Meet Julian Baumgartner, the conservator whose hypnotic YouTube videos of art restorations have gone viral:
Soft scraping, dabs of solvent, the methodical swabbing of a painted surface inch by inch: art restoration videos are an ASMR goldmine.YouTube channel
He appears to have succeeded, his channel having recently surpassed 1.5 million subscribers. We caught up with him to chat about his restoration pet peeves, revelatory moments, and why, exactly, he thinks people are so fascinated with his videos.What was the first video you ever made, and why did you decide to start making videos?that was horribly damaged. I thought it would be great to document the process and make a really romantic and beautiful nod to conservation.
Staples, of course! That’s just a joke that arose from me complaining in one of my videos. In reality, I’d say my biggest frustrations are with well-intentioned individuals whose hearts are in the right places but who don’t have the technical and intellectual know-how. It’s really frustrating to receive a painting that has been worked on in the past, and the work isn’t good or the materials are incorrect.
The other rewarding aspect is the retouching process. That’s where all of the damage gets reversed and the piece starts to come together. The tear in the face gets retouched away and the sitter becomes a person again. Or the hole in the landscape disappears and you can see the forest, not the trees.