Everything goes in and out of Venice on flat barges — no walls, edges, or rails to steady the contents, even when it’s expensive scientific equipment. So I sat with my hands on as many boxes as I could as we sped through the narrow canals of “The Floating City,” …
Read moreAs I stand in an emerald green room beneath a windmill in Zaanse Schans, Netherlands, wearing a canvas smock and disposable gloves, I am front-row to a demonstration of how artists traditionally made oil paints. The craftsman dumps a mound of ultramarine blue …
Read moreIt’s a Friday morning in the painting conservation offices at the Art Institute of Chicago. I’m ushered through security and brought to a staging room. It’s cavernous. I tilt my head up: Towering black matte walls meet a black ceiling somewhere out of sight, and I can …
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