Lexus Magazine, Summer 2005 - Dream Jobs

Art Surgeon

To Rosa Lowinger, art conservation is a great job not only because she works with priceless art and antiquities, but also because a conservator is always in close contact with the minutiae of how the material world behaves. "When most people see rust, they just see damage and corrosion," she says. "I see the metal doing what nature intended it to do, which is return to its mineral form." She experiences the passing of time at its most fundamental level every day.

The work that goes on at the Sculpture Conservation Studio in Los Angeles, which Lowinger founded in 1988, is detectable by the faint scents of the trace resins and wet mortar they frequently use. Recently, Lowinger and her team have been chemically removing graffiti from a mosaic mural that Helen Lundeberg created in 1940 as a WPA project on the history of transportation.

Lowinger, 46, who came to this country from Cuba at the age of 6 with her family, studied fine arts and art history as an undergraduate at Brandeis University, outside of Boston. While she was talented at studio work, she felt that she didn't have the story to communicate. "At that time, I lacked the hubris you need to be an artist," she says. She then applied for and won an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to learn art restoration. There, she restored the caning on a chair, X-rayed bronze sculptures, and gilded furniture. "It was a phenomenal experience," she says. "I got to touch the art." She went on to graduate school at NYU and studied the restoration of objects. "You need as much science as pre-med students are required to have. And we learned a lot about art."

Now, Lowinger works with private collectors and public clients. Her projects include maintaining collections like the UCLA sculpture garden and restoring architecture in municipal buildings around Los Angeles. In 1992, she was invited to a conference on conservation in Havana. This was her first trip back to her place of birth. "My parents never spoke of the incredible architecture in Cuba," she says. "But I discovered that Cuba is an art conservator's dream." Lowinger began leading architectural tours from the United States to Cuba for museums and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She also trained students from Cuba and other Latin American countries as conservators.

The one place Lowinger's parents did talk about in Cuba was the Tropicana nightclub. They called it, she says, "the most beautiful place in the world." At the club, Lowinger discovered the most amazing mid-century architecture she'd ever seen. She later met the widow of the Tropicana's owner and began writing a book with her on its history — the gambling, dancing, and, of course, the architecture.

"As a conservator, I was led back to Cuba," says Lowinger. "And through that, I've found my story to tell." Her book, Tropicana Nights, is due out in September from St. Martin's Press. Although she hopes it's a success, she swears that she'll never give up her work at the studio. "Art conservation is both practical and poetic," she says. "I adore it."