Sabine Cotte. Paintings Conservation
31, Niagara Lane
Melbourne Vic 3000
M: 04 02 843 543
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Nationalities: French and Australian
Education
2011 / Masters by Research. ‘Tibetan paintings in Australia: conservation of a living heritage’. University of Melbourne.1994 / Diploma in Conservation. International Centre for the Preservation of Cultural Property in Rome (ICCROM).Mural Painting Conservation Course.
1986-1990 / Honours Bachelor in Conservation and Restoration. French Institute for the Restoration of Artworks. (IFROA) Paris. Specialisation in easel painting conservation.
1982-1986 / Honours Bachelor in Fine Art. Specialisation Engraving and Lithography.Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris
1982-86 / Honours Bachelor in Art History. University of Paris I, History of Art and Archaeology
Selection of clients and artists
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Museums and galleries
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
Ballarat Fine Arts Gallery, Australia
Geelong Art Gallery, Australia
Hamilton Art Gallery, Australia
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Australia
Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Sotheby’s Australia, Melbourne
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
NellieCastanGallery, Melbourne
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris
Musée d’Orléans, France
City of Yarra, Melbourne
City of Port Philip, Melbourne
National Trust, Australia
French National Trust
SooTze Oriental Antiques, Melbourne
Au Lion des Neiges, Sydney
Parkham place Gallery, Sydney
Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney
Himalasia foundation
UNESCO
Artists
Rick Amor, Howard Arkley,
Clarice Beckett, Charles Blackman,
Arthur Boyd, Daniel Buren,Judy Cassab, Robert Dickerson, Ian Fairweather,
Othon Friesz, Théodore Géricault,
Daisy Jugadai, Emily KameKngwarreye, David Keeling, Richard Larter,
Frederick McCubbin, Albert Marquet,
Roy de Maistre, Amedeo Modigliani,
Mirka Mora, Sydney Nolan, John Perceval, Garry Shead, Pierre Soulages, Lindy Lee
Chaim Soutine, Arthur Streeton,
Eugene von Guerard
Prince of Wales, Judy Watson
Brett Whiteley, Philip Wolfhagen
Aboriginal paintings, contemporary and traditional (barks)
Various French, Italian and Dutch artists from VIIIth to XXth century, paintings on canvas, panel and copper.
Anonymous Tibetan artists from XIIIth to XXth century: thangkas, tsakli, wooden book covers, scrolls.
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Professional experience
Arrived in Australia in 2001. Since 1990, work for museums, galleries and private collectors in France and Australia.Professional expertise includes:
- Treatments of Western, Aboriginal and Tibetan paintings on various supports (cardboard, canvas, bark, panel, silk, copper…). Professional experience includes numerous treatments of 14th to 18th century paintings involving delicate consolidation and stabilization, cleaning and inpainting; delicate cleaning and transparent relining of Himalayan paintings; treatment of high profile colonial and contemporary Australian artists works. Treatments range from minor tear repair and superficial cleaning to consolidation, relining, strip lining, removing of varnish and over paintings, texturing the fillings and extensive inpainting. Advice for packing, storing, displaying is also given to clients.
- Collaboration with contemporary artists for assessment, diagnosis and treatment of their artworks: this includes interviews for research and documentation of original materials, technical condition assessment, and discussion with the artists on treatment options and materials. These options acknowledge the artist’s original intention and current artwork’s situation, particularly in the case of public artworks. Recent examples of such collaboration are work on Mirka Mora’s public paintings and mosaics, David Keeling, Paul Boston and Philip Wolfhagen’s paintings.
- International expert for UNESCO in Himalayan painting conservation: training of Himalayan people in thangka or mural paintings conservation during UNESCO workshops set in the region (India, Nepal, Bhutan 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005), liaising with local conservators; participating to conservation sustainable projects in liaison with local conservation architects and painting conservators (Mustang 2008 and 2009); creating, funding and implementing a multi disciplinary project in preventive conservation of temples and mural paintings in Bhutan (Associate laureate, Rolex Award for Enterprise 1996); raising awareness about conservation of Himalayan heritage by publishing papers in international conservation congresses and journals (see list below); training conservation students on thangka painting conservation (Workshop at Tainan university for the Arts, Taiwan, 2009); giving talks atinternational symposia on Himalayan painting conservation (New Delhi, ICOM-CC, Thangka Conservation Forum, 2008) or workshops on the topic (National Gallery of Australia, 2009).
- Survey of collections and condition reports: Documenting, listing objects by conservation needs priorities, planning and pricing conservation treatments, preventive conservation plan, writing documents for tender when applicable. Assessing condition of artworks prior to auction or exhibition, preparing artworks for exhibition (minor conservation treatments). Installation within the museum, in liaison with artists.
Professional experiences includecondition reports for exhibitions or prior to auctions in Melbourne, as well as condition reports for exhibitions in Museum of Modern Art and Petit Palais Museum, Paris, and accompanying a touring exhibition of masterpieces of Museum of Modern Art, Paris, to Japan, with condition reports before and after the show and minor conservation works during installation;
Publications
2011‘Conservation of Thangkas : a review of the literature since the 1970s’, in Studies in Conservation, Vol.56, Issue 2, 2011
‘Conserving sacred thangkas as a living religious heritage in mountain sites and beyond’, in Mountains in the Religions of South and Southeast Asia: Place, Culture, and Power, 4th SSEASRconference, Thimphu, Bhutan, July 2011.
2010‘Conservation of public art: keeping artworks alive and reinforcing community’s engagement’ in Dialogues with Artists, 12th AICCM Paintings Symposium, Adelaide October 2010
2010‘Conservation of living heritage, or can we adapt principles to local needs?’ in ‘Conservation in a Changing World’, ICOM-CC Session at the ICOM General Conference, Shanghai, November 7-12, 2010
2009‘Conservation- Restauration des Thangkas: préserver un patrimoine religieux vivant’, in CoRe, issue 22, July 2009 (in French)
‘Conservation of Thangkas: Preserving a Living Religious Heritage’, inProceedings of the Forum on the Conservation of Thangkas, Special Session of the ICOM-CC 15th Triennial Meeting,New Delhi, India, September 26, 2008
2008‘A handbook of preventive conservation in Bhutan (Himalayas)’, in ICOM-CC 15th Triennial Meeting,New Delhi, India, September 2008
2007‘Proposition for transparent relining in conservation of thangkas paintings’ in Studies in Conservation, Vol 52, 2007, Issue 1, p.2-12
2006‘Ethical standards: can we find an Himalayan way?’ Poster for IIC Munich Congress, August 2006
1999‘Urgence et restauration: l’incendie du Parlement de Bretagne’, in ICOM-CC 12th Triennal Meeting, Lyon, France, 1999
‘Restoration of thangkas in National Museum of Bhutan’, in CoRe(Conservation/Restauration of Cultural heritage), Issue 7 (in French)
1995‘Conservation problems of mural paintings related to architecture in Bhutan, Himalayas’in Congress of the Laboratory of Conservation of Stone, Lausanne, 1995 (collaboration with architect David Nock)
1994‘Bhutan; Dzongs and their Mural Paintings’,poster in 15th IIC Congress, Ottawa Canada (collaborationwith architect David Nock)
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