Welcome to Learned, a short, weekly look at language, education, and everything else under the sun. I’m Joel, amateur linguist and professional slacker. And this week, we're tired.
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It’s been a hell of a week for me, and probably for you, too. I’m tired but I’m having trouble sleeping. So, I’ve been turning to YouTube, looking for something soothing and calming but also enticing enough to distract me until I can fall asleep. Unfortunately, ASMR doesn’t really do anything for me. Fortunately, art restoration does. Who knew? So, this week, I’m recommending a YouTube channel to you. That’s all. I hope you find it interesting.
First things first: The channel I’m talking about this week is Baumgartner Restoration. I watched three videos from the channel this week: A New Dawn: Restoration of L’Aurora Parts 1 and 2 and Blue Skies Smiling At Me: Restoration of a Henry Ranger Seascape. Each of them was educational, well-produced, and utterly hypnotizing.
Seascape by Henry Ward Ranger. Not the one cleaned in the video, but equally lovely. Copyright Wikimedia Commons.
Educational
I know nothing about art conservation or repair. Frankly, art conservation and repair is not a category of information about which I would ever have guessed I would have an interest in, much less begin acquiring the vocabulary for. However, each video describes, in detail, what materials the host (Julien Baumgartner, according to the YouTube about page) is using and why. He describes what effects the materials will have on the painting down to the glue that holds the canvas to the frame or the oil that underpins the paints themselves. Once the painting is clean, he begins the repair work. This is where the education really begins. Not only does he apply the same level of detailed, yet not too technical explanation to the tools he is using, but to the decisions he is making.
What I find particularly refreshing is his unapologetically commercial point-of-view. There are times when Baumgartner shows his awareness of other options and other decisions that other conservators might take, but he states that his responsibility is to his client, the person paying him, and so his job is to make the decisions that best meet their desires for their painting. If this means he needs to paint over damaged areas or replace certain pieces of canvas, then so be it.
Well-Produced
These days, YouTube video production is almost an art in and of itself. Or, rather, it is several arts as the production design and equipment vary immensely based on the kind of video one wants to make. In this case, Baumgartner has opted for a large, evenly lit frame with several editing and timing tricks to make the work of days flow by in about a half-hour. Most notably, this is a produced video. He has several cameras places about his studio and records, presumably, hours worth of footage that he then edits. He also narrates his videos from a script he has written himself. But he's so practiced that it often seems as if he's speaking off the cuff. I'm curious to see what his scripts look like, if they're actually scripts, or just talking point outlines. Maybe he's good enough that he doesn't really need a script, but I'm guessing he's at least got notes.
One of the first search results for “well-produced” on Unsplash. I’m not quite here for it, but I’m not mad at it. Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash.
Hypnotizing
The real genius of these videos, and the reason I find them so addicting, is that Baumgartner periodically removes himself from the videos. In all three that I watched, he gets the action on screen to a point where the viewer has a solid grasp of all that's happening, then he puts on some music and just...leaves. For ten to fifteen minutes, there's just lovely classical music playing while the painting is slowly revealed through the years of grime and damage to be an altogether different piece that when it began. As the music ends, the host comes back to reiterate what he's done and to show off the finished work. It is stunningly well-done.
So, that’s me this week, just watching classical artworks be slowly cleaned and revealed while soft piano concertos play over my speakers...
There will be a new issue of The Glossary on Friday. Until then…
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Stay safe, stay curious. Learn something.
Joel