Christina Young is a reader in easel painting conservation and conservation science in the Conservation & Technology Department. She supervises structural conservation treatments for both canvas and panels. Christina is actively researching in the fields of fatigue and fracture of paintings, non-invasive monitoring techniques, methods/materials for structural conservation, the conservation of contemporary art, preventive conservation for historical woodwind instruments and the significance of scenic art.
Christina has a BSc in Physics from Imperial College (ICL) and an MSc in Applied Optics. Following industrial research in the development of optical instrumentation she returned to ICL in 1993 as a Research Assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In 1994 she was awarded the Gerry Hedley Research Scholarship and gained her PhD in the “Measurement of the biaxial tensile properties of paintings on canvas” in 1996. Before joining The Courtauld she was Leverhulme Research Fellow at Tate Britain between 1997-2000. In 2010, she was a visiting Getty Scholar at the Getty Conservation Centre, Los Angeles. Since May 2013, she has been a visiting academic at Imperial College, London.
Additional Interests
Teaching 2016-17
Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings
- Colour theory/ optics/ digital imaging & processing/ graphical representations and statistics / mechanics
- Deterioration of paintings
- Materials for conservation
- Practical workshops on the structural conservation of canvas and panel paintings
- Preventive conservation theory and in-situ survey
- Structural conservation theory- canvas and wood
- Theory and practice of cleaning
- Conservation issues for contemporary and modern art
- Approaches to research
Schools Projects and Outreach
- Contemporary Art Needs Contemporary Science
Mars Bars to Manet
PhD Supervision
Current
- Jacek Olender, ‘Gecko Inspired Dry Adhesives for Conservation’
- Laura Davies, ‘Characterisation Patina of Hepworth Bronze Sculptures’
Recently completed
- Soratos Tantideeravit, ‘Fracture Mechanics of Multi-layer Paints’ (2013) (ICL external supervisor)
- R. Bordalo, ‘The Effect of Excimer Laser Irradiation on Historical Pigments’ (2011)