We are re-evaluating the lamps we are using in our art gallery. We have
used Solux 3500 kelvin 10 degree spots and have been told we need to
switch to Solux 4700 kelvin 36 lamps because they are rated much lower
in foot candles and thus are better for the long-term preservation of
the paintings and bronzes. I have several questions about this change
in our lighting and I am hoping my colleagues who are more knowledgeable
about the care and preservation of art can help me. First, are the 4700
kelvin lamps the better of the two? One of the problems we have
discovered with the 4700 kelvin lamps is that they are much dimmer and
many of our paintings lose some of the "pop" they had under the 3500
kelvin lamps. Adding lights may or may not help this problem. We also
noticed that some paintings that were adequately lit with two fixtures
and lamps with the 3500 kelvin now require three fixtures and lamps.
Given that we have to add lamps, are we improving the preservation of
the paintings, or simply recreating the problems we had with the 3500
kelvin (i.e. same number of foot candles)? Several of our oils remain
on display. The remainder of our collection about 80% is rotated in and
out of the museum about every 6 to 12 months.
I would be interested in hearing from art curators about their
preferences about lights for oil paintings in particular since that
seems to be our designer's greatest concern. We do have watercolors,
charcoals, bronze and alabaster sculptures as well as oil paintings.
My area of training is in paper and photographs so when questions come
up about the art and light, I feel lost. Your assistance as alway is
greatly appreciated.
Julie
--
Julie Holcomb, MLIS, CA
Director of the Pearce Collections Museum/
Navarro College Archivist
Pearce Collections at Navarro College
3100 W. Collin St.
Corsicana, Texas 75110
Phone: (903) 875-7438 ~ Fax: (903) 875-7593
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Internet: http://www.pearcecollections.us
"Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given, and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living."
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
"History does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do."
James Baldwin
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