A Historic Gift for Conservation

Last year, the conservation department received a transformative $5 million gift. Two endowments for paintings conservation have since been created: the Lapis Senior Conservator of Paintings, a position held by Dean Yoder, and the Lapis Strategic Impact Fund for Paintings. This generous support enables the CMA to maintain and enhance its world-class standing and attract the best talent in perpetuity. Here, Sarah Scaturro, Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator, speaks with Yoder.

Sarah Scaturro: Congratulations, Dean, on the recent endowment of your position as the Lapis Senior Conservator of Paintings! This endowment name, featuring a shortened term for lapis lazuli, the rich blue pigment artists use, holds particular resonance with you. I remember you mentioning to me that lapis lazuli is the queen of pigments. Could you tell me about your history with the museum and the role that you currently play?  

Dean Yoder: The CMA has been an anchor for me going all the way back to when I attended Saturday drawing classes as a child. After establishing a private paintings conservation studio in Cleveland, I began to work with the CMA as a consultant in the paintings lab. Twenty years later, that relationship culminated in receiving the contract to conserve the five monumental paintings of the Muses by Charles Meynier, while the museum was undergoing its glorious expansion. Soon after the Muses had been installed in the Sarah S. and Alexander M. Cutler Gallery (201), I joined the CMA as conservator of paintings. Looking back, in a way, that massive four-year project was my interview for the position.

As head of the paintings conservation lab, I am responsible for managing the conservation needs of the entire paintings collection, which ranges from medieval icons to contemporary art. One of my most favorite roles is to mentor interns coming from conservation programs by introducing them to methods and approaches that I have learned through my years of experience.  

SS: How does the Lapis endowment impact your work moving forward?  

DY: The Lapis endowment includes strategic impact funds to enhance and expand the lab’s capabilities for treatment, research, and teaching. For example, we may want to bring in specialists for certain projects or create workshops on specific conservation techniques that would benefit emerging conservators. I am deeply moved by this generous gift. It is a special honor and a true validation of all the work we do in the paintings lab.  

SS: Are there special projects that you are looking forward to working on?  

DY: Overall, the paintings collection is in great shape. We work closely with CMA curators to assess and unlock the unrealized potential of paintings that may have entered the collection in the early years. After completing one of the most challenging multiyear projects of my career, conserving Venus Discovering the Dead Adonis (c. 1650), I would like to focus on Saint Peter Repentant (1645) by Georges de La Tour, one of my favorite paintings in the collection. This painting has exciting potential for improvement with careful inpainting, which can bring greater clarity and depth to this most exquisite candlelight scene.