NEW YORK, NY.- Master framers
Eli Wilner & Company celebrates a second year of its commitment of funds to assist not-for-profit institutions with their framing and frame restoration needs at deeply discounted rates.
In 2018, the Wilner studio has been working on a wide-range of re-framing and frame restoration projects for several smaller scale institutions, including historical houses and university museums. Most recently, they have completed five replica frames for paintings in the European collection of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, and four replica frames for paintings in the collection of the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University. The Eskenazi projects included the recreation of an artist-made frame for a mixed media collage by Kurt Schwitters. The curatorial team was able to provide a black and white documentary photo of the lost original frame, and the Wilner staff did additional research in order to approximate the finish and textures of the original. Other recent replica frame projects that have involved significant technical research include a gilded and painted frame with pastiglia ornament for a Woensam painting in the Allentown Art Museum, and a gilded frame with an oval spandrel and applied ornament for an Alfred Jacob Miller painting in The Rockwell Museum of Art in Corning, NY.
The Wilner museum outreach program has also included some very large-scale framing projects, which can be especially challenging for small institutions to undertake. For example, Eli Wilner & Company recently completed a carved and gilded replica of a circa 1910 American frame for William Robinson Leigh’s “Thunder Mountain”, approximately 40 x 72 inches, in the collection the Palm Springs Art Museum. They are also currently working on a carved and painted replica of a Dutch-style frame for an 1861 Joseph Wolf painting, “Bearded Vultures Attacking an Alpine Ibex”, approximately 91 x 67 inches, in the collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art. For the University of Denver Art Collections, the Wilner team restored the original frame on Albert Bierstadt’s “Weeping Oaks, Clear Creek, California”, approximately 62 x 51 inches.
Other frame restoration projects completed in 2018 included fully restoring an exceptionally elaborate, carved and gilded frame for the Historic Charleston Foundation’s Aiken – Rhett House Museum’s “Madonna of the Chair” painting, and the original frame on a Childe Hassam painting for the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. Currently in progress at the Wilner studio is the restoration of the original gilded frame for an 1840s portrait of Nancy Morton Strother Witten at the Historic Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell, VA.
Eli Wilner & Company welcomes all not-for-profit institutions to send along their projects for evaluation regardless of previous collaboration. After reviewing the proposed project(s) a retail pricing estimate will be provided. The company will then work with funders to meet the institution’s available budget. There are no restrictions on the size or number of projects to undertake with this program.
