Context 153 - March 2018

C O N T E X T 1 5 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 8 9 Periodically Apologies for the absence of this column in the previous issue, due to the publishing schedules of other journals leaving me with insufficient material by the copy deadline. It is some time since this column referred to the work of the Paul Mellon Centre (PMC) for Studies in British Art. Its former newsletter helpfully listed details of fellowships and research support grants for forthcoming books, the titles of which were thought likely to pique the interest of conservation professionals. Since then much has moved on in the digital and online arenas, as reported in the latest PMC Notes (January 2018, No 8), the successor to the PMC Newsletter . The first matter to highlight is the centre’s open-access journal British Art Studies , which celebrated its second anniversary in November with the on-line publication of Issue 7. All the issues so far are accessible at www.britishartstudies.ac.uk . They cover historic architecture as well as painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography. Issue 5, for example, has eight fully illustrated articles about the Hereford Screen (now in the V&A) that one commentator who saw it at the 1862 International Exhibition in London described as ‘the grandest, most triumphant achievement of modern architectural art’. Issue 6 has six papers on gothic architecture, including discussions on innovation in English gothic architecture; the character of the ‘gothic architect’ and England, 1200–1400; creativity in three dimensions – the presbytery aisles of Wells Cathedral; and Solomon’s Porches in Late Medieval England . All the papers can be viewed online or downloaded. The second item of note recent is the deposit of archives with the Paul Mellon Centre that may be of interest to researchers. One is the archive and library of Giles Waterfield (1949–2016), reflecting his wide range of interests (he was appointed director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery at the age of 30). This includes a substantial collection of country-house guidebooks of which the PMC has acquired about 300. The other new archive is the important one of Paul Joyce (1934–2014), one of the foremost experts on the Victorian architect George Edmund Street (1824–1881). This contains a wealth of research material – from Joyce’s forensic notes on the features and fittings of Street’s churches, parsonages and schools to files of photographic images, cuttings from Victorian newspapers and correspondence with scholars and writers. The content is mainly concerned with Street’s original designs, but Joyce also monitored and documented any proposed alterations and redevelopments of the buildings. The archive is now live on the collections section of the PMC website. An online gallery to showcase the material can be found at www. paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/collections/ archive-collections/paul-joyce. There are several highlights in the latest Journal of Architectural Conservation (Vol 23, No 3, November 2017). Particularly topical at a time when Historic England is revising English Heritage’s Conservation Principles is Aylin Orbasli’s ‘Conservation theory in the twenty- first century: slow evolution or paradigm shift’. The author has some important observations to make about conservation theory and practice, arguing that, while they have come a long way since their origins in the 19th century, in a number of ways their contemporary predicament bears a strong resemblance to that era. While, for example, the standpoints of Morris and Viollet-le-Duc were distinctly different, they were derived from shared philosophical principles and world view. Orbasli questions, for example, whether the Venice Charter, now over 50 years old (and, for that matter, the Nara Convention of 1994) would be relevant now, even if it were to be updated in a world of conflicting priorities, global uncertainly, multiple approaches to conservation, diminished and weakening institutional frameworks, and the growing power of developers and funders. In the west, she notes a diminishing role for the state and with it the role of the expert, and a decline not only of conservation policies but of the power and will to implement them in a neo-liberal marketplace where consumers exercise their democratic right to buy and sell, and the market delivers accordingly.Will heritage ultimately come to be transmitted and consumed according to the values of social media? In a devastating parting shot she asks: ‘In the post-truth era will authenticity even matter?’ Also of interest and with transferable application to the UK experience is Susan M Ross’s ‘Sustainable conservation strategies for Canada’s modernist wood legacy’. Ross looks at current practice, the certification of wood from non-endangered and suitably managed forests, issues of