When an Artist Becomes a Scientist

I’m head of the science department at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI).

The department is made up of an extraordinary group of people who conduct scientific research in the cultural heritage sector. Our research is very broad in approach, and we aim to create knowledge and tools for the entire field of heritage conservation. This might include developing ways to identify various art materials, so we can uncover artists’ working practices or gain a better understanding of an artwork’s condition; investigating museum or storage environments to help determine more accurately which conditions are required to prevent damage or deterioration; or researching how artworks respond to different conservation treatments, like cleaning. So I have the amazing job of overseeing all this work, doing my best not to get in the way, but at the same time coordinating everything and making sure our priorities are where I think they should be.

It’s incredibly rewarding to watch the excitement and energy of our scientists, enjoying the look on their faces when they discover something new and important to the field. But of course there are also many times when problems get in the way or things don’t go according to plan, and I get involved with helping to find ways around such frustrations or suggesting different approaches.

Science vs. art

I grew up in the UK, just south of London. My father was a headmaster of a boarding school, and my mother was a music teacher there, and they both loved art themselves. I have this vivid memory of queuing up for about four hours with them at the King Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum when I was about seven years old. I had no real idea about what we were really queuing up to see, and the four hours dragged on forever, but I recall being blown away by what I saw when we finally got inside. I wasn’t expecting to be so mesmerized by those beautiful objects.

As a child I could never put myself into a science or art bucket. I enjoyed all my science classes—that might have been partly because the term “workplace safety” really didn’t feature back then, and my teacher would conduct all kinds of cool experiments that couldn’t be done now—for example, swinging this big weight as a pendulum away from and then back toward a large flask of sulfuric acid, with all of us within range of a potential soaking if the pendulum reached the flask.

I also loved to paint

I’d say my “art” was abstract in the very loosest sense! Oil paints were always my favorite despite being so hard to clean up. I loved the feel of the oil and how it stayed fluid when you brushed it around the canvas. I also played the cello quite well and loved to play sports like rugby and what I’d call football (soccer). I failed to focus completely on any one of these interests and was quite happy to be labeled an all-rounder. My art was one of the first things I had to drop because it competed with other vocational subjects, and I ended up concentrating my studies on chemistry. I feel very nerdy saying this, but it really was my favorite subject at the time. I loved learning how to explain things happening in nature and life and how materials reacted to produce completely different compounds.

Finding a calling

I went to the University of Oxford for an undergraduate degree in chemistry. I loved it there, but as I neared the end of that time, I realized I wasn’t nearly as fascinated with the subject as I had been before: it had become so theoretical, moving away from the more applied or practical side of it. So, I went to see a career advisor. I’d seen a number of them before, but I usually tried to get out as soon as I could—they’d typically just say, “You could be an engineer or a doctor,” and I’d say “Great,” even though I didn’t want to do either of those things. But this time I told myself, “I’m not going to leave until I find something that really clicks, something that I’m excited about.”

The advisor had to put up with me for an hour and a half, poor guy, until he eventually found something that sparked my interest. He pulled out a single piece of paper from this big dusty pile and said, “Are you interested in painting?” I said, “Actually, very, but I had to give it up a long time ago.” He said, “There’s this field called art conservation, and they are looking for more scientists right now to enter it.” And that was pretty much all he told me, but it was enough! It sounded so fascinating. So, I went away and learned more about what was involved and was able to volunteer at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, working with the framers in their workshop and learning how to repair and gild frames. I just loved that hands-on, tactile work.

Painting conservation and beyond

I managed to get a place in the painting conservation training program at the Courtauld Institute in London and then spent a fabulous year as an intern at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It was a joint position split between the painting conservation and scientific research departments. After that, a job came up at the Tate Gallery, back in London, to join its small science department, and I worked on developing analytical methods to identify different classes of modern paints. That became my area of specialization and ended up being the subject of my PhD.

In 2001 the GCI invited me to be a guest scholar for three months, working in the labs here and using instrumentation that we didn’t have at the Tate. About five years later the GCI opened a position for a senior scientist to establish what is now called the Modern and Contemporary Art Research Initiative. It coincided with a time when I felt pretty happy with what I’d achieved at the Tate, but maybe it was time for a new challenge. My kids at the time were five and three, and it was a really good time for the family to make a move.

I took the GCI job and led our work on the conservation needs of modern and contemporary art, which quickly became a major component of the GCI’s work. Then about 10 years ago, the head of science position became available. I really didn’t feel ready to take that role on but convinced myself that I should probably still go for it; chances are it would be another 10 to 15 years before that position opened up again, and that would probably be close to my retirement! I have to say, it was a good decision, as I have loved this job ever since.

Projects I’m proud of

There are so many great projects that I’ve been involved with, many of which seem to have culminated in exhibitions. More recently, I was really proud of two PST ART: Art & Science Collide project/exhibitions, both of which were displayed off-site. One was called Alta/A Human Atlas of a City of Angels, which was a social science project we did with artist Marcus Lyon based around the images, stories, and DNA of 100 truly inspiring people from across LA. The project was about preserving stories and a moment in time of LA right now. I never anticipated working on a project like this, and it was a thrill to watch how the 100 individuals were chosen and how their stories emerged. It felt important to have the exhibition down in the city—not up here at the Getty Center—and the LA Central Library was the most perfect location.

I also helped create an exhibition at Kidspace Children’s Museum called Wired for Wonder. It’s a multisensory maze, aimed at both kids and big kids, meaning adults. The maze engages with all the senses, from sight, to taste, to touch, to smell, to sound. We have four artworks that have been created by local artists (Alison Saar, d. Sabela grimes, Miguel Osuna, and Suchitra Mattai) that you can sit inside or on top of and put your hands all over. So many contemporary artists engage with us via senses other than just vision, and becoming more aware of this is really important when trying to document or describe a work of art to help convey the artist’s intent, beyond just photographing it. This show runs until at least September 2025.

Most challenging projects

That would have to be the renovation of our labs, which was challenging on so many fronts, not least of which was trying to keep the project moving forward throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. It was certainly challenging when we couldn’t physically measure the space. And it was also incredibly demanding to try to keep morale up in the department when the completion date kept being pushed back. But we are finally moving into the new spaces right now. One of the best improvements is the visibility of many more of the labs—giving them windows and making it possible to one day offer tours and educational opportunities for the public.

Pressing issue I’d love to tackle

We all know the role of artificial intelligence is coming up fast in many areas of our lives, and that will definitely include conservation science. For example, we’re trying to understand the role that AI could play in helping to interpret the mass of environmental data that museums collect around the world—meaning all sorts of charts on humidity and temperature. It’s a massive amount of data; a human couldn’t possibly go through all of it without such help.

First thing I bring visitors to see at the Getty Center

The first thing we do is walk through the Museum Courtyard to see the Ellsworth Kelly sculpture Untitled. But it’s not really about the Kelly—it’s about where it’s been placed and the view looking out over LA that unfolds as you walk toward the sculpture, and then past it. I’ve always found the stunning views from up here to be the first thing to look at. The art comes after!