Sorry about that…

Word on the street is that the shop owners who share the wall don’t mind the graffiti (I assume, as long as it’s artful), however there was a cop car pretty much laying in wait behind some bushes about halfway down the alley.

If anyone knows the artist(s), I’d like to give her/him full credit. Maybe then I’ll do something more creative with the video, too.

See you around Chicago! Posting something more interesting soon (I hope).

Tagged!

Chicago readers probably already know that the Modern Wing of the AIC was marred by graffiti some days ago – and kudos for the quick response and having it removed as soon as possible. HOWEVER (and this is difficult for me to say without extreme passion or expletive because I was a historian/office manager for a historic masonry preservation firm for eight years), when removing graffiti from historic or otherwise important masonry buildings, sandblasting is the absolute last resort because it permanently damages the weatherproof surface of the masonry and promotes rapid deterioration of structural integrity. You would think that a museum with archives dedicated to architecture would have consulted preservation specialists before going ahead.

By the way, consulting a restoration company is not the same thing as consulting a preservationist. If you ask for sandblasting from a restoration contractor, you will get sandblasting. Restoration firms are in the business of giving the customer what they want, not necessarily what they need. And to be fair, the damage done to the Modern Wing is not the contractor’s fault. They did what they were paid to do. Preservationists are who you want to call when this kind of problem comes up. They are trained to understand long term effects of preservation/restoration efforts and are generally semi-detached from the construction industry so are more likely to give objective advice and to lead you to the proper restoration techniques and specialists.

Anyway, I do not know who is in charge of these kinds of decisions at the AIC (I suspect it is not the architectural archives), but whoever you are, here is a link to a technical preservation brief on graffiti removal techniques from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior that is considered standard by historic preservation departments and societies.

Now, please call a reputable preservationist to ask how to consolidate the masonry to prevent accelerated weathering damage. Sheesh!

Panel on Disease and Disability in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Unfortunately, I was unable to remain for the entire symposium, but the first half was great (not a surprise, the Newberry’s symposia tend to rank in the “superb” area), so here is an almost tragically short report.

Christopher Baswell,  Walton O. Schalick III, and Edward Wheatley all spoke on disability in the Middle Ages, with emphases on Political, Medical, and Religious aspects respectively.  While none of them directly addressed art per se, the area is still relatively unexplored in Art History, so I include this as a signpost for future studies.

Dr. Schalick gave an interesting overview of the changing attitudes toward the disabled, children in particular, as the medical field developed.  He made some particularly interesting and unexpected points on how the marketplace acted as a determining factor in these attitudes (rather than imprecisely quoting, I will lead you to his recently submitted Marketing Medicine: Medical and Pharmaceutical Regulation in Paris, 1200-1400. I am unsure of the publication date). This seemed timely in light of the current uneasiness with big pharmaceutical/health insurance lobbyists in DC, and current arguments about attitudes toward the terminally ill.

Dr. Wheatley’s observations were an interesting twist on sin and disability in that he discussed disability treated as a blessing during the Middle Ages and the healing of such being considered a punishment. Dr. Wheatley’s book, Stumbling Blocks Before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a Disability, comes out in April.

For fellow archivists:  Dr. Baswell particularly drew from images of the crippled while discussing the relationship of the disabled with royalty and how disability was viewed in the royal body.  During his talk he lamented how extremely difficult it is to find images of the disabled, and that it seems that they are overlooked even in digital database tagging efforts.  His example was an image from the Huntington Library, Des cas des nobles Hommes et Femmes with a catalogue description that included every figure and symbol in the image except a legless man on crutches who he described as the “only gazing figure,” meaning the only figure that was actively engaged with other figures/symbols in the illumination.  I bring this up not only because we should be more careful in our catalog descriptions of images (as an archivist I’m embarrassed for the omission), but also because we need to standardize image metadata.  I realize that there are things “in the works,”  (Art Counsel’s own work is part of this process) but the effort is tragically behindhand.  Perhaps we should start an image archivists guild or something…

Christopher Baswell, Unknown, Edward Wheatley

Walton O. Schalick III