“Fine Art Rescue”

W. H. Bartlett, The Tomb of Kosciusko (detail), 1838.

Art that’s been dropped, scratched or left in extreme heat isn’t necessarily doomed to the dustbin: This salon-style exhibition’s unusual subject is the conservation of damaged works.

The most impressive is Picasso’s Three People on a Trampoline (1956), a ceramic plate covered with three rudimentary figures painted in short, rough strokes of white. The original owner dropped it and broke it in half, but thanks to conservation, it looks as good as new.

As a who’s who, the rest of the show is hit-or-miss; it encompasses artists ranging from 19th-century painter and engraver W. H. Bartlett to ’80s art star–cum–director Julian Schnabel to Bart Forbes, whose work normally graces the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time. One standout is Baton Rouge–based artist William Greiner, represented by Niagara Falls (1992), a photograph of a storefront window containing a Roaring Twenties wedding photograph, an antique glass lamp and bowl, and two plates that are souvenirs of the titular honeymoon spot. The off-kilter combination of cultural artifacts demands a second glance.

The stories behind many of these orphaned pieces are far better tales than clichés about starving artists, but they aren’t obvious to the casual viewer, who—in the absence of any wall text—has to ask the gallery’s staff for information about how each work was saved. The show’s lack of a coherent curatorial theme is equally frustrating: The only thing these works have in common is that they were rescued. The variety of media that can be restored is remarkable, but viewers would have benefited from a narrower focus.