Conserving time-based media, works on paper, and painting

2023-24 Souls Grown Deep Fellow Hannah Longbottom Estrada reflects on her fellowship focused on art conservation.

Hannah is a recent graduate from the George Washington University, where she pursued a Bachelor’s of Arts in fine arts and minored in emergency health services. She served as the Souls Grown Deep Conservation Fellow at The Phillips Collection from September 2023 to June 2024. Outside of the museum, she is an art instructor to students of all ages and maintains an art practice as a painter and printmaker.

As the conservation fellow, I focused on projects across various conservation specialties, the most significant ones falling under time-based media, works on paper, and painting. At the start, the main focus of my internship was on time-based media and I selected the relatively recent Guerrilla Girls acquisition to research and contextualize. Compared to the other time-based media works in the collection, this one was unique in the sense that while it did include 9 video works, the Portfolio Compleat also contained the artists’ physical prints with corresponding digital files, newsletters, books, and stickers. I was looking at over 100 pieces making up the portfolio and working to compile a thorough identity report to reference during future museum use. To do so I researched the anonymous group’s history, documented and examined works in the portfolio, and interviewed a member via email. Information acquired includes context for intent of the work, medium specifications, and conservation and exhibition preferences. It was rewarding seeing the research come together and extremely exciting to interview one of my favorite artists.

I also assisted with the Bernardí Roig series, La Cabeza de Goya (on view through July 7). Under the mentorship of paper conservator Sylvia Albro, I supported the hinging, matting, and framing of over 50 extremely delicate charcoal drawings on newsprint. With a studio art background, I was thrilled to be able to apply my paper and book arts knowledge to this project. The experience was very hands-on and I’m so grateful to have assisted in such a way this early in my conservation career. This project was also a great introduction to paper conservation as a specialty, as I learned so much from Sylvia.

I also worked on Werner Drewes’s Composition in Green, an oil painting by the Bauhaus artist from 1935. During the treatment, I learned far more than expected. I started with photo documentation and quickly found an entirely different painting underneath. The infrared imaging revealed what looks like a landscape with a tree, silo, and barn or two. The painting’s textures are prominent beneath the final abstract design, so with a close look at its surfaces the shapes of these hidden objects can be made out. It’s possible that Drewes also painted the landscape, however within my research I’ve only ever found his landscapes to be translated through his woodcut prints. The abstract nature of his oil paintings I’ve seen make me wonder if he painted over top of someone else’s work instead. 

Following the documentation stage, the painting’s treatment required consolidation of flaking edges, gentle cleaning of the surface, and in-painting of losses. For the in-painting stage of the treatment, I essentially filling in losses or chipped areas of paint with watercolor. This process involved lots of color matching and building up of paint layers to best match the shades, textures, and sheens of the various areas needing in-painting. The artist seemingly incised geometric lines into the design, which weakened areas where the lines overlap. My initial focus was where losses are more obvious, however once those were in-painted others became more clear so it felt very back and forth. I find this part of the treatment quite challenging but simultaneously meditative. After several weeks, I wrapped up the treatment. I learned a lot from our painting conservator, Patti Favero, and I think this project will make choosing a future conservation specialty difficult.

My experience with The Phillips Collection has confirmed my plans to pursue art conservation as a career. In July, I will start at the Hirshhorn as their summer outdoor sculpture intern and in September I’ll be working at the National Museum of the American Indian as their 9-month conservation intern. During these positions I will also be preparing my portfolio for graduate school applications to apply next year. I’d like to thank the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and Andrew Mellon Foundation for making opportunities possible for lesser represented communities. I’d also like to thank The Phillips Collection and its conservation lab for hosting me. I could not have had a better experience and I look forward to visiting often.