Conservation Focus: "The French Fries"
You may have noticed in late August and early September that we were experimenting with a few new 'looks' for our most iconic work in the collection - John Henry's Sun Target II. Affectionately called "The French Fries," the sculpture is recognizable to most Springfieldians and serves as a public landmark.
Although we had a few concerned patrons call to express their dismay at the change in color - it was actually short-lived. We weren't toying with a new color, but simply completing restoration work on the sculpture and in the process, it went through a number of transformations.
The sculpture was acquired by the Museum in 1980 from the artist directly with the assistance of the Missouri Arts Council and the Ola E. McAdoo Bequest. Initially, the sculpture was installed much closer to the Museum's building - on the east grounds where the Musgrave Wing now stands. In 1994, it was moved to its current location when construction began on the Musgrave Wing. At that time, it was cleaned and repainted and given new concrete plinths to rest on.
Over the years, it has deteriorated due to both sun damage (fading) and general wear and tear (rust, flaking paint). Knowing that the work was in dire need of repainting, the Museum launched a crowd-funding campaign in May 2016 through the Give Ozarks Day platform - #SavetheFrenchFries.
Thanks to the tremendous generosity of Springfield residents, the Museum was able to raise enough money through these private donations to clean and repaint Sun Target II as well as two additional sculptures that were also in dire need of refresh - Ernest Trova's AV/T.S.C. and Abstract Variation, both located on the Museum's south grounds.
Before embarking upon the repaint, the Museum sent a work proposal to the artist to receive permission to clean and repaint. Fortunately, the Museum keeps lengthy files on the works in the collection so we had copies of the prior restoration work completed in 1994 as well as the proper paint color on file. After receiving the artist's permission to move forward with the project, we scheduled the work.
The work began on August 29 with a power washing on all three sculptures. The power washing, surprisingly, took the last bits of paint off of Sun Target II leaving us with the original unpainted steel surface. Then, a power grinder was used to smooth the surface and remove any rust.
Next, the painters applied an initial primer - for Sun Target II the first primer was white - a second primer, tinted yellow, was applied after that.
The last step was to apply two coats of the designated color to each work - restoring each sculpture to it's original rich finish. For the "French Fries" that meant a return to its original golden yellow hue.
The transformation was no less dramatic on the two Trova sculptures.
After about three weeks, the work was complete and we are now in the process of adding new signage to all of the sculptures on our grounds in addition to exterior lights for Sun Target II.
Thank you Springfield for helping us to maintain and preserve these works for future generations!
Sarah Buhr, Curator
