The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

The Menil Drawing Institute welcomes Dr. Cathleen A. Baker, an accomplished paper conservator, author, and publisher, for a program on papermaking. Baker’s presentation considers the materials, processes, and technologies used in hand and machine papermaking. Depending on how paper is made, its working characteristics can vary greatly, which often influences the way artists choose their papers—that choice being the first step in creating a drawing. Through close looking at select artworks from the Menil Drawing Institute’s celebrated collection of drawings, Jan Burandt, Paper Conservator at the Menil Drawing Institute, joins Baker for a discussion illuminating the differing characteristics between handmade and machine-made papers.

Dr. Cathleen A. Baker taught paper conservation at the State University of New York’s Cooperstown/Buffalo graduate program in art conservation from 1978–1993, after which she researched her book, By His Own Labor: The Biography of Dard Hunter, published in 2000 in both a limited, hand-printed edition and a trade edition. From the University of Alabama, she has both an MFA in the Book Arts Program, taking courses in letterpress printing, typefounding (with R. Stanley Nelson), papermaking, and bookbinding, and a PhD in Communication Studies. From 2005 to 2016, Baker was a paper and book conservator at the University of Michigan Library, retiring as conservation librarian emerita. Her imprint, The Legacy Press, established in 1997, focuses on the printing, paper, and bookbinding arts. Since 2007, books published by The Legacy Press have received national and international acclaim. Currently, Baker has nine titles in preparation for publication in 2020/2021.

On Drawing is a new initiative of the Menil Drawing Institute. Each year, several programs address topics ranging from the history, theory, criticism, and materiality of drawing. Leading academics, curators, and experts in the field are invited to participate alongside Menil curators and conservators.