Preservation as art -- and work

Wendy Bennett stood alone at the vault. She had an idea of the untold treasures stored inside but had yet to see anything for herself. Like a kid in a giant candy store, Bennett randomly selected a place to begin and opened a drawer. She was not disappointed.

'Prelude to the Print' On exhibit: Through Jan. 20 Place: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S. Beretania St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays Admission: $10; $5 students, seniors and military; children free. Free admission on the first Wednesday and third Sunday of the month. Call: 532-8700

"I found drawings, beautiful drawings," Bennett says of her exploration at the Honolulu Academy of Arts' "ukiyo-e" vault, which houses a vast collection of 10,000 Japanese woodblock prints, the third largest in the country.

For Bennett, an art conservator, the drawings are as coveted as any fortune hunter's discovery of gold. In fact, Bennett was so pleased with what she found that she centered her first restoration and curatorial efforts for the museum on the pre-print renderings. The culmination of her year's work is the exhibit "Prelude to the Print."

The show illustrates the role of drawing in the ukiyo-e process (woodblock designs were rendered from them) and also focuses on conservation, with bright, restored sketches hanging alongside photographs of the works prior to restoration.

Tidying up soiled, creased works requires great care and can take many steps, Bennett says. But basically, dirt and stains are gently erased using vinyl eraser crumbs, and then pieces are humidified or bathed with distilled, pH-adjusted water. Any tears are mended with wheat starch paste.

"The goal is to make artwork look the way it looked when the artist made them," says Bennett.

Susan Sayre-Batton, the academy's deputy director and former Asian art conservator, deems "Prelude to the Print" a strong exhibit for its spotlight on conservation work. "This exhibit is an opportunity to educate the public on what goes on behind the scenes of a museum."

But restoration is only a small part of a conservator's work.

"Preventive conservation is the heart and soul of our work. We must understand how handling, light and heat affect objects. That means we must understand chemistry and the environment (the objects are in)," Sayre-Batton says.

This is a major reason why the academy's ukiyo-e collection is rotated quarterly, she notes. "We conservators have this idea that the pieces we work on are not really for our generation, but for all generations. It's our responsibility to pass them along."

A traditional art thrives with age

The Honolulu Academy of Arts' "Prelude to the Print" is a particularly educational exhibit not only for its illustration of conservation work, but for its explanation of the process of Japanese woodblock printing, or "ukiyo-e." The exhibit discusses how the process evolved in the 20th century, which means it includes a history lesson since world events contributed to changes in the way the art form was practiced.

Traditionally, the creation of ukiyo-e was a complicated process that involved an "ukiyo-e quartet": the artist, who conceived the design and sketched it; an assistant, who carefully copied the rendering; a carver, who translated the copy onto wood; and the printer. "Prelude to the Print" presents a few series of sketches that illustrate how each drawing contributed to the step-by-step process of creating the print.

One heavy hitter in the exhibit is Hashiguchi Goyo, who created ukiyo-e in traditional fashion into the 20th century. A privileged background allowed Goyo scholarly pursuits, and he became a collector and ukiyo-e expert.

Eventually, scholar evolved into artist. Goyo opened a studio and hired his quartet, enabling him to tightly control all aspects of the printmaking. Goyo's meticulous pieces were costly to create, and he limited the amount he produced. The approach paid off: Goyo's high-quality work garnered him a following quickly, and he was able to command higher prices than his contemporaries.

While illness and an untimely death shortened a brilliant career, Goyo's work continues to be popular. The exhibit includes stunning watercolor drawings by Goyo that were meant to stand alone.

IN CONTRAST, most of the rest of the show reflects drastic changes to Japanese printmaking. The 20th century was a time when artists began seeking more control over the ukiyo-e process and took to performing all stages of the work themselves. World War II only furthered such independence; wartime meant artistic hardship, since paper was in short supply, as was expendable income to support the arts.

"Artists of the time were eking out a living, so they supported each other," says Wendy Bennett, conservator and curator of "Prelude to the Print."

A group called the Ichimokukai, or First Thursday Society, for instance, formed in 1939 and met monthly at artist Koshiro Onchi's Tokyo home to discuss printmaking and collaborate on artwork.

"The camaraderie and support enjoyed by the group provided a forum for the free flow of ideas at a difficult time when resources were in short supply and censorship severe," Bennett wrote for the exhibit text boards.

Onchi, a rebellious artist who synthesized Western modernism and Japanese traditionalism, led the development of the "Sosaku hanga," or creative print movement. "Hanga" artists created and printed their own work, which broke with the ukiyo-e perspective that deemed the printer a craftsman.

When the war was over, the Ichimokukai became pivotal in the revival of ukiyo-e. Their partner in the revival was the American occupation: Enter cultural czar William Hartnett, responsible for organizing concerts and art exhibitions for occupation personnel; Oliver Statler, an art scholar; and James Michener, writer and art collector.

The men began attending Ichimokukai meetings and became "passionate collectors," Bennett says. Due to the trio's enthusiasm, hanga prints became popular globally, allowing these artists to make art their livelihood.

This was "something unimaginable before or during the war," says Bennett.

THIS PARTICULAR history lesson is serendipitously brought to life on the academy walls in "Prelude to the Print." Hanga works that Michener collected "are the very drawings on display," Bennett says.

In fact, the museum's 10,000-piece ukiyo-e collection, nicknamed the Michener collection, includes 5,400 pieces donated by the novelist.

And the reason this exhibit comes at all is due to the museum's ukiyo-e conservation work, funded for 16 years by the Honolulu-based Robert F. Lange Foundation. Bennett was hired as the foundation's Asian art conservator by Susan Sayre-Batton, former Lange conservator who became the academy's deputy director in 2005.

Sayre-Batton says the Lange grant has enabled the academy to upgrade the housing for the Michener collection. That includes "a highly organized database that allowed me to find all these drawings," Bennett says. Among the grant's contributions is one that extends far beyond the limits of the museum: Sayre-Batton established protocol on a national level for conserving and preserving print collections.

In recognition of such strong support of the arts, the museum presents an ukiyo-e exhibit each year.

"It's rare to have a grant to do such a comprehensive project," Bennett raves. But she says the exceptional care provided to the collection mirrors its world-class stature. "Scholars come from all over the world to look at this collection, and materials (from it) are continually on loan to museums all over the world."