Masterpieces

Dianne Dwyer Modestini

NYU INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS RESEARCH PROFESSOR, KRESS PROGRAM IN PAINTINGS

Dianne Dwyer Modestini began her career as a paintings conservator in 1973 when she obtained an M.A. from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Art Conservation. She was a staff member of the Department of Paintings Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art under the direction of John Brealey from 1974 until 1987. She left that position when she married Mario Modestini, whom she met in 1984 while serving as a consultant for The Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Dianne then set up a private studio in New York, in collaboration with her husband, and began to teach at the Conservation of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 1988. She founded the Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at the Conservation Center in 1989, which continues to the present day. She is Research Professor of the Institute of Fine Arts and was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities by Fairfield University in 2016.
In the course of her career she has worked on paintings of many schools and periods. At the Metropolitan Museum she was responsible for the American Paintings collection, and also restored a number of European paintings, including the Raphael altarpiece. As a private conservator she had the opportunity to work on a range of pictures, which included a number of masterpieces of the late 19th and early 20th by artists such as Van Gogh, Picasso, and Braque. As conservator for the dispersed Kress Collection she has concentrated on Italian paintings from the 13th to the 18th century, including many Early Italian gold ground panels. An important focus for her has always been the training of young conservators, both at the Metropolitan and at the Conservation Center.