Beth Heller Conservation

Beth Heller Conservation, located in Denver, Colorado, performs preservation and conservation (sometimes called restoration) of works of art on paper, archival documents, and books. Additionally, consulting services are available to private collectors, corporations, libraries, archives, historical societies and museums regarding preservation planning. Assistance with digitization and grant-writing is also available.

Conservation treatment refers to mitigation of damage to individual items so that they can be returned to their original use, whether that is documentation of an historic event or personal memory, enjoyment of visual art, or as a financial investment. Damage refers to natural deterioration due to the passage of time and exposure to light, insects, pollutants or poor quality storage materials. It also applies to tears, stains, burns or other results of catastrophic events such as a fire or natural disaster.

Beth Heller is trained and experienced in a wide array of methods for improving the appearance and stability of damaged items. Methods include photo-documentation and examination of the materials composing the work of art, cleaning the surface, washing by immersion or other techniques, stain reduction by application and removal of various chemicals, tape removal, mending, in-painting to reduce visual impact of mends or losses, and preparation of the work for display, use or storage. Beth Heller Conservation owns specialized equipment and materials for performing conservation examination, documentation and treatment.

Beth Heller Conservation treats the following materials:

• archival documents
• maps
• prints
• posters
• crayon portraits
• silver gelatin photographs
• works of art on paper, primarily of the 18 ^th to 20^th centuries, of Central and North American and European origin, representing a wide variety of paper types and media and ranging in condition from excellent to severely damaged.

Media:

• graphite
• charcoal
• conte
• ink
• watercolor
• tempera
• pastel
• etching
• engraving
• aquatint
• lithograph

Treatment includes:

• Photodocumentation
• Examination and treatment proposal and treatment report documentation
• Unfitting from framing materials
• Surface cleaning
• Backing removals
• Tape removals
• Washing by immersion, suction table, float washing, or blotter
• Stain reduction
• Mending and filling with toned or sympathetic papers
• Consolidation of paint films
• Visual integration via in-painting
• Humidification and flattening
• Hinging, and referral for matting and new or original framing materials

A partial list of artists and works treated:

• Rufino Tamayo mixographic prints, as well as lithography
• Sol Lewitt prints and drawings
• Peter Rindisbacher ink and watercolors
• Mary Bonner etchings and aquatints, some handcolored with gouache
• Robert Onderdonk watercolors
• Gustave Bauman woodblock prints
• Japanese woodblock prints
• Gene Kloss etchings
• Diego Rivera watercolor, lithographs
• Rene Magritte, serigraphs
• Eugene Delacroix, lithographs
• Picasso linocut poster

Institutional Clients include:

Aspen Art Museum

The American Alpine  Club Library

Colorado State University

Clyfford Still Museum

Denver Public Library

History Colorado

National Museum of Wildlife Art

Ryobi Foundation/Powers Art Center

United States Air Force Academy Libraries

University of Denver Hampden Art Study Center

University of Colorado- Boulder Art Museum

Beth Heller Conservation LLC is proud to serve families, private collectors and allied arts professionals (framers, art shippers, art galleries and art dealers).

Before Treatment: Lead White Darkening

After Treatment: Lead White Reversion and Inpainting

The treatment images and description in this PDF (Treatment Images and Description) were completed during a Mellon Fellowship in Paper Conservation at Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC). Works treated during the Fellowship included a substantial number of Indian and Persian miniature paintings on paper and palm leaf, a variety of South Asian prints, a paper pulp casting, and American and European etchings, engravings, and lithographs.