Master Class: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Paintings Restoration

This event is open solely to members.

Join us for a Master Class that introduces the art and science related to the technical skills that define the work and approach of paintings restorers.

Exploring these unique approaches and perspectives can help to expand everyone’s experience and understanding of works of art.

An informal presentation illustrating some of the basic principles of paintings restoration will be followed by a conversation and question/answer session with the audience.

• 9:00 a.m. Presentation
• 10:00 a.m Refreshments
• 11:00 a.m. Event Concludes

About the Presenter

Mark Leonard trained as an artist until deciding to pursue a career as a paintings restorer. As an undergraduate at Oberlin College, he followed a multi-disciplinary degree in studio art, art history and chemistry. This led to graduate degrees in art history and conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. He worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for five years, and then moved to Los Angeles, where he spent twenty-six years as a paintings restorer at The J. Paul Getty Museum (and headed the department from 1998 until 2010). In 2010, he returned to working full-time as an independent artist.

In 2012, he was invited to join the staff of the Dallas Museum of Art as Chief Conservator. After helping to build the museum’s conservation department and serving subsequently as the interim Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, he returned to creating his own work – in Palm Springs, California – in 2017.

As a restorer he has worked on a number of important pictures from an international array of institutions, including The Frick Collection, the Kröller-Müller Museum in The Netherlands, the Huntington Art Collections, the Yale University Art Gallery, The Wallace Collection in London and the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, to name but a few.

As an artist he is represented by Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood, California. In addition to solo and group shows with Louis Stern, he was invited to create a body of work for the Yale Center for British Art, which culminated in the exhibition Reflections on Constable’s Cloud Studies: Paintings by Mark Leonard in 2012 and 2013. His work is included in a number of prominent private collections, as well as the permanent collection at the Yale Center for British Art.

He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at Palm Springs Art Museum.

www.markwleonard.com