his work. The subjects that inspired Kijewski’s creations were also far from traditional. His approach to the mass culture so popular with all of us in the early 1990s was somewhat distant. He took it with a pinch of salt. In the immediate aftermath of our country’s political transformation, we did not fully take on board the superficial "splendor", the temporary nature and mediocre quality of the prevailing mass culture. We didn’t find its flashy colors, naive advertising slogans, bad taste and oversweetness offending.

Meringues, although made in Poland, symbolized these trashy and kitschy wonders.

But there is a problem with meringues because they crumble, drawing insects and flies to the resultant crumbs. Kijewski's sculpture, made of such brittle white and pink sweetnesses, would not have been able to survive long enough to be exhibited in the current show were it not for the decision made by its conservator who said: "it is hopeless to try to save them -- let’s just replace the damaged cakes with new ones.” The decision was made in keeping with the requirements of modern conservation rules.

The Masters’ correctors

The exhibition entitled "Art forever ...?" , recently opened at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. It celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, and introduces visitors to the enormous challenges faced by the so called "doctors of art.”

The high international standards of the department, the largest of its kind devoted to the subject in Poland, are confirmed by the numbers of applicants who come from all over the world hoping to study there. But to graduate from these exacting studies, the student has to be prepared to work extremely hard. It takes six years of study covering a broad field of interests ranging from chemistry, through biology, mineralogy and medicine, to the humanities, with special emphasis on history and ethics. It also demands artistic talent and manual proficiency. Patience plus the forensic flair of a detective are also prerequisites; so too, an awareness that one's knowledge and work input will be recognised and appreciated mostly by one’s peers and colleagues. Because, when it comes to the external observer, only the final effect will count, and even this will often be solely to the extent that it is publicized by the media. Without this acclaim, the huge effort will go unnoticed.

When, after a decade of restoration work between 1980-1990, the "Last Judgment" was once again presented to the public in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, it met with an outcry of protest: "where do these trashy, garish colors come from? Someone with a crude taste changed Michelangelo's masterpiece into a kitsch!"

However, this in fact was actually how the painting had looked originally. The "noble patina of gray" was simply centuries-old dirt that had been removed.

Ironically, the fresco once had problems of a different nature when, just before Michelangelo's death, an overzealous student of the artist deemed "The Last Judgment" to be immoral. Daniele da Volterra took exception to the nakedness of its figures and intervened accordingly. As a consequence, he went down in history to be known by the infamous nickname Il Braghettone ("the breeches maker").

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  Da Volterra had meant well in seeking to comply with the provisions of the Council of Trent, which considered nude acts in a Catholic temple scandalous, by covering the genitals of those depicted with vestments and loincloths.

More than one "breeches maker" has compromised himself by correcting genius. There have been plenty of conservators/correctors.

Ten years ago, the so called "hedgehog" meme or the painting entitled "Ecce Homo" from the Sanctuary of Mercy in Borja in the Spanish province of Zaragoza, that depicted Jesus wearing a crown of thorns circulated on the internet. The 1930 work by Elias Garcia Martinez was in need of conservation, a task that was undertaken by Cecilia Giménez, a parishioner, who was also an amateur painter. Before completing the "renovation", she took a short vacation. During her time away, her work was checked by a members of a local historical association, who were horrified when they viewed what what she had done. Nor were they alone. Others who had the opportunity to see Giménez’ "conservation work" were similarly outraged. The image of Jesus resembled… a hedgehog. Internet users laughed; the meme became famous as "Ecce Mono" (i.e here is a monkey).

As it was, the ineptitude of the self-proclaimed restorer turned out to be an attraction: crowds came to the church in Zaragoza, if only to laugh at her "accomplishment".

Misaligned arms

The story of the famous Greek sculpture "Laocoön Group", illustrating the myth described in Book II of the "Aeneid”, was completely different. Unearthed in Rome in 1506, albeit fragmented, it was admired for the perfect knowledge of anatomy and the mastery of recreating naked bodies it revealed. It was debated whether it was a Greco-Hellenic work or a Roman copy? Some even suspected that the author was Michelangelo, who for his own amusement created a counterfeit.

The marble statue was purchased by Pope Julius II and placed in the Belvedere, where the fragments were pieced together. Well, almost everything -- Laocoon's arm and his sons' hands were missing. The missing parts were replaced with ceramic imitations by the sculptor Giovanni Angelo di Montorsoli, also a student of Michelangelo's. Since there were no indications as to what they should look like, the reconstructor allowed his instincts to take charge and added drama to the figures in keeping with his own taste and the preferences of the times.

The sculpture survived in this form for several centuries, gaining the status of an icon. Unexpectedly, in 1906, Laocoön's original marble arm was found. More than half a century later, the marble limb returned to its rightful place. And what transpired? The viewers did not like the "truth" at all, preferring the previous, more expressive version. Apparently, it is difficult to break human habits, especially when dealing with a cultural icon.

Speaking of icons, the famous "Black Square on a White Background" by Kazimir Malevich, created in 1914 and considered to be the first non-representational work of art, was regarded as a breakthrough. According to the artist's will, "Black Square" was to be displayed just like an icon in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, the original work got lost. Only the photographic reproduction survived. In 1929, Malevich made a replica of his first abstraction. This time, he used the canvas that had been already painted on, a decision that had a disasterous effect: the black square is no longer black. It is covered with dense craquelure, with the layers of paint that were previously laid out on the canvas emerging from under the outer layers. As a result, the originally planned radicalism of the composition disappeared -- through the fault of the author himself.

Similar problems became commonplace in the 20th century when the traditional, solid craftsmanship, once one of the basic commercial requirements, was rendered null. From the moment Marcel Duchamp decided that "anything" can be a work of art, it has become increasingly difficult to care for the durability of many works. The closer to our times, the worse this has become.

The restoration nightmare began with post-war experiments. The artists felt absolute freedom in terms of the raw materials used -- what mattered was the end result. So what if it was short-lived? The artists were not bothered by it. And the conceptualists, performers and creators of othere ephemeral concepts did not care about extending the life of their visions.

Is it any wonder that contemporary art poses the most problems for conservators?

But in order to prevent mistakes and help restorers avoid having to face a wall of difficulties, living artists are today being asked about how best to conserve their works in the future. And then it turns out that some artists do not attach any importance to the permanence of their achievements whereas those who care about cultural heritage may have a different opinion.

How to straighten your back

What will happen in the future with compositions made, for example, with car or industrial paints, synthetics or mixtures of various substances? Their degradation and deconstruction are taking place almost in front of our eyes.

And these are relatively durable raw materials. Meanwhile, the creativity of the creators is endless.

There have been works made of butter, lard, meat, slices of ham, walnuts, apples, jelly candies and other edibles -- short-lived products (such as the sweets mentioned at the beginning); of excrement, blood, pieces of human body tissue; from mosses, fungi, plants; of stuffed animals. These are still physically existing objects, however the choice of materials currently being used in the visual arts also includes light, air, sounds, fog and smoke.

Restorers go gray when faced with such challenges. At least it is easier if an artist is alive and a decision about what next can be made together.

While Magdalena Abakanowicz was still alive, her famous "Back" series of 80 figures made of sack cloth hardened with resin began to lose their original shape. The installation was created in the latter half of the 1970s, when the artist was just beginning to experiment with plastics. She herself noticed the technical shortcomings of her work. Human backs hollowed out like shells, devoid of heads and limbs, placed in a cluster directly on the floor of the National Museum in Wrocław, began to sag, which made them bend more and more. In this case, the artist made an arbitrary decision to replace the old with new! Having a better knowledge of epoxy resins, she undertook to make another series of "Backs", with the approval of the then director of the facility, Mariusz Hermansdorfer.

Another outstanding Polish sculptor, Alina Szapocznikow, who died prematurely, also experimented with synthetic resins. From the early 1960s, she made polyester and polyurethane casts of her own body, sometimes supplementing the compositions with accessories such as light, newspapers, bandages, metal, grass, photographs. After her death in 1973, the works began to lose their original appearance, becoming gray, dull and deformed. Curators and art historians started writing eagerly on the similarity of the artist's fate and her achievements. Such a sentimental interpretation in the context of Szapocznikow's many years of cancerous disease influenced the emotions of the audience. However, this "biographical-like code" did not quite agree with the author's intentions.

And then an outstanding figure in the Polish conservation world, Professor Iwona Szmelter, entered the scene. As she herself says, she had become "an advocate for the artist's works and copyrights". After consultations with the heir of the sculptor (Piotr Stanisławski, the artist's adoptive son, model and assistant), the conservator undertook what amounted to the backbreaking task of "rereading" Szapocznikow's oeuvre. In this case, the painstaking process of saving the artist's pioneering achievements combined conservation work with restoration and even reconstruction.

Old like new or new like old

Reconstruction is the re-creation of partially or fully demolished objects. The closest examples: Warsaw's Old Town (N.B. entered on the list of world cultural heritage by UNESCO), Warsaw's Royal Castle, Ujazdowski Castle, in the near future the Saski Palace…

On a different subject – the innovative at the time sculptures by Katarzyna Kobro, were destroyed during the Second World War. What we see at the exhibitions is a reconstruction of the composition, made according to the photos and memories of eyewitnesses.

And then there's the question of the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral after the tragic fire in 2019.

In renovating works significant not just for their artistic value but also for their importance as items of cultural heritage, a vital decision that can arise is whether to reconstruct them as they were originally or to enhance their preservation/restoration through the use of new technologies, techniques and raw materials. Often sponsors and donors insist on applying the kind of "improvements" modern consumers, accustomed to interactivity and the contemporary display of antique objects might expect.

Of course, the older type of museum, where you were not allowed to touch anything, had to speak in whispers and put slippers over your shoes, would not stand a chance today when it comes to setting attendance records. Consumers demand that art works be attractively and accessibly displayed. Even the most wonderful works now require a specialized setting, well-thought-out arrangements and a whole range of activities that meet the visual and information needs of the viewing public.

Small wonder therefore that Professor Monika Jadzińska, the current dean of the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, and her team did their utmost to enhance the experience for those visiting the 75th anniversary exhibition. Both the curator and her colleagues rose to the challenge, making it a great event!

The exhibition begins in the courtyard of the Academy of Fine Arts, where the sculptures of conservation students are on display. Further on, in ten rooms of the Czapski Palace, visitors can see selected exhibits of old and contemporary art, saved by teachers and students of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. To illustrate the scale of the difficulties faced and the restorative skills entailed, photos from the pre-renovation period are mounted alongside the renovated works.

Simply to get an idea of, for example, how the conservation of a certain portrait -- delivered to professionals in a terrible condition, but of a high emotional value to the owner -- was done, consider this list of the different stages of the work: “The technique and technology of the painting were identified and the cause of its catastrophic damage was determined. Conducted, inter alia, disinfection, stabilization of the pH of the canvas as well as Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), thanks to which the softening point of the stratigraphic layers of the image was determined. The biggest challenge was the perfect execution of the imitative retouching of the painting layers. It was made in layers using watercolors that were covered with oil-resin”.

Work continues

I do not undertake to explain specific treatments used in the process. However, I saw the result of these activities and I can assure you that the portrait looks intact. Workshops are nowadays the norm for exhibitions, just like curatorial or proprietary tours. That these forms work is attested by the fact that they have so many participants.

Back to the Czapski Palace exhibition halls and such key departmental "founding fathers" as professors Bohdan Marconi, Michał Walicki, Edward Kokoszko. Professor Marconi, a versatile intellectual and an excellent specialist, even appeared… in spirit. One of the rooms featured his favorite armchair covered with flowery fabric, in which he used to read and relax after work. Viewing it, one can imagine that the professor is about to enter, light his pipe and sit down to read.

This type of treatment serves to introduce the show, helping the viewer become acquainted with a difficult, complex topic. How students gain their knowledge and skills can be seen thanks to film registrations. But there is more. One of the rooms features workstations where conservation practitioners focus on their work undistracted by the audience.

I approached a young man who was busy copying a putto [a toddler winged angel]. "Isnt’t it boring here without friends?," I asked. He looked at me surprised. After all, it is a fascinating occupation!

- By Monika Małkowska

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and journalists

  – Translated by Agnieszka Rakoczy
Exhibition "Art forever ...? " at the Czapski Palace, located in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 5) will be open until November 12, 2022.
The media patron of the exhibition is TVP Kultura.