The Work Placement in the Electrical Engineering Degree Course

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Description

• cours magistral
• cours - matière potentielle : study
• cours - matière potentielle : examinations rules
• expression écrite - matière potentielle : a report

The Work Placement in the Electrical Engineering Degree Course )DNXOWlW(OHNWURWHFKQLNXQG,QIRUPDWLRQVWHFKQLN With the support of the European Leonardo da Vinci programme

• basic study
• practical activity period
• electrical engineering faculty
• special rules
• work placement
• placement
• activities
• students
• course

Sujets

• Cours magistral
• Dresden University of Technology
• Centre
• Aachen
• Freistaat Sachsen
• West Germany
• Placement

Informations

• Publié par: omkue
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English

Extrait

Une scene de course de plat en Baviereby Albrecht Adam. A high resolution image is available for journalists, courtesy of AXA Art

AXA ART takes you through

the restoration process

London, December 2011

AXA ART teams up with specialist conservator, Julia Nagle, to restore a torn Albrecht Adam painting

Amidst the excitement of purchasing a new piece of art it can be difficult to bear in mind the possibilities of loss or damage that face your new investment. However, if through unforeseen circumstances your prized art is damaged and you have to make a claim, have you ever wondered if this will be the last you will see of your artwork? AXA ART always aims to have art restored to the best condition possible before any further action is taken. Fine art restorer and conservator, Julia Nagle, has an MA in ‘Conservation of Fine Art’ from the University of Northumbria and has gained years of experience at museums and galleries such as Tate and The Serpentine. In 1993 Julia set up her own practice that is accredited by ICON (The Institute for Conservation) and deals with paintings on canvas, wood and metal of all ages. Alongside Julia’s practical work she is also an assessor for the Professional Accreditation of conservators across all disciplines, and has worked as a senior lecturer at University College London and a freelance conservator at the University of Cambridge. Julia annually takes on interns at her studio in east London which is one of a few studios that provides specialist expertise in the conservation of contemporary and modern art. Over the next few weeks we will follow a torn oil painting’s journey through the restoration process -Une scene de course de plat en Baviereby Albrecht Adam - which was dropped on the floor at an art dealer’s. The painting will go through several stages of work, with the aim to restore the painting to its full glory. AXA ART will follow the painting’s progress from start to finish, documenting each phase. Damaged art can lose a significant amount of its market value highlighting the need to protect your art and to choose the most appropriate cover. AXA ART specialises in high value home contents and buildings, art, collectables and musical instruments and caters for private collectors, dealers, museums and exhibitions both in the UK and internationally. All of our policies cover restoration and repair cover, and depreciation, following loss or damage. Julia Nagle will answer some questions about fine art conservation and restoration, and comment on some interesting ethical debates that arise along the way. The project shows how important it is to have sufficient and specialist insurance for your artworks so you’re not left out of pocket or without an artwork.

For further information please contact: Frances Fogel Marketing & Partnerships Manager, AXA ART UK Tel: [phone], Mobile: [phone], E-Mail: [e-mail]

AXA ART takes you through

the restoration process

London, December 2011

Q and A with Julia Nagle, MA Conservation of Fine Art General

Q. 1. Why did you choose to pursue a career in fine art conservation? Fine Art Conservation demands a combination of practical skills, Art Historical research and science, every project offers a new challenge and it’s a career in which I am always learning. Ilove getting close to the artwork and there is great satisfaction in restoring a painting and seeing it come back to life. Q. 2. What sort of clients do you work for? I work for a wide range of clients including national museums, commercial galleries, insurance companies, art advisors and private collectors. Q. 3. What happens in an average working day? I can honestly say that there is no such thing as an average working day, which is one of the great pleasures of the job. Q. 4. How long does the restoration/ conservation process take? It varies enormously, some processes are very quick and can just take a day to complete, others last for many months or even years but the average is probably a few weeks. Q. 5. What is the most common form of damage you see in fine art? Tears in canvas paintings are definitely the most common, they are often easily avoidable by inexpensive means such as applying reversible backboards to the stretchers or frames of paintings Q. 6. Do you find you grow emotionally attached to pieces of art you work on? Very often yes.It’s important to try to understand the work and the artist’s intention if it is to be sensitively restored.The job demands a certain amount of emotional input. Paintings are normally one-off pieces too and therefore irreplaceable.Private collectors very often feel an emotional attachment to their artwork and it can be very upsetting for them to see the paintings damaged.Tears can be a real problem as they are costly to repair and this cost bears no relation to the value of the painting.I am always very fond of paintings that respond well to treatment and that don’t cause too many headaches! Q. 7. What has been your greatest challenge and how did you overcome it? It’s very hard to pick one, I often work with modern and contemporary pieces and finding solutions to conservation problems with these works can be very challenging.They are not normally protected with varnishes or frames and the surfaces can be extremely delicate. Itis very helpful in difficult cases to consult colleagues, either in painting conservation or in other disciplines such as paper or sculpture conservation.An exchange of information and expertise is vital to the success of some treatments.

For further information please contact: Frances Fogel Marketing & Partnerships Manager, AXA ART UK Tel: [phone], Mobile: [phone], E-Mail: [e-mail]

AXA ART takes you through

the restoration process

London, December 2011

Q. 8. What is your preferred art medium to work with? I love the challenge of the different media I encounter in works of art and do not have a preferred medium. Q. 9. Do you ever have difficult clients? What has been the strangest request? Not really.Many clients are upset when their artwork is damaged and some are a bit nervous about coming to a conservator because it’s a world they are very unfamiliar with. Although conservators are now trying to explain what we do to the wider public many people still don’t know what is involved, how long it can take and therefore how costly it can be.The most difficult situation for a conservator is when clients sometimes want to direct the work in a way that would be unethical. Perhaps the strangest request I have had is to cut damaged areas off the edges of paintings rather than take the time to restore these.However bad the recession it is vital that we don’t succumb to this sort of pressure. Conservatorshave a duty to protect the objects in their care, whatever the client asks. Q. 10. Have you ever been unable to mend a piece of damaged art? Or had problems in fixing a piece Yes, a painting on hardboard with a large damage in a flat area of colour.People often say to me that they have a torn painting but that it shouldn’t be hard to repair because the damage is in an area of flat colour.We are all trained to paint and reproducing very fine detail or bravura brushwork is not a problem; one’s eye is very sensitive to texture and if there is no detail in the composition to distract the viewer from the texture it is very hard to disguise damage. Q. 11. How can art lovers better protect their art and prevent it from being damaged? Conservators are trained to provide advice on preventive care for artworks as well as to restore them and can provide condition surveys, advice on hanging and preventive treatments to clients who wish to better protect their collections.Many measures, such as applying reversible backboards, are very inexpensive and make an enormous difference to how an artwork survives long term.Paintings don’t like rapid changes in temperature so are best hung away from sources of heat, or air conditioning units. Light, especially strong sunlight should be avoided as far as possible, and any cleaning should always be done by a qualified conservator.Most tears happen when works are moved and I would always recommend a specialist art handler and transporter, it is well worth the investment.The ICON website is a good source of information for collectors, it has a section on how to care for all sorts of artworks and this information can be downloaded http://www.icon.org.uk/index.php Q. 12. Do you ever question whether you should be doing conservation/ restoration work on particular pieces? Always. Anyconservation/restoration treatment can have adverse effects and, as with medicine, we err on the side of the most minimal intervention possible.Sometimes this might mean deciding not to reverse an earlier treatment, which may seem heavy handed

For further information please contact: Frances Fogel Marketing & Partnerships Manager, AXA ART UK Tel: [phone], Mobile: [phone], E-Mail: [e-mail]

AXA ART takes you through

the restoration process

London, December 2011

to us nowadays, because to do so actually constitutes a major intervention on a painting that has now changed.Our concern is to keep the painting in its original state as far as possible, not to add anything that can’t later be taken away (which is why we always retouch in a reversible medium which is different from the original paint) and not to change the appearance or the nature of the work.Nowadays we try to avoid lining torn paintings where possible and to keep their original stretchers for example.Where this is not possible it is vital to document all changes very carefully for future reference and to be able to explain and justify our decisions. Q. 13. Do you think that damaged art should lose so much of its original value? To be honest I’m not sure how much value it does lose.We don’t tend to get very involved in this discussion and are more usually concerned with the welfare of the piece and whether it looks whole after treatment, with the restoration being invisible or at least inconspicuous. It is much easier to achieve this with some paintings than with others of course. Q. 14. How has modern technology changed/improved your practice? It has helped immensely.Funnily enough one of the most important developments has been digital photography.Not only does it help when condition checking works on loan or that a buyer might be interested in, we have to photograph paintings before, during and after treatment too.Before the introduction of digital photography the practical work was held up at each stage while photographs were developed, now we can see immediately if we have captured the image or not.Being able to share images internationally via email or online has also helped enormously.Modern technology has been used to test our materials to the limit and conservation scientists have developed new adhesives, varnishes and cleaning solutions in recent years.Research projects such as the cleaning of acrylic paintings are hugely important to us. Albrecht Adam Q. 1. What will be the first thing you do to the painting? After fully documenting the painting in photographic and written form I will test the paint and canvas to find out how it responds to moisture and heat.This will help deternine the processes and materials that I can consider using in its conservation.The fist treatment that needs doing is to consolidate the loose and flaking paint around the tear.I is important to stabilize the painting and make sure that its condition will not get any worse. Consolidation is often done with ‘sturgeon glue’ an adhesive made from soaking the swim bladder of the sturgeon fish overnight, then heating and straining the liquid.It makes a very clear and stable adhesive for consolidation and, as we will be feeding the diluted sturgeon glue into cracks in the paint layer and will not be able to reverse this process, it is important that it is chemically compatible with the original glue size layer that would have been applied to the canvas prior to the priming. We do have synthetic wax resin and other adhesives we can use if paintings are sensitive to water.The individual paint flakes will be warmed with a heated spatula and laid back down in the right place.

For further information please contact: Frances Fogel Marketing & Partnerships Manager, AXA ART UK Tel: [phone], Mobile: [phone], E-Mail: [e-mail]

AXA ART takes you through

the restoration process

London, December 2011

Q. 2. Is this the biggest rip you have seen in a painting? What is the most horrific damage you have seen in an artwork? This has to be up there!The tear is very large in relation to the painting as a whole and it is in an area that will make it very difficult to disguise.The worst damage has to be after the bomb attach on the Uffizi in Florence where only the frame was left with just a few small scraps of canvas around the edges. Q. 3. Is it more difficult having the damage in the centre of a painting? Not necessarily, the most difficult thing is to have a plain colour and a highly finished surface. Tearsare much easier to disguise in areas of high impasto or detailed composition. Thisis hard because the paint layers are quite thin and it has a glossy smooth surface. Q. 4. Do you think you will be able to see the damage after you are finished? I will definitely be able to see the damage!Once one knows where damage is it’s hard to ignore.I hope to restore the painting so that it can be enjoyed again without the damage being apparent to the onlooker from a normal viewing distance.The retouching will be visible in ultraviolet light because it will sit on top of an isolating varnish. This varnish aids reversibility in future, which is another important consideration.We want to restore paintings so the damage is as invisible to the naked eye as possible but our restorations should remain visible to those who need to know, on close examination.

For further information please contact: Frances Fogel Marketing & Partnerships Manager, AXA ART UK Tel: [phone], Mobile: [phone], E-Mail: [e-mail]