THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609100132
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 117 lines
PSAMTIK SENEB'S sarcophagus lies as still and silent as it has for more than two millennia.
The hieroglyph-decorated burial vault unearthed at Egypt's Heliopolis archaeological site in 1930 once held the mummy of a XXVI Dynasty medical doctor, but it's empty now.
Visitors to Norfolk's Chrysler Museum of Art file reverently past the glass case that encloses the artifact carved out of gray schist by some unknown artisan of antiquity. They glance at the label that places the piece in time and place, then move on to gaze reflectively at other works of art and let the visual expressions of God and love shed light on their own lives and world.
The museum's mazelike corridors and galleries are silent as a tomb. Connoisseurs of the arts speak in hushed tones.
But this is a facade, all artifice, for hidden from view is a bustling workshop where living artists use their own creative powers to make art's spiritual message audible to others. And word portraits of these working artists are anything but still lifes; instead, they have the inherent movement of a Jackson Pollock painting.
On this particular day, museum conservator Dee Ardrey is contemplating a large Pollock canvas known officially as ``Number Twenty-Three,'' in more familiar terms, ``Frogman.'' She has decided not to remove a layer of protective material from the black and white oil before shipping it off on loan to Japan because she has learned that the coating may well have been applied by the famous Modern artist himself in 1951.
``I'd be removing part of Pollock,'' she says, firm in her decision after weeks of investigation.
A Dutch Italianate landscape that lies like a convalescing patient on a large work table in Ardrey's studio is another story. There's a coat of yellowed varnish that must be carefully removed before she'll consider the 17th century painting restored to its full glory. She must, however, repair a 4-inch tear that slices across the Lingelbach landscape - a process not unlike putting butterfly Band Aids on a child's cut knee. Then, when the gesso ground she'll apply to the surface is dried, she must repaint the damaged area, matching perfectly the hues used by the artist.
Ardrey, 37, considers herself lucky to be able to keep her brush-holding fingers in the art pie she has loved since childhood.
There are others who feel the same way.
There's Jim Armbruster, who finds an outlet for his artistic expression in the three-dimensional mock-ups he creates in anticipation of upcoming exhibits at the Chrysler.
Armbruster, a 48-year-old sculptor, has been building his ``paper plans'' at the museum for 14 years. On this day, he's mulling over a scale model of October's ``Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996'' exhibit. It's a bow to the Hampton Roads community in honor of the contributions its citizens have made to the museum through the years and coincides with the 25th anniversary of the late Walter Chrysler's gift of his collection to the public.
Like Armbruster, Willis Potter worked with Chrysler.
Potter, 46, the prep department director, is also an artist in his own right. In his life outside the museum, Potter renders the world in charcoal and oils. But from 9 to 5, he's busy making sure artwork is up and ready for special shows and properly packed for travel.
Potter, who has been at the Chrysler since 1973, is sometimes called upon to use his discriminating eye for other tasks. Recently, he had occasion to paw through the museum's ``attic'' to find a replacement frame for Degas' ``Dancer With Bouquets.'' The original frame, at 350 pounds, was too heavy to allow safe travel of the Impressionist masterpiece that was to be loaned to England.
The four storage rooms on the third floor are neater than the average attic, to be sure, but the mix is just as eclectic.
A 1905 Rodin bust of The Right Honorable George Wyndham - the most elegant man in England, according to the label - reclines on a shelf above a contemporary styrofoam sculpture that defies description.
Every work of art owned by the museum is photographed by Scott Wolff, another artist plying his trade behind the scenes.
``I shoot the art,'' says Wolff, 36, placing backdrop screens to get the best light for photographing a recently acquired bronze statue.
``I love this,'' he says. ``You don't have to ask them to be still.''
It's catching, this love of work at the museum, and it's a labor of love for art's sake.
Dick Hovorka, a 42-year-old preparator in Potter's lab, has a reverent attitude toward the art he shepherds from the Chrysler to its next destination. He paints, acts and writes in his spare time.
And construction workers, artists in their own right, are creating a new wing that, when complete in early 1997, will house a sculpture workshop for local students and a second-floor sculpture gallery. The $1.4 million project is a joint effort of the museum and the city.
The indisputable focal point of the addition is a spectacular circular staircase rising toward an octagonal skylight that, like the museum's artists-in-residence, shed new light on art from ages past. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color cover photos by VICKI CRONIS
BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE CHRYSLER
When folks visit the Chrysler Museum, there is an air of quiet
solitude. What isn't obvious is the hustle and bustle of the work
that goes on to make the institution what it is.
Workers, above are puttin finishing touches on a new addition to the
museum. Dee Ardrey, below, is a conservator at the museum.
Staff photos by VICKI CRONIS
Museum conservator Dee Ardrey, above, works on restoring a painting
in the Chrysler Museum's permanent collection. To her left is a
black and white oil painting by Jackson Pollock that will be loaned
to Japan. Elsewhere, Dick Hovorka, left, puts together travel
casings for an exhibit that will be leaving the museum. A
42-year-old preparator, Hovorka has a reverent attitude toward the
art he shepherds from the Chrysler to its next destination.
Willis M. Potter makes sure artwork is up and ready for special
shows and properly packed for travel.
Sculptor Jim Armbruster finds an outlet for his artistic expression
in the three-dimensional mock-ups he creates in for upcoming
exhibits. by CNB