At 2:08 you said the treatment and examination took a year. Was that working full time just on this one painting or was a lot of that time spent waiting for test results from labs or waiting for chemicals to cure? If it was spent working full time on the painting, that seems very resource-intensive. It doesn't seem that a lot of paintings could be conserved if it takes full-time attention for a year. How are paintings selected for conservation?

I, obviously, did not create this video. Therefore, my answer is very thought out, but cannot be considered exact. On your first question, you have to understand that this is a year to you, but way less than that in actual working days. Holidays and weekends were probably taken off from work, not to mention a lot of other time probably spent on other pieces of art in the museum. At most art museums, they are selected in order of how many people will view them. If it is a famous Picasso, it will probably be selected before a current nobody abstract artist. But, if there is time, as many paintings as possible will be conserved. Also, if a painting has been there for a while, it is very likely to be conserved over a new painting/piece of art.

Would Magritte have known about the zinc affecting his works?

If he _did_ know about it, I think he would have thought about the possible consequences of his using it and, and would probably have not purchased those canvases for his works. The speaker mentions the economy of how Magritte worked, and how the canvases were commercially produced. Knowing that goes to show that perhaps Magritte just quickly chose what was available in order to get the paintings done on time for exhibitions and customers.

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Course: The Museum of Modern Art > Unit 1

Lesson 3: Behind the scenes at MoMA

Conservation | René Magritte, "The Menaced Assassin," 1927

Name: Conservation | René Magritte, "The Menaced Assassin," 1927
Uploaded: 2013-10-19T02:30:23Z
Description: For more information please visit http://www.moma.org/magritte

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For more information please visit http://www.moma.org/magritte. Created by The Museum of Modern Art.

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Ari Mendelson
Posted 11 years ago. Direct link to Ari Mendelson's post “At 2:08 you said the trea...”
At
2:08
you said the treatment and examination took a year. Was that working full time just on this one painting or was a lot of that time spent waiting for test results from labs or waiting for chemicals to cure? If it was spent working full time on the painting, that seems very resource-intensive. It doesn't seem that a lot of paintings could be conserved if it takes full-time attention for a year. How are paintings selected for conservation?
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(5 votes)
Answer
- Sock Puppet
  Posted 10 years ago. Direct link to Sock Puppet's post “I, obviously, did not cre...”
  I, obviously, did not create this video. Therefore, my answer is very thought out, but cannot be considered exact. On your first question, you have to understand that this is a year to you, but way less than that in actual working days. Holidays and weekends were probably taken off from work, not to mention a lot of other time probably spent on other pieces of art in the museum.
  
  At most art museums, they are selected in order of how many people will view them. If it is a famous Picasso, it will probably be selected before a current nobody abstract artist. But, if there is time, as many paintings as possible will be conserved. Also, if a painting has been there for a while, it is very likely to be conserved over a new painting/piece of art.
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  (3 votes)
Dayvyd
Posted 11 years ago. Direct link to Dayvyd's post “Would Magritte have known...”
Would Magritte have known about the zinc affecting his works?
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- Peterson
  Posted 10 years ago. Direct link to Peterson's post “If he _did_ know about it...”
  If he did know about it, I think he would have thought about the possible consequences of his using it and, and would probably have not purchased those canvases for his works. The speaker mentions the economy of how Magritte worked, and how the canvases were commercially produced. Knowing that goes to show that perhaps Magritte just quickly chose what was available in order to get the paintings done on time for exhibitions and customers.
  Button navigates to signup page
  (5 votes)
Cybernetic Organism
Posted 10 years ago. Direct link to Cybernetic Organism's post “Rene Magritte painted in ...”
Rene Magritte painted in an interesting way. What was the name of the style/art movement that he painted in?
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James Hulce
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to James Hulce's post “At 0:43, the video states...”
At
0:43
, the video states that Magritte was working very quickly and economically to get big images ready for show. Did time and economic pressure play a big role in Magritte's work?
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- Cyrus Parson
  Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to Cyrus Parson's post “I would say it is quite p...”
  I would say it is quite possible. Often times deadlines can impact one's plans, and economic pressure can always play a role in what materials he decided to use based on what was available at the time. Constraints are often adapted to, especially in engineering, to reach a goal by a deadline.
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Video transcript

- This is Rene Magritte's Menaced Assassin from 1927. In preparation for the exhibition, we did some treatment, and also some technical examinations. One of the techniques we used for examining the painting was infrared light, and that typically shows underdrawing. In some cases you can see details, where, for instance, in the toe of the man standing in the center, the table leg actually was painted over the figure. Particularly in 1927, when he painted a lot of large paintings, you can really see he was working very quickly and economically to get these big images ready for his gallery show. In the transmitted light, where you actually shine a light from behind the canvas, so you can see details in the brushwork. You can see he used a much finer brush for the details in the faces, and in the case of the three small heads in the center, he also used a kind of varnish to accentuate the faces. We also saw that particularly in the black paint, our theory is that Magritte used a commercial paint to mix in with the blacks to make them more rich and glossy, to accent details, in particular, in the shoulders of the figures on the left and right. When it was first acquired by MoMA, the conservators described the surface as moldy, and they thought that this patchy appearance was due to actual mold contamination. We actually discovered that this kind of patchy appearance is mainly due to zinc in the ground. The commercial canvases that Magritte used had a thick layer of zinc in the priming layer, and over time, especially in a thin paint layer, the zinc can actually come to the surface, and that seems to have happened in this case. The treatment and examination took about a year, and now, you really get to see Magritte as is intended, with the palette looking very fresh and differences in the nuances of the brushwork visible, and all this is now very apparent after the recent conservation treatment.