Dallas Museum of Art Names Paintings Conservation Center to Honor Renowned Conservator Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has announced the naming of its paintings conservation studio as the Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane Paintings Conservation Center, as dedicated by lead donors to the Museum’s conservation program. The Conservation Center, which was established at the DMA in 2013, is named in honor of Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane, a nationally recognized paintings conservator who worked in Dallas from 1999 to 2011 as an independent conservator of modern and contemporary art. Through her dedicated and exemplary work leading the field, Eckmann Lane was foundational to the growth of the DMA’s conservation program.

The Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane Paintings Conservation Center serves as the Museum’s base for the study and treatment of works of art, as well as research into cutting-edge conservation methodologies. Since its opening in 2013, the Conservation Center, which includes an adjacent Conservation Gallery, has also granted public audiences an unprecedented level of behind-the-scenes access to conservators and their work. The center’s design allows visitors to observe daily conservation activities, providing insight into artists’ original materials and techniques and the lives of artworks after they leave the artists’ hands.

Prior to the 2012 appointment of Mark Leonard as Chief Conservator, and the opening of the Conservation Center one year later, the DMA relied on independent professional conservators in the North Texas region to provide consistent care and treatment for the works in its collection. Notable among these was Eckmann Lane, who, beginning in 2000, partnered with the DMA for 11 years to care for works in the Museum’s modern and contemporary collections. During this time, Eckmann Lane was responsible for the conservation of many important paintings in the collection, with highlights including Jackson Pollock’s Cathedral (1947) and Portrait and a Dream (1953), Franz Kline’s Slate Cross (1951), and Untitled (1943–1948), a late work by Arshile Gorky, as well as many other works in the Dallas community.

Eckmann Lane’s contributions to the practice and study of painting conservation are nationally recognized. Prior to working with the DMA, she served as Chief Conservator and Deputy Director at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), where she spent more than 20 years supervising SFMOMA’s exhibition, collection, conservation, and education programs. Since 1996 Eckmann Lane has held a private practice in contemporary art conservation, serving both museums and private collections.

A Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation and the International Institute for Conservation, Eckmann Lane was one of the Founding Board Members of Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA, formerly INCCA-NA, the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art – North America) and served as the first Board President from 2007 to 2014. She has also served as Chairman of Heritage Preservation (formerly National Conservation Institute), President of the Western Association of Art Conservators, and Chair of the Membership Committee for the American Institute for Conservation. In 2001 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Conservation Advocacy from the American Institute for Conservation in recognition of sustained public outreach and advocacy to advance the field of conservation.

“The DMA’s conservation program has grown considerably in the 21st century, and the opening of our own in-house conservation studio has been a particularly special asset for our collections, conservators, and audiences. It is tremendously meaningful to us that we can dedicate such a valuable resource to an individual who has given so much to the field of conservation and to the Museum itself,” said Eugene McDermott Director Dr. Agustín Arteaga. “Over her decade of service, Inge-Lise worked with many of our most treasured objects and left a legacy of care and curiosity that has shaped our conservation program into the powerhouse it is today.”