The Sculpture Conservation Studio renovates objects made of traditional sculptural materials, such as stone, gypsum, terracotta, clay, and also works of contemporary art which use and combine a wide range of unusual materials previously unassociated with sculpture in addition to classic ones.
The studio’s focus areas include conservation of plastics, a relatively new challenge. The change mechanisms observed in plastics are not yet fully understood, and given the fact that they are irreversible, the primary role of the conservator is preventive, through creating adequate storage conditions for such objects to retard the degradation processes as much as possible.
Among the sculptural objects made of plastic in the collection of the National Museum in Krakow, the most valuable and best known are the works of Alina Szapocznikow. The museum holds a huge and very valuable set of works by this celebrated artist. A special place is occupied by over a dozen sculptural compositions made of synthetic resins (Herbarium series, Piotr in Full Length, and Alina’s Funeral), which have undergone conservation procedures in our Sculpture Conservation Studio.
In recent years, these works have been shown in a series of enthusiastically received exhibitions at leading cultural centres in Europe and the United States, e.g. WIELS in Brussels and MoMA in New York.
In the works of contemporary artists we encounter a variety of complex conservation problems, occasioned by the unusual, often impermanent technologies involved in their making. Each object requires an individual approach, which often calls for innovative solutions.
One of the most interesting projects undertaken by the studio is the complex conservation procedure performed on the large-format work of Barbara Zbrożyna entitled The Sun. It is one of the most prominent works of Polish sculpture in the postwar period. The relief shaped as a circle of c. 210 cm in diameter and varying in thickness from a few to slightly less than twenty centimetres was originally set in a wooden grille. The technology used led to the destabilization of the structure, resulting in fractures in the cast part. The primary conservation problems therefore included designing and making a new supporting structure and devising an installation system for future exhibition.
A large project, which took several years to complete, was the conservation of over seven hundred historic gypsum casts for the exhibition Krakow within your reach. Compiled at the turn of the 20th century, it is an interesting collection of cast copies of architectural and sepulchral sculptures, as well as fragments of prominent sculptural works – predominantly Romanesque and Gothic. They had been made during conservation works in churches and townhouses, mostly in Krakow, but also in other Polish cities. Some of the casts are the only surviving documentation of the no-longer-extant originals. The collection had never been exhibited as a whole, and it had been stored and unavailable to the public since the 1960s.
Another interesting engagement of the studio was the conservation of an alabaster relief entitled Flagellation of Christ. Dated to the second half of the 17th century, the object was probably created in the Lwów centre of alabaster sculpture, after Dutch models. The relief was in a very bad condition – a number of fragments glued together and extremely soiled. In places, putty and other fillers were visible, as were areas of crumbled and missing substance. The gildings were abraded and partly covered with a layer of gold paint.
In addition to remedial procedures, the studio is involved in preventive conservation, consisting mainly in monitoring the storage and display conditions as well as various work required in connection with loans of artworks, conservators’ supervision over their packing and transport, and over temporary exhibitions at our museum.
The Józef Mehoffer House
ul. Krupnicza 26
tel. +48 012 433 58 91
