Ultrasonic imaging of a beat culture icon
John F. Asmus, Gregory J. Witteman · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1997
Jay DeFeo's sculptural-painting was originally begun as a 'concept with a center'. This DeFeo work was pivotal to both her artistic recognition and development It epitomized the beat- culture's newly discovered creative freedoms encouraged during the art renaissance of the period that has come to be known as America's Chamelot. Jay DeFeo's Rose was the culmination of an almost ritualized performance-art process of creation and destruction that spanned the years 1958 through 1965 and resulted in a 0.4 X 2.5 X 3.2 meter, 100 kilogram composite-laminate painting/artifact. When the artwork begun to crumble twenty years ago it was totally encased in approximately 10cm of steel-reinforced plaster for structural support. Here we will describe the solids-imaging techniques considered and utilized in determining the painting's internal composition to aid in safe extraction of the artwork from its plaster tomb followed by complete restoration. Our imaging goals were first, locate the interior plaster-paint boundary and second, characterize the size, shape and relative geometry of voids and artifacts in the paint composite laminate to facilitate the positioning and embedding weight-bearing pins.