Michael Duffy, Paintings Conservator: When we’re totally set up you’re not going to see the face of the painting,
so we’re going to turn it around and then we use that basically as a grid
to have the film in the right spot so we can you know make sure we hit every inch of the surface.
It’s always on view so this is the only time we can really do this kind of examination.
Diana Hartman, David Booth Fellow in Paintings Conservation: Distance was 143 and time I’m gonna try
six minutes.
Michael: Really?
Diana: Because it’s super far away.
Michael: Oh, okay. Okay.
Diana: Yeah, so let's start with that.
Ana Torok, Curatorial Assistant in Drawings and Prints: Esther passed through earlier
and I showed her the groupings that we’d put together and she thought it looked good.
We can start taping stuff up pretty much in the configuration it's in.
You know we used to have them like all in a line
but she said she’d like more of an idiosyncratic hang so feel free to you know...
Nectar Knuckles, Curatorial Fellow in Drawings and Prints: Play?
Ana: ...to play.
Nectar: ...a little bit.
Nectar: And I wonder how like the wall colors will affect anything.
Ana: Yeah, I know.
I’m excited to see what Betye decides.
Nectar: I love chips.
They’re so cute.
Ana: The analog version has its pros and cons.
Like when walls start falling over and chips won’t stay
then it can drive you crazy, but I think we’re in pretty good shape.
Esther Adler, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints: That's the one
that's in the lower right.
Esther: What we could do is move this closer so that this doesn’t become a pass through
and that then creates like a space where one could sit and watch a film.
Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints: We could
put a little bench here.
Where did the little benches go?
That could be like a nice little...
Esther: Yeah.
Christophe: Good, I think we’re in good shape.
Esther: Yeah. No, I think it looks great.
Christophe: So let's try to make sure things kind of stay a little bit more.
Esther: Maybe we need to invest in a different kind of...
Christophe: Maybe you want to tape over them?
Or just find…
Ana: Yeah, a little bit of normal tape at the top maybe.
It’s not as pretty, but it’s more secure.
Mike, Construction Worker: We are installing the MoMA canopy today.
It’s three sections of 15 ton steel plates getting supported on a steel scaffold that we built.
...and...
Construction Worker: Hey, Mike!
Mike: What?
Ellen Moody, David Booth Associate Sculpture Conservator: Oh my god, it’s so—it’s so violent.
Art handler: I kind of am expecting something painful to happen.
Ellen: Yeah.
Ellen: So you’ve got them so that the bottoms are going this way
and then line them up and then just rub them on the sandpaper.
They want the pins to corrode and sort of the rust to diffuse into the gel.
Conservator: Your projects are always the most time consuming.
Ellen: I know. I know.
Diana: What you’re seeing here is the fully stitched together x-ray of Rousseau’s Sleeping Gypsy
and there’s a few really interesting things that we’re
finding just by doing some preliminary looking.
We have these cascading rays happening on both sides of the painting.
We don’t really know what that is.
We know that Rousseau does paint curtains sometimes
or big leaves as a background feature, but we still haven’t quite pinpointed what exactly that is.
Rousseau is one of my mom’s favorite artists so she came to visit me and started crying
when she saw it on the easel.
Chet Gold, Security Supervisor: Most people don’t notice that doing security is high anxiety
you’re like worrying about everybody’s moves before they make them.
So it feels good to be in a place where I know I can go somewhere and kind of let it go.
Whenever I was in this room as an officer, those used to be my best days.
But I come here, I have more fluidity as a supervisor, and I come here any time
I need to refocus on, you know, why I’m here.
I always try to figure out what’s the last brush stroke
and that’s kind of how I like get calm.
Gave away the secret.
Michael: These materials have really discolored and degraded so
I'm removing them to reveal the real Rousseau palette.
Christophe: We start with the one on the left just to give you a sense of how it would look like.
Betye Saar, Artist: So that would be the entire gallery?
Christophe: I think so.
Betye: You think?