Staff Profile
Associate Paintings Conservator
ellen_davis@harvard.edu / 617-496-1901
M.A., C.A.S., The State University of New York at Buffalo
B.A., Wesleyan University
Ellen Davis specializes in the conservation and technical study of modern and contemporary paintings. Her research has focused on the non-traditional painted surfaces of works by 20th-century artists, including Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, Agnes Martin, and Francis Bacon. Davis also works with the Barnett Newman Studio Materials Collection, which is housed in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums.
Recent Publications
“Version Control: Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals through the Lens of the Documentation Model for Time-Based Media Art.” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 6 (2–3) (2021): 92–104.
Davis, Ellen, Talia Kwartler, and Ana Martins. “Collage Logic in Max Ernst’s ‘Woman, Old Man, and Flower’ (1923–24).” The Burlington Magazine 163 (1416) (March 2021).
