In his career as painting conservator, Barry Bauman has found everything from hidden signatures to entire paintings under other works of art. Those discoveries will be among the highlights of a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in Room 240 of Art Building West on the University of Iowa campus.

Bauman’s talk, “The Conservation of Paintings: Historical and Technical Discoveries,” is free and open to the public. It is the first in the UI Museum of Art's (UIMA) series of SmartTalks, aimed at opening an inspiring discussion between the leaders of the art world and the community.

"The conservation and restoration of art can sometimes be a subject of drama,” Bauman says. “Each artwork that needs restoring carries within it, like a Chinese box, layer after layer of meaning—sometimes obscured, puzzling or distorted. It is the conservator's job to understand and reveal what the master painter set down or intended."

Bauman’s experience in conservation spans several decades, from working as the associate conservator of paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago to founding the Chicago Conservation Center, where he was involved in the massive preservation effort of more than 300 Work Projects Administration (WPA) and pre-WPA murals for the Chicago Public Schools. He currently works in the conservation laboratory that he established, focusing on complimentary services for museums and nonprofit organizations.

For more information about this event, visit the museum website.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this lecture, contact the UI Museum of Art in advance at 319-335-1727.