Diving into the clay

~ Waterspout with Acheloös.

Culture: Etruscan

Place: Etruria

Date: 500-460 B.C.

Taweret amulet, Egyptian Art

Rogers Fund, 1944 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Faience

Double Spout and Bridge Bottle with Bird, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Cummings, 1964 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Ceramic, pigment

Date:5th–2nd century B.C.

Geography:Peru

Culture:Paracas

Medium:Ceramic, pigment

Beaked Jug

Luristan, Iran, ca. 1100-700 BC

The elongated spout of this vessel is bird-shaped, with the head of the bird curving back towards its tail. The imaginative shape is typical of Iranian ceramics of this period.

横瓶　須恵器 Recumbent Bottle (Yokobe)                               

What does the upcoming Frida Kahlo exhibition mean for the Conservation department? 

As you’ve probably heard, Frida Kahlo is coming to the Brooklyn Museum! Our exhibition, opening in February, is based on the 2012 Mexico City exhibition Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo and the V&A museum’s recent Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up. While we are very excited and honored to be exhibiting the artist’s personal objects from La Casa Azul and paintings from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art, the upcoming exhibition also offers us an opportunity to delve deeper into our own collection of Mesoamerican Art. From pre-columbian figurines to 20th century tablewares, fifty works from the collection will be on view—some for the very first time.

Some of the Brooklyn Museum objects that will be exhibited have personal connections with the artist and her inner circle - such as this pitcher (below) which is on long term loan from Frances F. Paine, who can be seen standing next to Kahlo in the image on the right below; Curator Nancy Rosoff chose others for their similarity to objects that decorated the artist’s home, Casa Azul, or reference different aspects of her life and work.

[On left: Pitcher with Handle, L32.195; On right: From left to right: doctor Leo Eloesser, Frances F. Payne, Frida Kahlo, Jean Charlot, Elie Faure, Diego Rivera. Cuernavaca, August 1931. Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center]

After the objects were selected for the exhibition, our museum conservators get the lucky job of examining, photographing, and researching each one going on view. The snapshot below shows some of the works waiting to be photographed. Once inspected, objects may be cleaned, undergo treatments to become more stable, or have custom mounts made if they need additional support. For example, graduate intern Chantal Stein used toned Japanese tissues to secure the wheels of this small dog figurine to limit movement that could lead to damage. 

On left: Image of objects on cart awaiting documentation; On right: During treatment image of Wheeled Effigy in the Form of a Dog, 2009.2.29

More of these incredible works will be featured in the coming months but in the meantime, enjoy these amazing images of the Casa Azul which serve as a sneak peek of the types of works that will be on view on February 8th! Lastly, we leave you with an image of a lab favorite: the pregnant Dog Figure whose cousin can also seen at the Walters Museum in Baltimore.

Double Spout Bottle, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Cummings, 1964 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Ceramic, pigment

Rhyton. 1500–1450 BC. Zakros, Crete.

Tile, 1550-1600, Iznik, Turkey, fritware, polychrome underglaze, glazed, V&A. 

Terracotta tankard

Cypriot, ca. 1600–1200 B.C. (Late Cypriot I-II), 11cm high (~5in)