Art museum offers public view of Benton mural conservation

The IU Art Museum is offering the public the opportunity to watch the process of conserving two panels from Thomas Hart Benton’s famous Indiana murals.

As a summer project, painting conservationists are conserving panels of Benton’s murals available for viewing from 2 to 4 p.m. every Tuesday through Thursday through the end of September in the conservation lab at the IU Art Museum.

The murals were originally created for the Indiana Hall at the 1933 Chicago’s World Fair in 22 panels that stretched 250 feet. Benton’s panels were then stored in a horse barn at the Indiana State Fairgrounds until then-IU President Herman B Wells arranged for the state to give the murals to IU in 1940, said Ellen Lyon, IU Art Museum conservation lab technician.

As of Aug. 12, 16 of the panels were in the lobby of the IU Auditorium, two in Woodburn Hall and four in the old University Theatre building, which is currently under construction. The two panels being conserved right now are from the theater building.

Lyon said this is the second time the murals have been conserved, the first time being
in the early 1980s. She said the two larger murals in the theater building are next in line to be conserved but, because of their size, will not be able to leave the building during the process.

Lyon said this is a pretty rare opportunity, and many people are taking advantage of the viewing.

“There’s so much interest,” Lyon said. “People get to see the murals up close.”
Lyon said teachers have brought their classes and many students have stopped by. Museum docents have spread the word to friends and family, too.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Lyon said. “You get to see how the paintings are constructed, see the back of them up close and off the walls.”

The viewing period has been extended through the end of September because of the increased interest, Lyon said.

Benton was a Missouri native who studied art in Paris and New York. When Indiana officials commissioned him to produce the murals, he delved into study of the state’s history and traveled across Indiana for months to gain a sense of Indiana’s people and
geography.

Benton is best known at IU for his controversial mural “Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press,” which includes an image of robed Ku Klux Klansmen burning a cross alongside an interracial hospital scene. This has been interpreted as a tribute to bringing down the hate group.

Earlier this year, conservators from the Indianapolis Museum of Art were contracted to stabilize areas of flaking paint in preparation for the move of the panels to the IU Art Museum. IU also hired a firm to remove the murals from the theater walls and bring them to the museum’s conservation laboratory.

Michael Ruzga, one of the two painting conservators with the murals, said although it’s not necessarily an extremely rare opportunity to have the public able to see the process, this project at the art museum is different because it is in public and in a controlled lab simultaneously.

“Most of the time, conservation must be completed right at the location,” Ruzga said.
“The controlled lab helps with light and sensitivity.”

Ruzga said a lot of testing had to be completed to begin the conservation process, but the next step is consolidation, or re-adhering the flaking paint to stable the paint layer.
Then there is a grime removal and an isolating layer of varnish. One of the final steps includes inpainting – the process of matching the color to touch up paint losses. A final layer of varnish might be applied as well.

Ruzga said he has been conserving art since 1985 and has always had a favorite part of the process.

“I enjoy watching the original painting come back to life,” he said.