Renowned art conservator Carolina Izzo will speak at the Sarjeant Gallery on October 8. Photo / Michael McKeagg
Treasured paintings in Te Whare O Rehua Sarjeant Gallery’s collection have been restored to their original luminous state through the generosity of the B&C Hewett Charitable Trust.
The trust financed all of the conservation work carried out by internationally renowned art conservator Carolina Izzo and her team at Studio Izzo in Auckland.
Thirteen paintings, including eight by Vivian Smith, were restored, with five exhibited in the opening exhibition.
Nicki Manthel, head of development at the Sarjeant Gallery, said the extensive restoration work Izzo Studio undertook, funded by the trust, had made a significant contribution to the collection.
“It means the gallery can show works that have until now been unexhibitable and with our state-of-the-art collection store, the work of Carolina and the B&C Hewett Charitable Trust will have a lasting impact,” Manthel said.
Izzo used Fiorino 23-carat gold leaf to restore the frame of the popular work Curiosity that depicts two young women on a ladder peeking over a wall. Other paintings, such as The Crinoline and The Blue Feather by Vivian Smith, had blanched or cracked and the paint had to be repaired.
The results of the conservation have restored clarity to the paintings, “nitido”, as Izzo said in Italian, and vitality (think the before and after of a cataract operation).
Izzo was born and grew up in Rome, surrounded by ancient ruins, frescoes, sculptures and other magnificent artworks.
“Coming from that part of the world, it’s not so difficult to get in love with art and culture,” Izzo said.
In high school, an archaeologist teacher inspired her to consider the preservation of art and cultural heritage as a career. Deeply affected by the damage to artworks caused by the 1966 flood in Florence, Izzo left Rome to study conservation at IAR in Florence.
In 1980, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southern Italy near Naples, causing widespread devastation, death and injuries.
“At the time, I had just finished my studies in Florence and had started working under a maestro. A friend and I decided to drive down to the south to volunteer, to help however we could with the repair and saving of the devastated city, the churches and damaged artworks.”
Izzo was eventually invited to stay in Italy’s largest monastery, Certosa di Padula, where she lived in a monk’s cell, continuing her work in restoration as part of the local conservation team.
“The monastery is a 50,000-square-metre space with only 26 cells, so they were really beautiful but still abandoned and very cold. A small scorpion was living on a wall on one of the cells where I used to live and he became my companion for [the] many months I was living in the monastery. I ended up staying there for the next four years.”
Izzo met her New Zealand husband, Alistair Scott, while working in the conservation business she established in Naples. In 2001, accompanied by three children, they moved to New Zealand and she worked for six years as a painting conservator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
New Zealand art was very modern, she found, compared to the art she was accustomed to working with in Italy, and many of the artists were still alive.
“The first artist I shook hands with was Billy Apple and I told him, ‘You are the first artist I can talk to’.”
In 2010 and 2011, after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch – something of a déjà vu experience for Izzo – she was charged with restoring the Isaac Theatre Royal.
The America’s Cup race and competing yachts provided an “aha” problem-solving moment when Izzo realised she could use carbon fibre and boat-building expertise to help repair the dome of the heritage building.
Izzo collaborates with art professionals nationally and internationally and leads the team on large and small scale projects on heritage buildings throughout New Zealand.
She looks forward to sharing her expertise with audiences in Whanganui.
Izzo will give two presentations at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery on Wednesday, October 8.
From 11am to noon, she will give an illustrated demonstration and discussion in the Sarjeant Gallery events space about gold leaf gilding, its history and current use and training. Tickets are $15. Book on the website or at the gallery.
In the evening, Izzo will be a guest speaker at the Friends of the Sarjeant Gallery annual general meeting which starts at 7pm. As a guest speaker, after the meeting’s business closes, she will talk about conserving works from the Sarjeant Gallery collection. Entry is free – all are welcome.
It is planned that Izzo will return to the gallery in 2026 for a specialised gold leaf gilding workshop for practising artists.
Those who attend the morning presentation on October 8 will be eligible for a 10% discount for the workshop in 2026.
The workshop will be promoted nationally.