Conserving and Installing a 1000 Pound Artwork by rafa esparza | Behind the Scenes

"The greatest risk for this artwork, for the lifting of it, was that chunks of it would just come off, and it's not a thing that you often hear when installing artwork. It is a thing that happens though..." - Rob Lomblad, Whitney Art Technician, discussing the installation of this artwork. 

Come behind the scenes with us to see a glimpse into the process of installing a (nearly) 1000 pound adobe artwork. We spoke to the conservation and installation teams to hear more about the process of conserving and installing rafa esparza's colossal work, New American Landscapes. Self Portrait: Catching Feelings (Ecstatic), on view now on the 6th floor in the Whitney's Shifting Landscapes exhibition. This adobe artwork, in the words of sculpture conservator Margo Delidow, is "a little bit of a painting and a little bit of a sculpture," so Margo worked alongside Matthew Skopek, paintings conservator, to prepare this work for going up on the wall at the Whitney for the first time since the work was acquired. Art Technician Robert Lomblad then gives us insights into the process of installing a large, very heavy, and particularly fragile work, and how the installation team troubleshoots along the way.