EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE
Bachelor of Arts (La Trobe) Art History, Pure Maths, Physics
Masters Degree in Applied Science (Uni of Canberra) Materials Conservation (Paintings)
Thirty years experience in State galleries largely at the Queensland Art Gallery, but also three years at the National Gallery of Victoria and one year at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique in Brussels.
Thirteen years in private practice at the University of Queensland Art Museum, Museum of Brisbane, The Abbey Museum, Regional Galleries and with a variety of private clients, as well as periods of tertiary teaching at the University of Canberra and the University of Melbourne masters programs in Conservation.
THOUGHTS ON CONSERVATION
I’m often asked the question “how one career can be fulfilling?” I recall as a Conservation student referencing The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse in an essay. The Game required the study of all of the Arts, Cultural diversity and the Sciences; it fostered intuition and a connection with the natural world. At least this is what I took away from the novel. I’d enjoyed studying the interdisciplinary nature of Art History, especially as it was taught in Professor Peter Tomory’s wonderful department at La Trobe University. During my career, I’ve experienced the extraordinary advances in science and technology in Conservation where I’ve found the complexity for an enriching career that has sustained my interest over four decades.
Of course, at the heart of this career is the integration of practice with theory, the mission of presenting the painting as the artist had intended. Taking into account the mechanics of thousands of treatments, attending to the realities of flaking paint, tears and discoloured varnish but always with the aesthetic outcome in mind, along with a sustained curiosity and eye to detail, there’s interest aplenty to be found in most treatments.
This working life has been punctuated by much travel, including the opportunity to work in Brussels, a long term project in Lizac, France, teaching in Canberra and Melbourne, and shorter stints at The Egyptian Museum Cairo, Shanghai Museum, Musee Picasso Paris, Cambridge University and more. In Queensland, I’ve worked in the far north on Thursday Island, also The Hou Wang Temple on the Atherton tablelands, the Mirka Mora mural in Ayr, and in Brisbane, Godfrey River’s ceiling paintings at St. Mary’s church and decorative painting in Old Government House in the heart of the city.
If you are interested in more of my thoughts on Conservation, see
John Hook ‘Reflections on the Early Years of Conservation Practice: Intuition, Craft and Risk’, page 133 in Paintings Conservation in Australia from the Nineteenth century to the present: Connecting the past to the future, Ed. Carl Villis and Alexandra Ellem, National Gallery of Victoria, 2008