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Course: The Museum of Modern Art > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Behind the scenes at MoMA- Conserving Henri Matisse's "The Swimming Pool"
- Framing "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth
- Installation of Richard Serra's sculptures at MoMA
- Conservation | Pollock, "One: Number 31, 1950"
- Conservation | Picasso's Guitars
- Conservation | Paik, "Untitled," 1993
- Conservation | René Magritte, "The Portrait," 1935
- Conservation | René Magritte, "The False Mirror," 1928
- Conservation | René Magritte, "The Menaced Assassin," 1927
- Conservation | René Magritte, "The Palace of Curtains, III," 1928-29
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Conservation | René Magritte, "The False Mirror," 1928
For more information please visit http://www.moma.org/magritte. Created by The Museum of Modern Art.
Want to join the conversation?
- Why was the varnish originally put on if it changes the painting so much? Was it applied to it by the original artist?(10 votes)
- To help conserve it and make it last longer than just the medium and the materials would.(10 votes)
- Why is the varnish being removed?(6 votes)
- To reveal subtleties in the painting as well as returning the painting to the original colors, which the artist's selected, since varnish yellows over time.(4 votes)
- Since varnish is not the answer, what new material is used to protect paintings today?(3 votes)
- Apparently, there are new kinds of varnish today that don't yellow. But, most quality paints made today are so good they don't need protecting.(5 votes)
- At0:59, the video mentioned that lead was used in the clouds. I didn't know that lead was used in paintings in addition to house paints. Has lead been phased out in the art world just like it has in household paints?(2 votes)
Video transcript
Female Voiceover: The
false mirror presents us with this enormous, lashless eye. Its iris is very and implausibly filled with this luminous cloud-swept blue sky, and then right at dead
center is this matte black, opaque disk that doubles as its pupil. Male Voiceover: Before cleaning, the pupil was very shiny
and glossy and refelctive. Once the vanish was removed, the black became very soft and deep, so it really does become
the focus of the painting, and you could also see more
details in the clouds in the sky, also details like the highlights
in the corner of the eye became much more apparent and visceral. The white that forms the highlight on the white of the eye is in zinc, so it's a cooler white than the
lead white used in the clouds, which are softer and warmer. We can actually distinguish these in x-rays images that
we have of the painting.