Handling pictures directly will soon become a thing of the past, according to the inventor of a new system for moving works of art. Sam Shmith, the former studio manager for artist Adam Pendleton, developed the system to focus on \u201cthe problem of the last 100m\u201d and the even bigger \u201cproblem of the last 10m\u201d identified by the Canadian Conservation Institute.<\/p>\n
Shmith\u2019s invention, called Artist Engineering (AE) Hardware, was created in Melbourne, Australia, and has been on the market for about a year. It is currently being assessed by users including the National Gallery in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market is such that even minor damage like fingerprints leads to really significant claims, and this is a problem,\u201d says Adam Prideaux, the director of insurance brokers Hallett Independent. \u201cA lot of these instances of damage can be avoided using this system.\u201d<\/p>\n
AE Hardware features a grip that disengages from the work, leaving a discreet bracket permanently installed in the frame or support. Though designed with 2D works in mind, AE Brackets are suitable for any material and can be embedded into sculptural or wall-based objects during fabrication.<\/p>\n
The bracket avoids repeated drilling and installation of new hardware, which typically happens when a painting is being prepared for installation and is in itself a potential risk. The bracket provides a fixing point for the work to be secured in its transit frame and subsequently removed, contact-free.<\/p>\n
Shmith explains the problems his technology circumvents: if a painting is of considerable weight or size the stretcher bar across the back of a canvas may present the most manageable lift point. But handling a work by the stretcher is unsafe, says Mary Gridley, a conservator. \u201cAs the whole structure ages, everything gets more brittle, and knuckles going into the back of the canvas can cause the paint to crack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creating a buffer zone<\/p>\n
Some damage can be prevented by gloves, but \u201cthere\u2019s a psychology to gloved handling\u201d, Shmith says. \u201cYou think you\u2019re OK, and you start to drift and take risks. People wipe their brow and then pick up the work.\u201d Gridley puts it simply: \u201cIf you can get people\u2019s hands off the artwork, you\u2019re halfway there.\u201d<\/p>\n
By creating a buffer zone around the work, AE Hardware mitigates knocks and falls and provides a resting point. Patrick O\u2019Sullivan, the National Gallery\u2019s head of art handling, is primarily interested in how it \u201cmight improve the outlook with regards incremental or accumulative damage to paintings over a long period of time\u201d, specifically, the \u201chandling of paintings that have minimal or no significant framing\u201d.<\/p>\n
At Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the US, the hardware has been installed on a frequently loaned Amy Sherald work, says the head preparator Dave O\u2019Ryan. At approximately 305cm by 274cm, \u201cit needs some firm hands when moving\u201d, he says, which \u201cneeds to happen with the work riding on its side due to doorway, truck and loading dock heights. We\u2019ve put the AE Hardware on it in two orientations so that we can put all of our firm grips on an external handle instead of on the unprotected painted canvas edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hardware\u2019s novelty, and therefore potential misuse, is its current drawback, he says: \u201cFolks in our field are generally very capable and cautious, but it\u2019s still a typical early-adopter\u2019s concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Thomas Douglas, the head of special projects at Helu-Trans in Hong Kong, emphasises \u201chow easy the system is to understand and use\u201d. His main concern is cost, which compared to traditional mirror plates and current industry standard Oz Clips is significant. Made from heavy gauge brass, or stainless steel in the small size, an Oz Clip comprises two strips of metal, connected by a pivot point. One strip is attached to the work, leaving the second strip to be oriented according to need and screwed into a wall or transit frame. In the UK, it costs approximately \u00a3280 to fit large Oz Clips to a painting with eight fixing points, compared with \u00a3917 plus shipping to fit AE Hardware to the same painting. Unlike Oz Clips, AE Grips can be removed and shared between works, which Shmith says could make the relative costs across collections comparable.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan at the National Gallery says AE represents good value: \u201cThe system appears to be designed with longevity in mind,\u201d he says. Gridley says it could make otherwise difficult loans possible, such as those of works with vulnerable finishes.<\/p>\n
Shmith has triggered a second production run to meet demand. \u201cWe\u2019ll look back on the time we used to put our hands on these objects and wonder what on earth we were thinking,\u201d he says. \u201cA three- to five-year timeframe for that shift seems like a reasonable estimate\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Handling pictures directly will soon become a thing of the past, according to the inventor of a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,6626,21816,93725],"class_list":["post-896760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-logistics","tag-museums","tag-national-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}