When the New York Museum of Modern Art wanted to reframe Cezenne's 'The Bather' and Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night', they went directly to the Lowy Frame and Restoring Company.

Since 1907, when Julius Lowy opened a small frame shop in New York at the corner of 56th Street and Sixth Avenue, the fine art world has beat a continuous path to Lowy's door.Originally founded as a frame supplier, the Lowy company today is one of the most respected total fine arts services in the world: from art and furniture restoration to framing and photographic services.

As the oldest and largest institution of its kind in America, the abiding Lowy philosophy is to preserve the original integrity of a work of art employing old-world craftsmanship and the latest in fine arts technology to this end. Master paintings once considered irrevocably "destroyed" are revived; broken ornate frames are rebuilt; oversized frames are reduced; small frames enlarged and new frames created whilst the scars of aging canvasses can be repaired and the ravages of time and environment eradicated. Paintings once thought too delicate to contemplate restoring are gently and sympathetically treated by master craftsman using only materials that are completely reversible. Similarly, fragile canvasses are relined to increase both longevity and value.

"What we do basically is service the fine arts industry", explains Lawrence Shar, President of Julius Lowy Frame and Restoring Company Inc. since 1979. "My father didn't start the company, but as a young man putting himself through school to become an accountant he worked for Julius Lowy to make money. As it turned out, rather suspiciously in hindsight, the Depression hit just as my father was finishing his studies and after due consideration he realised that he would make more money working for Lowy than following his profession".

And so it was that Hillard Shar began what was to be a lifetime affiliation with Lowy, an association which developed into a flourishing business arrangement with the addition of a third party in Mr. John Sisto in the 1930's. Then, in 1948, Sisto and Shar formed their own eponymous firm but rejoined the Lowy establishment in 1956 as partners. Larger premises were acquired several times over the years as the business grew and evolved both its services and reputation until 1961 when Julius Lowy/Shar Sisto settled into its last address at 511 East 72nd Street. Here, with 20,000 square feet of space, all the framing and restoration activities could be undertaken in the one place for the first time in the company's history.

Lawrence Shar joined the company in 1969 but actually began his apprenticeship in the family business at the tender age of eight years old. In the workshops of Lowy, the younger Shar learned painting and framing restoration techniques, framing and fitting under the watchful eyes of his father Hillard, and master conservator, Joe Battaglia. After graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in Fine Arts, Lawrence Shar then decided that his professional path lay in taking the family tradition into the next generation.

In 1982, Lawrence moved the entire operation to Manhattan's West End Avenue where he instigated newer and even more comprehensive services to maintain the firm's status at the vanguard of the art world. Additionally, a new six storey facility, Lowy East has been renovated on East 80th Street to cater for the firm's increased services as has the furniture finishing and restoration workshop under the direction of Miguel Saco at Lowy East where marquetry, veneer repair and French polishing are undertaken by a team of skilled artisans.

Today, Lowy continues to serve such prestigious clients as the White House; The Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney, Yale and the Smithsonian the most elegant hotels and clubs in New York; auction houses such as Christie's, Sotheby's, William Doyle; corporations such as Procter & Gamble, ABC Broadcasting and Millbank, and galleries including Wildenstein, A La Vieille Russie, Gallerie Maeght; Newhouse, and Stair Sainty Matthiesen; New York's top artists and interior designers as well the marvellous private collections of such notables as Armand Hammer; Norton Simon, Ahmet Ertegun, the Rockefellers, Wrightsmans, Fords, Hearsts, Taubmans and Saul Steinberg.

But despite the lofty echelons of culture, commerce and corporation in which its services are most often required, the history of the company began with a small frame shop servicing local galleries ninety years ago, and Lawrence Shar has an abiding affection for the affinity with these mainstays of the Lowy fine arts tradition.

"What many people failed to understand for a long time was that a frame properly executed can be a masterpiece in itself", he explains. "A great work can be enhanced or detracted from by the frame selected for it. A frame can help express what the work of art represents, or indeed what the owner of the work wants to express".

So, whilst Lowy boasts the largest collection of antique frames in the U.S. totalling 7500 in all - including Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish spanning four centuries - and embracing the largest selection of fine 19th century American frames in the world, Lowy is also America's leading producer of the finest quality contemporary and reproduction frames. Expert craftsmen diligently work at both enlarging and reducing frames, reproducing the exact details of the original in clay and gesso before adding the patina. It is demanding, time-consuming work which requires both skill and patience, with the craftsman often having to recarve delicate and intricate patterns of bygone eras in an attempt to duplicate the original precisely.

"Frequently a client will come to us and ask that a particular frame they have be altered in some way", explains Lawrence Shar. "In the case of enlarging the frame our task is to take a cast of the better portions of the existing frame and use those as the basis on which to build up the rest. Our challenge with antique frames is to match the pigment clay for the alteration with the original pigment. In the case of having to reduce the frame we must be careful to remain faithful to the aesthetic and historical reality of the period from which the frame comes. Reduce the frame in an ad hoc manner and all sense of proportionality for instance is lost. Never is it simply a matter of taking a bit off here and there".

The same attention to the integrity of the piece extends to Lowy's work with perhaps one of the more controversial aspects of Art, namely restoration. For as long as there have been artists there has been debate about the degree - if any, to which a work of art can be restored without the original intention of the artist being tampered with. The Lowy philosophy on this crucial point however is quite clear; never to alter the original work, the intent of the artist, nor the painting's intrinsic value.

"The question is a constant one, whether one is dealing with the restoration of frames, or that of paintings and drawings; are we bastardising the work by restoring it, or are we doing the work a service? There are as many opinions on this as there are works that require restoration to bring them back to their original condition - or as close as possible to it. The question of conversation is a similar one in that often the cost of conservation is more than the value of the work itself. In the end it's a process of weighing up with the client the advantages and disadvantages of doing or not doing the restoration or conservation work before making any decision".

What sets Lowy apart however, and gives them a vital edge in this controversial area is that all their restorative and conservation work is reversible. Beginning with a thorough X-ray and ultraviolet inspection of the work to undergo restoration, the craftsmen at Lowy identify and pinpoint the exact areas of concern. These may range from creases and tears in the canvas, lifting between the canvas or paper and the backing, to flacking and missing paint or ground. Irrespective of the amount or type of work to be undertaken, a team of Lowy specialists consults with the owner before proceeding any further.

While the exact process which follows the initial examination varies according to the degree of damage, the work carried out on repairing deteriorated canvas is a good illustration of the exactness of the procedures involved. Upon the damage being localised using either X-ray or ultra-violet photography the canvas is immediately reinforced with a new linen. Next, any lining must be painstakingly removed by craftsmen using a surgical scalpel and the paint face protected using a wet teapaper-like tissue applied with synthetic resin. On drying, this tissue conforms to the topography of the paint, thus providing a barrier against the wax resin or thermo plastic to be infused into the canvas. Next, a natural linen is bonded to the back of the canvas to stabilise the painting support for any further work.

This further work may include cleaning the canvas; but not before the work has been tested for the exact type of resin, pigments and canvas. Only in this way can the correct cleaning agent be identified, and any potential for damage to the work caused by incorrect resins be removed. In the event of there being actual canvas missing Lowy have access to every possible fibre blend and can match the existing canvas exactly for weave and weight. Vinyl gesso filler is then applied to the restored area to recreate the ground and then the process passes into the skilled hands of one of Lowy's artists for the delicate process known as Inpainting. This process in turn involves matching the original pigments and colour shades of the paint and applying them only to the areas prepared with gesso.

"This entire process is totally reversible as the varnishes, resins, adhesives and pigments float on top of the original", points out Lawrence. "This is very important because our aim is never to interfere with the work as such. The goal of the restorative or conservation work is to give back to the work the particular aesthetic appeal it had when first created, not to alter it in any way. Even when I go out on site to a museum or to a private collector I am conscious of the fact that our role is to do what is best for the work long-term".
Having been exposed to the work carried out by his father at Lowy since early childhood and given his own extensive experience, Lawrence Shar is fully conversant with every aspect of the business and is in demand by many of America's leading museums for advice. Called upon by curators to assess their collections, Lawrence's task often encompasses evaluating the need or otherwise for work to undergo reframing, restoration or realigning.

"Often after appraising the collection I will discuss with the client any potential work to be done", explains Lawrence. "Canvas is a living organism and dies over time, so very often a painting requires relining to correct this deterioration. Then again often the backing used for the painting is wrong and the painting suffers due to things such as the build up of acid from the material used to back it. This is especially true if the work was done on paper because paper absorbs the acid and deteriorates very quickly".

Conserving and restoring art on paper is yet another of the Lowy specialties. A very fragile medium paper has a tendency to deteriorate quickly unless properly mounted, and often develops deposits of dirt, grime and soot as well as foxing from oxidation. At Lowy all paper is pre-treated in an alkaline bath in an effort to minimise the need for bleaching and to strengthen the paper fibres. The bleaching agent is then applied using a fine sable or nylon brush if the stains are localised, or via immersion in filtered or de-ionised water, containing a low concentration of the bleaching agent for more general staining. The bleached paper is then placed on a blotter for final cleaning. In the case of art which might be damaged by immersion, Lowy have developed an ingenious technique in which the back of the paper is treated with a fine spray of water and then laid face-up on a blotter and placed on a suction table. The resultant vacuum created causes the dirt to migrate to the blotter. Of course all bleaching agents are then removed from the paper to avoid any undue bleaching after the art work has been reframed.

"Very often we also need to rehabilitate the paper", explains Lawrence. "The paper might have tears in it or have bits missing. In that case we free the work of its incorrect support, reinforcing it using Japanese Mulberry tissue and wheat starch paste - also a reversible process. The point is that this fibre is non-acidic and helps preserve the paper. Of course when we make hinges for repairing the paper we must be certain not to make the backup stronger than the paper, otherwise if the adhesive comes off so too will the paper. And of course any colour that may be missing from the original will also be replaced, and as with paintings on canvas we don't interfere with the historical integrity of the work".

Lowy's painstaking work has resulted in those occasions which the untrained collector both dreads and relishes where a silk purse has literally been found languishing under the overpriced colours of a sow's ear.

"I remember one particular occasion when a client brought in a painting for cleaning and on closer photographic inspection we found that there had been what we call overpainting, that is that the work of one artist had been painted over by another", says Lawrence Shar with a grin. "The new painting in fact was not worth very much at all, but we were all in for a surprise when the X-rays revealed a painting by celebrated Japanese artist Fugita to be the one that had been painted over. This original painting was worth in excess of fifty thousand dollars, while the painting the client had originally bought was worth about five dollars! Luckily we were able to remove all of the worthless paint and restore the original to excellent condition.

"I must say though that the work of modern artists poses the greatest challenge", Lawrence adds. "Many of them apply layer upon layer of paint one over the other without letting the first layer dry, or mix a range of different mediums in the one work, making our task all the more difficult. Often there is cleavage and separation of the different layers due to different expansion and contraction times of the different dyes, and this in itself creates enormous problems. Too many modern artists place their emphasis on the look of the finished work with little or no consideration for long-term preservation, so consequently we get a lot of their work to either restore or conserve".

Although excited about the growing appreciation amongst the American public about art in general, and American art in particular, Lawrence Shar is rather disturbed by the prospect of certain art dealers and their patrons being motivated solely by profit, rather than some intrinsic love of art for arts sake.

"When I started in 1969 this entire business was very genteel, confined to a few collectors who were genuinely interested in the arts and/or the prestige. Today, it's all very much more like an industry. Art dealers come from a wide array of backgrounds, as do patrons, and unfortunately, not all of them are motivated by a love of the Arts. My father himself, whilst he was trained as an accountant, had an intrinsic love of the Arts. He was artistic by nature and quite clever. Somehow his aesthetic sensibilities were very much in touch with the entire concept of restoration and the beauty of preserving art".

Fortunately for the world of fine arts, Lawrence Shar finds himself responding to these same sensibilities as he continues to seek out avenues for expanding Lowy Frame and Restoring into the next century.