Episode No. 122 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Catherine Yass and conservator Laura Roberts.
Yass’ large-screen projection Lighthouse (2011) is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the exhibition “Fluid Motion.” The installation, which will remain on view through June, was curated by Al Miner. Later this year Lighthouse will go on view at the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna.
Yass’ exhibition credits include a 2011 mid-career retrospective at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea, England and presentations at Washington’s Phillips Collection, the Stedelijk-Hertogenbosch Museum and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Her work is in the collections of the Tate, The Jewish Museum, New York, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, and the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. She was short-listed for the 2002 Turner Prize.
On the second segment, the program airs the fourth of its four segments on the Getty Conservation Institute’s work on Jackson Pollock’s landmark Mural (1943). The painting is in the collection of the University of Iowa Museum of Art. GCI conservator Laura Rivers updates us on the work done on the painting and what Getty scientists learned about the creation of the artwork.
With the conservation of Mural complete, it will be on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from March 11 through June 1. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue that details the conservation of the painting. Amazon lists it at $20.
Air date: March 6, 2014.
Excerpts of Yass works:
- Lighthouse (2011); and
- Descent (2002).

Jackson Pollock, Mural (top: before GCI treatment; below: after GCI treatment), 1943. Collection of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City.