Seeing the light: Research, conservation and exhibition of a 1980s daylight fluorescent painted leather jacket designed by Sprouse and painted by Castronovo

Abstract

In the mid-1980s, Stephen Sprouse designed a leather motorcycle jacket, the back of which was subsequently painted by muralist Stefano Castronovo. The silver jacket depicts the unmistakable – albeit fluorescent green – face of the Mona Lisa. Designed as club-wear, the garment’s full visual effect is only achieved under black lights. Exhibiting the jacket under ultraviolet radiation with its concomitant degradation concerns presented an ethical conundrum: exhibited this way, the jacket demonstrates to museum visitors the effect desired by Castronovo, but the lifetime of the fluorescent colors would be further shortened. Castronovo’s striking painting already suffered from delamination and cracking due to the flexible leather garment. Inpainting these losses was complicated by the jacket’s potential short-term display in both the visible and ultraviolet spectrum. Scientific analysis was conducted at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields on the original fluorescent paints and potential conservation materials to investigate solutions for display and documentation under both lighting conditions. This paper explores how the potential display of a leather jacket painted with daylight fluorescent pigments under visible and/or ultraviolet radiation impacted the treatment, interpretation, and exhibition. The jacket was stabilized, inpainted, and subsequently featured in an exhibition, taking into account the abovementioned research.

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