A few weeks ago I wrote about the conservation going on for the Henry Moore sculpture Upright Motive. The sculpture was reinstalled in the Kansas City Sculpture Park on Monday, and I got a few details from Robert, the Conservation Intern I spoke to last time.
Minor scratches and abrasions sometimes occur on the sculptures, and when Upright Motive underwent conservation treatment in the 1980s, the conservator inpainted a few of these areas to make them less noticeable and help restore the original appearance of the sculpture. Inpainting is meant to be reversible and removeable, so when the Incralac protective coating was removed this time, the old inpainting came off with it. Robert said the most challenging part of the entire process was carefully redoing this inpainting to match the bronze and green tones of Moore’s sculpture.
The final steps included applying Incralac to the entire sculpture—except its base—with an air sprayer and then covering the Incralac with a less durable coat of wax. If people climbed or stepped on the base of the sculpture, the Incralac might come off in large chunks, so the base only has a coat of wax. Conservators apply a coat of wax to the entire sculpture twice a year, but they will pay extra attention to the base.
Looking at the before and after shots of Upright Motive, it’s clear that the conservation crew did a great job sprucing up this beautiful sculpture. Our web site also includes three more case studies about the conservation of KCSP pieces, including Shuttlecocks, the focus of our newest exhibition.