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A Ming Dynasty map of the Yellow River. Photo: MCT

America's Freer Gallery races to save Asian art treasures

Lack of funds and ageing conservators hamper Freer museum's mission to preserve collection

MCT

The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington hopes to save Asian artworks for future generations. But first, it has to save Grace Jan's job.

Jan is the assistant Chinese-painting conservator in the museum's Chinese painting conservation programme. A lack of funding imperils her position.

The museum wants to see Jan develop into a senior Chinese-painting conservator, like her colleague Gu Xiang-mei. There are only four in the US, and they are all old.

"We are at a critical point here, because Gu and other conservators working here in the States are reaching retirement," said Andrew Hare, the supervisor of East Asian painting conservation, whose specialties are Chinese and Japanese paintings. "So it's very important that we pass that knowledge, that information, on to the next generation. Unfortunately, up to now there hasn't been that much opportunity because of a lack of funds."

A US$1 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will go to endow the position of an assistant Chinese painting conservator in the Freer Gallery of Art's department of conservation and scientific research, which oversees the Chinese painting programme. The Freer needs to match the grant with US$750,000 by 2016.

In 1904, Charles Freer gave his personal collection of American and Asian art to the Smithsonian Institution; the gallery opened in 1923.

Even with careful handling, 100 years take their toll on delicate artwork. The Freer rotates its art. Every six months the works are swapped out for new pieces and the originals won't appear again for five years.

"Once you've faded an image, you can't bring it back," Hare said. "So that ongoing care is very important to what we do."

The museum started the East Asian Painting Conservation Studio in 1932. Grants have funded the Chinese painting conservation programme, which began in 2001. It offers practical instruction in restoring and remounting Chinese paintings, replacing or restoring the silk on scrolls, and other museum operations, including working with the curators on exhibits.

For example, some of the older paintings were mounted on acidic paper backings, which deteriorate eventually. They will be remounted on new Red Star rice paper bought in China that is not acidic.

Senior conservator Gu Xiang-mei, who arrived in 1991, trains her apprentices the way she was trained, with traditional, hands-on, practical, and sometimes tedious, work.

The Shanghai Museum chose Gu when China restarted its arts programmes after the Cultural Revolution.

She said she was lucky to be considered for museum training. "They were looking for a younger generation," she said. She started working with scrolls and paintings in 1973. "We work eight hours a day, six days a week," she said of her training years. "We work like a team."

Teamwork also is key to the conservation efforts taught at the Freer.

"These are skills that are learned through hands-on practice," Hare said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: American gallery races to save Asian treasures
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