AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

From static light sculptures to found material constructions, Greek-American artist Chryssa (1933-2013) wove neon tubing throughout her sculptural practice. Her ingenuity and craft produced a collection of ambitious and unique sculptures, teeming with experimentation in glass bending, neon color theory, scale, and display technology that integrated mechanical components and aging neon sign hardware with new advances in plastics into sculptural form. Inspired by the neon signs of New York, she transformed this high-voltage signmakers’ craft into an unprecedented body of sculpture and light art. 

A traveling exhibition of Chryssa’s works in 2023-24 necessitated a large campaign to restore her neon sculptures from the 1960s, the process of which posed a series of conservation challenges surrounding obsolescent technology, hard-to-find technical expertise, and strategies for how to care for sculpturally- and mechanically-complex light art. As the coordinating conservator for the three-venue exhibition, I was in a unique position of both participating in decision-making related to the exhibition organization and serving as a liaison to conservators and neon benders engaged by our lenders to help restore her work. 

In the case of Chryssa’s neons, the challenge of restoration was magnified by the lack of research on the artist, and her general exclusion from the art historical record prevented most institutions and collectors from acquiring more than a token few of her works. The general unfamiliarity with Chryssa, compounded with her not having a recognized estate or foundation acting on her behalf, left much of her work in disrepair in storage. In order to successfully bring her works together in a cohesive, operational, and unified manner, I found that I needed to build a collaborative network of care between art conservators, neon benders, registrars, and art prep teams. 

Successful strategies in building this network of care included connecting conservators treating similar condition issues for different lenders, sharing resources broadly across the team related to materials and construction, hosting a group call for conservators treating her work and neon benders to discuss condition issues and options, hosting a public panel discussion on the conservation of Chryssa's neon, and organizing an in-person Study Day at the second exhibition venue to share research, technical skill, and reflect on the conservation treatments we carried out. Together we were able to develop collective preservation strategies that will hopefully help inform the better understanding and future conservation of Chryssa’s work.