When chemistry meets canvas: Corina Rogge ’00 Ph.D. on art conservation science

In an interview, Chemistry alumna Corina Rogge ’00 Ph.D. explains how her training led her to art conservation science—and to directing conservation at The Menil Collection.

As a Yale chemistry graduate student, Corina Rogge would set up a distillation and sometimes slip down the hill to the Peabody Museum. Today, she is the director of conservation at The Menil Collection in Houston—an unusual path for a chemist, one where scientific training meets art. She studies how materials change over time and preserves objects so they can be researched and enjoyed for generations.

We met with Rogge at the museum to learn about her work as a conservation scientist.

How did your chemistry degree prepare you for this job?

Rogge: What we do is straight-up analytical chemistry—very akin to forensics. We identify paints and fibers. Some cultural heritage scientists do DNA analysis, and proteomics has become popular, too. All of that connects back to what I was doing in my graduate degree: infrared and Raman spectroscopy, critical thinking, and careful data interpretation. Sometimes we even make materials to see whether we can replicate historic ones.

What is art conservation science?

Rogge: Conservation—or cultural heritage—scientists study the materials used in human-made objects across time, from ceramics in ancient Greece to modern sculptures made with plastics. We figure out what they’re made from and how they age, and we advise on treatment—like whether (and how) to remove a varnish—along with provenance research and, in some cases, authentication. Some scientists also develop new instrumental techniques and new materials for treating works of art, so it’s a broad field.

What do you do at the Menil?

Rogge: I’m both a scientist and the director of conservation. As director, I manage the department and help ensure we’re supporting the preservation, treatment, exhibition, and display of the collection. Everything you see on the walls has come through our space to be examined, documented, and sometimes treated before it goes on view. We advise on acquisitions, storage, packing, and a wide range of behind-the-scenes work. As the scientist here, I’m also involved in research projects—right now, on several surrealist painters and materials for an upcoming exhibition. We ask very everyday questions—“What is this varnish, and how can I take it off?”—and more in-depth ones, too: “How did this artist work, and how did their materials change over time?”

How did a chemistry Ph.D. become director of conservation at an art museum?

Rogge: After postdocs in straight-up biochemistry, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I took a teaching position at Rice University, where I developed chemistry-of-art courses, and from that parlayed it into teaching conservation science. I realized my real love in the field was technical art history—how objects were made, how an artist worked, and how materials change over time. And for that, you need objects. You need a museum. So, when an opportunity came up at a museum with really good collections, I transitioned into museum work.

What’s a project you’re working on right now, and what makes it a good example of conservation science in practice?

Rogge: At the Menil, we’re wrapping up a multi-year project that began under the previous director of conservation and has continued in our care. In 2019, Mark Rothko’s The Green Stripe (1955) came into the lab for treatment and analysis.

In the past, a common preventive technique was to infuse a beeswax-and-resin mixture (often with damar) into the canvas, or use it to adhere a secondary canvas support—a process called lining. The idea was to mitigate the painting’s response to relative-humidity changes, and the intentions were really, really good.

But the treatment can create a flat, plasticky-looking surface and limit normal canvas movement; the wax-resin mixture can also become insoluble and darken as it ages. Rothko was all about translucency, gloss differences, and nuanced color balances, so we decided to unline the painting—remove the secondary canvas—and extract the wax-resin mixture.

This research was supported by the Conserving Canvas grant program from the Getty Conservation Institute, which allowed us to appoint an advisory team for site visits. We spent years investigating before we were ready to treat the painting.

The process was a real team effort, with multiple conservators involved, and I was there as the scientist—advising on the materials, media, pigments, and analysis. The treatment involved a solvent-laden synthetic fabric that was sponge-like and could absorb a lot of material, which let us gently expose the painting to solvent. We put the painting face-up on these cloths and applied heat and gentle pressure—essentially wicking the wax resin away from the paint—and it worked wonderfully well. We got the vast majority out.

After that, some cracks that had existed when the painting was lined became more prominent, so they had to be relaxed back down and losses inpainted. It’s on a stretcher now in its final round of inpainting, and it will go on view in the fall for the first time in a very long time.

This method that you developed, is it available for other conversation scientists to use?

Rogge: Yes, once it’s published. We have two papers under final review: one on the extensive lead-up to the treatment, including multiple trials using mock-up paintings that mimicked aspects of the Rothko, and a second focused on the treatment itself.

What advice would you give a student who is interested in pursuing a career in art conservation science?

Rogge: There’s no single pathway into the field. There are graduate programs in conservation, and conservation scientists come in from many backgrounds—chemistry, materials science, archaeometry, or imaging science—because the needs of the work are different.

It’s great to get exposure earlier rather than later. If you’re in graduate school and interested in this, go to museums, talk to conservators and scientists, and learn art history, because everything I learn about an object has to fit its time period. Handle materials—learn how to paint (you don’t have to paint well), because if you understand how paint moves, or how to throw a bowl and work with clay, you’ll understand more of what you’re seeing when you look at an object.

For students at Yale, the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at West Campus is an amazing resource. Learn about the work being done there by conservators and conservation scientists, and visit the museums. The Peabody is marvelous. The Yale Center for British Art is wonderful, and the Beinecke is great.