WSJ Profiles Art Conservator

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Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran an article profiling the art conservation of Simon Parkes. It is an interesting article, and states Parkes spends little time himself restoring and more time working with dealers, examining paintings and writing conservation reports.

The article states that typically 1,500 to 2,000 works are looked at throughout the year, making for a busy conservation studio. He has a staff of ten in his East 74th Street studio in NY City.

The WSJ reports

With the advent of new and better adhesives and varnishes, the mantra in art restoration these days is "reversible." Less is more: peeling away the heavy, yellowing varnishes of antiquity to restore the immediacy of the paintings underneath.

Mr. Parkes said he believes his ultimate client isn't Sotheby's, Christie's or any of the dozens of private dealers and owners he works with; it's posterity—a responsibility probably better understood by a painter who sees his own work in the 19th-century landscape tradition of Corot.

"The vigilance in this business is to be true to the painting," he explained. "Not to the auction house, or dealer, or owner. What's right for the picture—not for the mood" of the times.

He no longer does much of the actual restoration work himself. "I've had my moment, the ship has sailed," he said frankly, as he looked over an easel on which Karen Schifano, one of his restorers, was working on a beautiful but beat up George Luks portrait of a young woman, supposedly Gertrude Vanderbilt. "It takes a particular kind of energy. You have to be left alone, in a bubble. Put on your headphones. Ideally, you could put in six or seven hours a day."

Mr. Parkes spends as much time these days meeting with art dealers and auction house experts—examining paintings, suggesting restoration strategies, writing reports—as he does guiding his troops.

To read the full article from the WSJ, click HERE.