Preservation in Progress

This summer, conservator Gary McGowan will work to conserve materials of various media for upcoming exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York. This includes the cleaning of several large paintings made by graffiti-based artists in the 1980s that were donated in 1994 by artist and collector Martin Wong. These works will be featured in the upcoming exhibition Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection (opens Friday, November 22, 2024). Additionally, McGowan will conserve artifacts of various media for the forthcoming Art Deco City: New York Postcards from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection exhibition (opens Friday, September 27, 2024), which will feature over 250 postcards as well as decorative arts, fashion, photography, drawings, and architectural models, Art Deco City will immerse visitors in the dazzling style, which defined the modern city.  

The work happening in this gallery will stabilize these pieces for the future. The goal of conservation is not to make an object new, but to clean it, repair it, and fix areas of wear. Historically, MCNY stored many canvases like these rolled, which is the safest way to store a painting of this size but can still cause stress to the work. The ravages of time have also affected several architectural models relating to Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall in the Museum’s collection. Moisture, temperature changes, and the simple passage of time can destabilize objects like these, which were not created with archival stability in mind. With careful inspection and thoughtful care, conservation can halt deterioration and stabilize works like these for future generations; a process that is key to the Museum’s role as a caretaker of our vast collection.  

The inaugural experience of Preservation in Progress: Picturing Immigration concluded in July 2024 and offered visitors a rare opportunity to witness the restoration of one of the most significant items in the Museum’s collection: Samuel Bell Waugh’s massive painting The Bay and Harbor of New York (1855, 8.25 x 16.5 ft).  

Picturing Immigration delved into this painting’s role as a document that provides a rare depiction of early immigration. The installation considers this historic painting within a larger context of (often politically charged) visual documentation of the individuals and communities who have looked to New York as a beacon of opportunity and arrived seeking freedom, safety, and a new beginning.