There’s nothing quite like posting incorrect information in a web video to get people’s attention. No sooner had I posted the video on conserving the “green monster” than I heard from the usually-so-quiet conservators. I had misunderstood the use of a Japanese seaweed called funori. Time for this non-conservator to do some damage control in the area of information. Here’s how it really happened…
Read more
As xensen mentioned in his blog post “Gilt-y Pleasures,” the Emerald Cities exhibition involves an enormous amount of conservation work. Lots of the artwork that you’ll see had been damaged in some way — some by the flood of a hurricane, some by the Southeast Asian climate, and some by previous conservation work that did as much harm as good. And some objects just weren’t meant to last long in the first place.
One of these, a painting on cloth, earned the nickname “The Green Monster” among the conservators. It’s a tall painting in which all the green paint was made of a copper-based pigment. The copper pigment is highly acidic, and it ate holes through the backing cotton fabric. Check out this video as Director of Conservation Katie Holbrow and Conservator Shiho Sasaki talk about patching the hundreds of green holes in the painting.
Welcome to the blog of the Asian Art Museum–Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. Located in San Francisco's historic Civic Center, we are one of the world's largest museums devoted to Asian art and culture. For more information see the "about" tab or visit our main website by clicking the image of our building.
The opinions expressed on this blog, both by posters and commenters, are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the museum. See "policies" tab above.
