ART of the matter

Art conservation is a less-known field that offers a lot of creative satisfaction, writes Vibha Sharma

Agrowing awareness about preserving the country's rich cultural wealth, coupled with the fact that Indian art is fetching good returns now, is gradually widening the scope of art conservation as a profession.

And with even fakes fetching good money in the international art market, restorers now have another job — of verifying the authenticity and specifying the age of paintings.

Art conservation is a field in which only those professionals can succeed who are genuinely interested in art.

But in spite of all these opportunities and projects, in India the number of art conservators is very less, possibly because it is a relatively less-known field that may not fetch high monetary returns initially.

Then there are few government jobs available in this field. In fact, freelancing or self-employment is a good option but before that one has to work with an established art conservator on various projects to gain experience.

If one is looking for the security of a permanent job, then there is the option of working for the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) conservation institutes, besides some museums and art galleries.

"There are less than 20 art restorers and may be just one photograph conservator in India," says Sree Kumar Menon, a freelance art conservator. "It is a well-paying profession, but one has to work hard and train well before the returns start coming in," he adds.

The road to success for a professional conservator is a long one. "Art conservation is not like medicine or engineering, where after getting a degree you land a plum job. In this field, opportunities are plenty but one has to gain good experience before success comes knocking on your door," opines Menon.

Salaries in museum and art galleries and in the private sector vary, depending on experience and competence. One way to gain experience is to work with an established conservator, where a beginner can hope to earn around Rs 5,000 for instation projects and Rs 8,000 for outstation work.

"With the growing awareness about the huge price a Raja Ravi Varma or an Amrita Shergill painting can fetch, there are lot of projects to work on," says Priyanka Vaid, Senior Conservator with INTACH at Delhi.

"More and more people are approaching art conservators with paintings they suddenly discovered in their attic or old store room," Priyanka says, recalling with satisfaction the case when the INTACH team was able to restore a severely damaged oil painting with tears, blanks and split into halves.

"The painting was attributed to Raja Ravi Varma, one of the pioneers in Indian oil painting. It was a great challenge to restore it, which took us more than a year. But at the end of it, there was this satisfaction of being able to conserve a piece of heritage," she adds.

But besides initial artistic ability, a conservator also needs to have good manual dexterity and colour vision. "Restoring a painting is more difficult than creating it, where an artist has the liberty and freedom to use his choice of colours. A conservator has to work according to the artist's imagination. At times, a very small portion of a painting or art object is missing and one has to use exactly the same colours and work as per the artist's imagination."

Like INTACH, the National Museum in Delhi also takes up projects and employs conservators. As much as 60 per cent of the work comes from private collectors, art connoisseurs and 40 per cent from government institutions.

After a couple of years of experience, depending upon one's skill and interest, one can hope to get a scholarship and go abroad. The UK offers several scholarships in this field.

"In due course of time, a conservator is able to build up a reputation when people come to know about you and call you. The option of working abroad is also there. After the initial hard work, the sky is the limit," says Menon. .

Conservation includes preservation and reinforcing the support of a painting, which can be canvas, metal or wood, dry or solvent cleaning material for the removal of dirt, varnish and old discoloured restorations, making necessary retouching and recovering lost areas followed by the applying of a protective coat of varnish.

The most essential qualification for becoming a conservator is love for art and being able to appreciate the intricacies involved in it. Since it involves having to work with chemicals, an ideal candidate is someone who combines a chemistry background with an artistic nature. But this is a rather rare combination. Therefore, people with either a degree in fine arts or science can join the field, in which preventive conservation and curative conservation are the two major work areas.

The Institute of the History of Art Conservation at the National Museum in the Capital offers a postgraduate degree besides short-term courses. In addition, the Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management, the National Research and Laboratories for Conservation, Lucknow, and INTACH-run institutes also offer short-term courses in art conservation.