More than 20 years ago the Menil Collection launched the Artists Documentation Project to interview artists such as Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns in the presence of their artworks, recording their attitudes and feelings toward the works’ conservation and exhibition.

The Menil Collection's conservation studio is a prominent part of its Renzo Piano-designed building. Photo: The Menil Collection

Now, joined by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Harvard Art Museums’ Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, the Menil is making all 50 hours of interviews with 33 artists available for free online.

Former Menil chief conservator Carol Mancusi-Ungaro began the project in 1990, prompted by the lack of a professional consensus on what constitutes appropriate aging and acceptable damage of modern artworks, which are often made with unusual techniques or fragile materials.

That makes the artists themselves important resources on such matters.

“Maybe my tendency now is to say, ‘Leave it. Let it patinate,’ ” painter Brice Marden said of his works in a 1992 interview. “Because they are pretty funky to begin with. These aren’t pristine surfaces. They are never meant to be.”

After accepting dual positions at the Whitney and the Harvard Art Museums in 2001, Mancusi-Ungaro and her colleagues continued interviewing artists, as did her Menil successors, Elizabeth Lunning and Brad Epley. The project evolved into a collaboration between the three institutions.

While the interviews were originally intended for visiting conservators and scholars, demand prompted the museums to make them available to anyone interested. They can be accessed at http://adp.menil.org.

http://www.twitter.com/douglasbritt