2005-06 Report

Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark (May–September 2006).

A total of 243 objects were on loan to Queensland

Government offices as at 30 June 2006.

For exhibition purposes, a total of 533 objects were received

on loan, including items from the Cook Islands, Fiji, the

United States and New Zealand for ‘The 5th Asia–Pacific

Triennial of Contemporary Art’. Some 493 objects were also

received for consideration for acquisition, and included items

from England, Fiji, Japan, Malaysia, China, Samoa, Sri Lanka,

Switzerland and the United States.

The Provenance Research Project — which was initiated in

December 2001 to confirm the Gallery’s good title to works

of European origin that may have been confiscated during

the 1933–45 period of Nazi rule — was completed during the

year, and the results published on the Gallery’s website. The

stocktake of the Collection also continued.

During the year 45 objects which, following curatorial

assessment, no longer met the standard considered

appropriate for the Gallery’s Collection were deaccessioned.

CONSERVING THE COLLECTION

The Conservation section continued its crucial role in

preventive conservation, treatment and research relating to

the care of works in the Gallery’s Collection.

In preparation for the new displays of historical collections in

the original Queensland Art Gallery building, major projects

completed during the year included the reframing of works by

Ian Fairweather. Some 12 paintings and works on paper from

the Collection underwent research and conservation treatment,

and reproduction frames were constructed. Reframing of the

Papunya board collection was also undertaken, with all works

now framed in blackwood mouldings.

The reporting year saw the naming of the new Centre for

Contemporary Art Conservation (CCAC) in August 2005. The

Centre is an initiative of the Gallery of Modern Art, and is

dedicated to programs of contemporary art conservation. The

Centre will conduct activities in addition to current programs

involving collection management, exhibition and loan

preparation, and research and restoration of the pre-1970

collections. With the opening of GoMA in December 2006,

ongoing conservation work will be carried out at both sites of

the institution, with CCAC’s research activities to be

conducted at GoMA on the post-1970 collections.

The cleaning of

The Café Balzac mural

1962 — a key

Collection work by artists Colin Lanceley, Mike Brown and

Ross Crothall — has been a major undertaking for the CCAC

during the year. It has been a collaborative project involving

painting, works on paper and sculpture conservators.

Previous cleaning tests revealed the paint and sculptural

elements had been cleaned adequately, but the paper and

collage elements remained dark and degraded in

appearance. Ethical dilemmas arose regarding the patina —

given the work’s important link to its home of 26 years, the

Café Balzac in Melbourne — and the impossible task of

balancing colours due to the level of degradation of paper

parts. This work has now been successfully cleaned, and

information about the project disseminated through the

Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials

(AICCM), and the Modern Paints Uncovered Symposium at

the Tate Gallery, London, in May.

Other major treatments during the year included the

conservation of two electronic sculptures by Nam June Paik,

namely

The elements

1989 and

TV cello

2000. These two works

have been case studies in the conservation and preservation of

art works susceptible to technology obsolescence. The

sculptural components of

The elements

and

TV cello

underwent

treatments to rectify electrical malfunctions, while the original

audiovisual material was archived for long-term storage and

copied for exhibition and research access.

The majority of work on the Old Master Project is now

complete, with works conserved as part of the project — 35

paintings and icons — featuring in new displays of historical

works in the Gallery. During the year, six seventeenth-century

Flemish paintings were reframed, while Jan Brueghel the

Younger’s

Christ calling the Disciple Peter

1641 and Gerard

Soest’s

Portrait of a lady

c.1640 were restored.

The Old Master Project has fostered relationships with the

Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, Caboolture; the

Australian Catholic University, Brisbane campus; and the

University Art Museum, The University of Queensland,

Brisbane; and it has provided valuable training for

conservation interns. The important thirteenth-century icon

The Archangel St Michael

remains the last major treatment to

be completed as part of the project.

QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06 /

collection

Thomas Ruff

Germany b.1958

Substrat 19 1

2003

Chromogenic colour print on paper with

Diasec (acrylic sheet), ed. 3/5, 183.5 x

108.4cm (comp.)

Purchased 2005. The Queensland

Government’s Gallery of Modern Art

Acquisitions Fund

Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2006