LABORATORY III: ASPECTS OF RESTORING GRAPHIC AND CERAMIC WORKS FROM CHINA AND JAPAN IN THE MNAR  HERITAGE

EXHIBITION EXTENDED UNTIL JUNE 25, 2023

The National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR) announces the opening of the exhibition "Laboratory III: Aspects of Restoring  Graphic and Ceramic Works from China and Japan in the MNAR Heritage." The opening will take place on Sunday, December 11, 2022, at 4:00 PM in the Kretzulescu Hall, entrance through Walter Mărăcineanu Street.

Curated by Oana Solomon, Head of Ceramic, Glass, and Metal Restoration Laboratory, and Dr. Andreia-Maria Teodorescu, Graphic Restoration Expert. The exhibition design is created by Vadim Romulus Patriciu Architecture.

The exhibition will be presented by Prof. Dr. Alexandru Rafila, Minister of Health, in support of the restoration efforts that restore  the health of artworks. Continuing the series of exhibitions presented by personalities from fields other than the arts, we aim to highlight that our exhibitions are intended for the general public, not just specialists.

This exhibition is the third in the Laboratory series, following the exhibitions "Laboratory: Restoration of Old Masters' Paintings" (2019) and "Laboratory II: 1989. Restoration of Shot Paintings" (2020). It brings to the public's attention the importance of conservation and restoration activities, vital for the survival of artworks.

"Laboratory III" presents an original dialogue between five silk and paper paintings with traditional mountings, four ukiyo-e prints (depicting the transient world), and six pieces of porcelain and semiprecious stones. These objects, among the most beautiful in the MNAR heritage from the Far East, have recently been restored  in the museum's laboratories. They can now be exhibited and admired again after a long absence, thanks to a demanding restoration process that will be presented to the public through documents and specific working tools.

"A visit to the restoration workshops of the National Museum of Art of Romania seems to combine the experience of meeting the intimacy of a personal artistic studio with that of an alchemical laboratory where one can encounter instruments, containers, and tools that belong to a magical inventory. Even more so when it comes to objects from distant spaces, whose inaccessibility and  cultural differences increase their power of attraction," mentions Dr.  Călin-Alexiu Stegerean, General Director of the National Museum of Art of Romania.

The highlights of the exhibition are two Japanese porcelain lamps made by the Arita factory in the 19th century, presented to the public for the first time. These lamps consist of 14 superimposed  elements of porcelain painted with cobalt blue underglaze and colored enamels overglaze. They come from the Toma Stelian collection.

The exhibition's spatial arrangement aims to be a symbiosis between the universe of the Far East, the laboratory space  represented through images, specific tools, and working  documents. The journey to the Land of the Rising Sun is suggested  by the white-blue chromatics inspired by porcelain painting, while the exhibition's scenography and video projections allow for an incursion into the museum's graphic and ceramic restoration laboratories.

The museum's restoration department currently comprises eight laboratories specialized in various artistic fields, including oil  painting, tempera painting, graphic art, wood and furniture  sculpture, textiles, metalwork, ceramics and glass, and frames. The  department's specialists take care of the entire museum's heritage,  with the aim of recovering objects from the past and transmitting them to future generations.

Participation in the vernissage is by invitation only, and access for the general public is limited to 50 people.

The exhibition will be open to the public from December 14, 2022, to June 25, 2023.