Conservator Samantha Li and her Outdoor Sculpture Crew are back at it!

Last summer, the crew worked hard conserving works displayed around Stanford’s campus. Alongside Sam, the summer interns, Maria Olivia Davalos Stanton and Theresa Merchant, minimized corrosion on two of the stainless steel sculptures using a chelating solution developed by former intern, Kennedy McCone, to stabilize the metal. Several of the bronze sculptures in the Rodin Garden outside the Cantor required spot repatination (see former intern Emily Farek’s post) where the patina was abraded off. Papua New Guinea sculptures were consolidated. We also washed and waxed all the bronze sculptures on campus throughout the summer—and we got to rent a boom lift to work on Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, again!

Several sculptures have moved, and the Joan Miró sculpture, Oiseau, is now located on the Fisher Terrace behind the Cantor Arts Center and Bruce Beasley’s Horizon II bench was reinstalled between the new McMurtry building and the Cantor Arts Center. Henry Moore’s Large Torso: Arch and Arnaldo Pomodoro’s Three-Panel Bas-Relief were deinstalled because of construction, but will hopefully have new locations soon. The Alexander Calder sculpture, Le Faucon, underwent complete repainting while it was deinstalled during construction, and it was just reinstalled in front of the Law School (upcoming post about that!).

During the Fall quarter, a new crew began training, and we welcome Céline Chrétien and students Cathy Yang (‘20), Vivienne Le (‘19), Sasha Zoe Landauer (‘20). We’re excited to get started on some new projects and promise to keep you all updated!

By Theresa Merchant and Sam Li