Lowy is proud to offer our gold star fine art restoration services to cultural heritage institutions across the nation. This week, we’re highlighting our conservation treatment on four iconic works of art by artist Warren E. Rollins (1861-1962) for the reopening of the Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe.
Bishop’s Lodge Conservation Effort
Part of a carefully planned and extensive conservation project on behalf of the Lodge, Lowy’s restorers worked on the four oil paintings by Rollins including their frames, which feature stunning representations of Pueblo life and culture.
The art restoration process involved cleaning the paintings, structural stabilization of the canvases, in-painting as necessary, as well as re-gilding the frames.
Gallerist Gerald Peters identified these Rollins oil paintings as the highlights of the Bishops Lodge permanent art collection. These works of art average nearly 8 feet high and 7 feet wide, making them a job well fit for our experienced Lowy team.
“They’re the most spectacular paintings of [Rollins] that I’ve ever seen, and they just look magnificent in that space. [Lowy] did a fabulous job. Not many restoration studios are geared for works of that scale.”
– Gerald Peters for Pasatiempo
Warren E. Rollins – Southwestern Icon
Known as the “Dean of the Sante Fe Colony”, Warren Rollins’ artistic works set a precedent among his peers in the 20th century. Until now, Rollins gained little recognition nationwide. As a result, Rollins’ primary influence was on his students as he established his reputation as an art instructor and the first President of the Santa Fe Art Club.
During the restoration process, our art conservators carefully clean and remove any patches. The paintings are then relined to new canvases with a mylar interlayer, adding support to the original large format canvases. For the frames, our gilders carefully regild and restore the frames before re-fitting each piece.
You can view our restoration work on these pieces which dominate the newly renovated living room and main dining room of the beautiful Bishop’s Lodge which reopened July 1, 2021. Rollins’ formative works are also on view in the New Mexico Museum of Art’s exhibition, Storytellers: Narrative Art and the West, July 17th – February 13th 2021.