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Now that the exterior paint removal is complete, the more tedious, but very important work of prepping the interior surface of the statue has begun. The interior and exterior will be painted, which should provide a level of protection against corrosion. To get a good bond between the new paint layer and the metal, all of the loose and unstable paint layers need to be removed. On the interior of the statue, this has to be done by hand. It is an exacting and time-consuming process.

Some of you may be wondering exactly what is an art conservator and how anyone discovers this relatively obscure field that is a combination of studio art, materials science, and art history.

For me, it was my high school art teacher showing me an article in the New York Times about conservators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, looking at Rembrandt paintings with x-radiographs in order to discover which ones might be fakes. Many years later, I find myself working as an objects conservator at the Brooklyn Museum, where we are currently looking at limestone relief fragments to determine which ones might be fake.

In the past, most conservators apprenticed to gain experience I the field. Now, there are four graduate programs in the United Statues offering Master’s Degrees in Art Conservation. They are the following:

Art Conservation Department, Buffalo State College, artcon@buffalostate.edu; http://www.buffalostate.edu/depts/artconservation

Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Michele.marincola@nyu.edu

Getty Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation, University of California, Los Angeles, acordts@ucla.edu; http://ioa.ucla.edu/conservation

Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, dhnorris@udel.edu

There are additionally other programs in the field of architectural preservation. Architectural conservators will often work on large sculptural projects, such as the Brooklyn Museum’s Replica of the Statue of Liberty. Two are offered at the following Universities:

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York City, jf2060@columbia.edu; www.archcolumbia.edu

University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, fgmatero@design.upenn.edu

For information on selecting a conservator, please contact The American Institute for Conservation at info@aic-faic.org, or visit their website at www.aic-faic.org

Lisa Bruno, Conservator of Objects

The staff at Conservation Solutions, Inc. are beginning to make the structural repairs to the metal skin.

Most of the holes in the object are located in the sections of galvanized sheet iron. In the photo above, the foot is made from zinc sheet, whereas the drapery for the garment is galvanized iron. The zinc plating provides a sacrificial layer to inhibit corrosion of the underlying iron, however eventually; the iron will corrode in a harsh outdoor environment. Given that the statue has been exposed to the elements in New York City since the late 19^th c., the zinc coating appears to have functioned very well. There are not a significant amount of holes.

The repairs will mimic and be similar to the original methods of manufacture. After the ragged edges of the unstable iron sheet are mechanically cut back, as you see in this image, a new sheet of galvanized iron will be riveted in place, similar to how the original galvanized sheet was riveted as you can see in the detail of the drapery. The unstable edge needs to be cut to provide a sound surface for riveting. The difficulty in cleaning up the rough, very corroded edges of the losses will be avoiding the underlying structure of iron to which the galvanized sheet is attached. This interior structure provides the support for the sheet iron, and is essential for the structural stability of the statue.

As of this past weekend, the layers of flaking paint were removed, making it possible to finally see the underlying structure and methods of manufacture.

As the Conservator from Conservation Solutions, Mark Rabinowitz has pointed out, the head and hands are formed from sheet zinc, rather than galvanized (zinc plated) iron. Zinc as a metal is more malleable then sheet iron, and would have been easier to work with to create the details needed for facial features.

This is an image from the 1960’s of a zinc sculpture of a Lion from El Dorado Carousel at Coney Island in Brooklyn. The lion had been painted when it was part of the structure in the amusement park. In 2004, John Campbell, then a graduate student in the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (conservation.program@nyu.edu) undertook a research project to determine a possible paint scheme. With cross sections of the small amount of existing paint, he determined that the lion was likely painted a gold color with bronze metallic paint.

Because barely any of the paint existed by the time the lion came to the museum’s collection, unlike the Replica of the Statue of Liberty, the museum’s curators and conservators decided to not re-paint the object during its recent conservation in 2004. We opted instead to preserve the remnants of the original paint, and show the object as unpainted; as it had been known for over 40 years.

This image shows the lion being rigged to the roof of the museum, adjacent to the Statue of Liberty. The firm doing the work is a company specializing in the rigging and movement of art objects, Mariano Brothers, Inc.

As the work proceeds with Liberty, we hope to show you details of the structure.

The paint removal is complete on the exterior. This has revealed how the fabricators overcame the difficulties of working with sheet steel in forming intricate and highly 3 dimensional shapes…they abandoned it! It turns out that the head, hands and toes are actually formed from zinc which was then soldered and riveted to the steel skin. This allowed them to create the more highly figured surfaces. The head is particularly well formed and its fully articulated features contrasts with the more generalized drapery.

Mark Rabinowitz
Conservation Solutions, Inc.

As the paint is removed, the artistry that went into the fabrication of the sculpture becomes more apparent. One can not discern the effort that went into the careful folding of the drapery. The material, galvanized sheet steel, is a difficult material to form and is not as receptive to shaping as copper or zinc, like the nearby lion on the museum’s roof. These other more commonly used sheet metal sculpture materials form freely, leaving the surface smooth, while the sheet steel is resistant and wrinkles and buckles under the effort that was made.

Looking closely at the cleaned sculpture, you can make out the rivet heads that hold the sheets together and the screw heads that attach those sheets to the interior armature, the structure that holds the sculpture up.

Mark Rabinowitz
Senior Conservator
Conservation Solutions, Inc.