Established in 1982, the firm serves museums, churches, historical societies, government agencies, and private collectors with conservation consulting and treatment of fine art easel and mural paintings. In the last ten years its services have focused on wall and ceiling paintings and consulting. Extensive international training and work experience in both modern and traditional techniques are applied in the examination, stabilization, and aesthetic recovery of works of art painted in diverse painting techniques including fresco, tempera, acrylic, and oil paint, dating from the 1st to the 20th centuries, and varying in style from Ancient Roman and European Renaissance masters to 19th century American itinerant painters and 20th century artists. The studio organizes collaboration with other conservation specialists, engineers, scientists, and historians for the comprehensive analysis and conservation of paintings and their surrounding aesthetic and climatic environments.
Trophy Room ceiling, U.S. Capitol, restored 2013
19th century American portrait in oil paint on canvas treated 1983, private collection
Detail, 3rd century lime wash Mesopotamian mural treated 1982 for Yale Art Gallery.
After four years of specialized training in Italy treating wall and ceiling paintings, Cunningham-Adams has restored over five hundred murals in the U.S. and abroad and developed a triage program for the many frescoes on the ancient Roman excavation site of Stabiae Antica. In South America, treatment of a 16th century fresco in Quito, Ecuador served as a teaching aid for local conservators. Other European murals include ancient Roman and Mesopotamian frescoes and murals by Giotto, Cimabue, Solimena and Cavaliere D’Arpino.
Diverse American muralists whose work has been treated include Rufus Porter, John LaFarge, Constantino Brumidi, Jules Guerin, Aaron Douglas, Gifford Beal, Sacha Moldovan, Ward Lockwood, John Stuart Curry, Alfred D. Crimi, and Karl Free.
6 ’x 2 ½’ Sardinian panel painting in egg tempera by Giovani Muru, 1515, treated 1979