Michael Gallagher | 2017 | Brokering Truths
The discomforting side of the conservation of paintings ─ especially cleaning and restoration ─ is that a significant component is by nature subjective. The conservator is ultimately responsible for finding a solution that respects the realities of intention, change and condition. The lecture will discuss the navigation inherent in the decision-making process, with reference to paintings recently treated in the Department of Paintings Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Michael Gallagher is the Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of the Department of Paintings Conservation. Mr. Gallagher, who was born in Liverpool, undertook post-graduate training in the conservation of easel painting at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, England. Following a fellowship at the J. Paul Getty Museum, he was appointed Assistant Conservator of Paintings at the Kimbell Art Museum in 1992. He worked as a contractual conservator from 1995 to 1999 for the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. In May 1999 he was appointed Keeper of Conservation at the National Galleries of Scotland. He took up his position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in October 2005. Since arriving at the museum he has worked on paintings by Bassano, Beuckelaer, Cranach, Gerard David, Giaquinto, Giovanni da Milano, La Tour, Le Brun, Pietro Lorenzetti, Morales, Moretto, Perino del Vaga, Poussin, Reynolds, Rubens, del Sarto, Subleyras, Valentin and Velázquez.
