Each academic year, the Judith M. Lenett Memorial Fellowship is awarded to one or more select second-year students in the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art. The fellowship allows the recipient to explore issues of conservation in the field of American art. Working closely with conservators from the Williamstown + Atlanta Art Conservation Center (W+AACC), each Fellow conserves and researches an American art object.

In this lecture, this year’s Lenett Fellow, Riley Yuen (Williams College M.A. Class of 2025), presents the conservation and art historical research she has undertaken during her fellowship, which focused on the artistic practice of Nam June Paik. The central object is a 1986 untitled multimedia piece recently acquired by the Plattsburgh State Art Museum at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh. The object comprises two rectangular painted canvases connected at an oblique angle with three small functional audio-visual units with monitors attached from the back and two antennas mounted to the top edges. Yuen researched comparable audiovisual units from the 1970s through the 1990s, conducted dry surface cleaning, performed material imaging analysis, and consulted key stakeholders. Yuen's talk will address her research on the object's condition and history alongside the ethics of time-based media conservation and address concerns surrounding its treatment and future presentation.

Free. A reception follows the event. For accessibility questions, call 413 549 0524.

Image: Nam June Paik, Title Unknown (detail), c. 1986, mixed media. Permanent collection of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, Plattsburgh, New York. Before treatment image taken under normal illumination, W+AACC