The James A. Michener Art Museum, a cultural institution in Doylestown, PA, dedicated to collecting, interpreting, and exhibiting American art, recently received a Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant. The grant was used for the conservation of a mural by Henriette Wyeth, an artist of historical significance whose work will be featured in the exhibition Magical & Real: Henriette Wyeth and Peter Hurd, A Retrospective, which opens at the Michener on January 21, 2018. The conservation project was completed in partnership with curators from the Roswell Museum and Art Center in New Mexico and Jill Whitten of Whitten and Proctor Fine Art Conservation in Houston, Texas.
The long-lost mural was discovered in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in the course of research for the 2018 retrospective of the artist’s work. Archival documentation revealed this mural had been installed in the Wyeth family home from the time it was completed until the early 1970s, at which point it was shipped to New Mexico and subsequently lost. Years of storage in Chadds Ford led to extensive mold damage, and the canvas dried to the point of instability. Because of the painting’s importance, the Michener sought the assistance of the Bank of America Art Conservation Project to preserve this significant work by a member of one of America’s leading artistic families of the 20th century.
Since the Art Conservation Project began in 2010, Bank of America has provided grants for more than 120 projects in 30 countries on six continents to conserve paintings, sculptures, and archaeological pieces that are critically important to cultural heritage and the history of art.
For more information, visit MichenerArtMuseum.org or call 215.340.9800.
