AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

From its inception, the conservation of paintings has been a fundamental concern of The Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Its two principal conservators, Stephen Pichetto (1887-1949) and Mario Modestini (1907-2006), not only established standards for the treatment of the collection but played a vital role in every aspect of the Foundation’s activities. In keeping with this tradition, The Kress Program in Paintings Conservation (hereafter KPPC) at New York University's Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts was inaugurated in 1989 with support from the Foundation, implementing two of its key commitments: conservation treatment and technical study of paintings from the dispersed Kress Collection in collaboration with museums and individual locations that do not have an in-house department, while simultaneously training graduate art conservation students. Recently, recognizing a shared commitment to open access, the two institutions embarked on a joint project to create interconnected websites, bringing an exceptional amount of collection and conservation data into public view. The result represents a paradigm shift in the digital presentation of conservation research.




For 35 years, the KPPC has accumulated treatment reports, conservation and technical images, paint analyses, and art historical research for over 280 Kress paintings. Previous dissemination efforts through NYU's website (e.g., blogs, PDFs) proved unsustainable and lacked a coherent structure that would provide a systematic resource for the field. The Foundation’s website, while functional, was outdated and lacked adequate resources to showcase the vast collection or reflect its commitment to digital art history. In response to the joint need for a more robust framework for dynamic content display, the institutions took the unprecedented step to share resources and develop their digital platforms simultaneously.




Working with C&G Partners and BMM Art&Computer, input was culled from conservators, curators, archivists, scholars, and educators. This approach ensured both websites would meet diverse users' needs. Shared visual branding provided unity, while a flexible framework accommodated each institution's specific requirements. The development involved designing the websites in parallel, allowing for shared features and enhanced functionalities that might not have been achieved independently.




The Kress Conservation website’s digital catalogue entries uniquely position conservation data as primary content rather than supporting material. They feature powerful IIIF-based digital viewers with "curtain view" functionality, enabling users to study various technical images (X-ray, IRR, cleaned-state treatment photos) in full resolution. Flexible visual galleries and content layouts accommodate diverse data and illustrated entries ranging from 500 to 10,000+ words. This "living" platform allows continuous updates, ensuring sustainable dissemination of conservation research. The Kress Foundation site benefited from these features, which enhanced the display of its entire collection of artworks. Conversely, features designed for the Foundation (e.g., collection database, comprehensive search functions, interactive maps, detailed filters, publications and news pages) were repurposed by the KPPC to publish in-house papers, talks, and conservation resources.




These interconnected platforms fulfill the Kress Foundation and the KPPC’s longtime shared commitment to open-access. The two websites will grow in tandem, adapting to the evolving needs of the art history and conservation communities, ensuring the Kress Collection's legacy remains vibrant and accessible for the future.




Note: The Foundation (http://www.kressfoundation.org/) and Conservation websites (http://www.kressconservation.org/) went live in 2021 and 2022 respectively.