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  Material Analysis and Conservation Treatment of Louise Nevelson’s sculpture Dawn’s Image, Night

  Kaela L. Nurmi

  Louise Nevelson’s large-scale, matte black assemblage sculpture Dawn’s Image, Night, 1969, is owned by and currently on display at SUNY Buffalo State College, in Buffalo, NY. Extensive scientific analysis and archival research were utilized to design an appropriate treatment and long-term preservation plan. The project also investigates the ethics surrounding the removal of original components in regard to safety considerations, as well as the overall obstacles of treating a large uncoated, matte monochrome sculpture outside of a lab/studio space.

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  Analysis of the Manufacturing Techniques and Conservation Treatment of an Early Twentieth Century Art Glass Vase

  Annika Blake-Howland

  The period of 1860 to 1935 was one of great change in glass manufacturing as well as glass decorative arts. Artists and industrialists were combining materials science innovations and manufacturing techniques with their own artistic talents to create new art and design objects. One of the great masters of combining glass art with contemporary manufacturing innovations was René Lalique. Lalique’s designs were commercially and critically successful, and he inspired many glass artists. One of these artists was Reuben Haley of the Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company. Haley, both a talented designer and savvy businessman, in 1926 created a line of glass decorative arts objects emulating Lalique’s early 1920s designs. Although these objects were very similar in design, they differ in the details, as well as the composition of the glass used and finishing techniques applied. X-ray florescence, dispersive Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy with electron diffraction spectroscopy, and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to analyze a vase attributed to Lalique, leading to a reattribution to Consolidated Glass. The vase was also conserved using less invasive and reversable techniques based in solvent-activated acrylic adhesives due to the decorative surface layers of the vase. These methods were chosen after a review of recent-past and current glass conservation techniques for stabilizing blind cracks, reattaching fragments, and filling losses in glass decorative arts objects.