Adele De Cruz [NRA 1992-2023]

First name: Adele ;
Middle name:  ;
Last name: De Cruz ;

Member: Non-resident artist member ; 
Begin: 1992 ;
End: 2023 ;

Biography:

Adele DeCruz received an MFA degree in Fine Arts Conservation and Laura Professionale at Villa Schifanoia, Fine Arts Institute, Rosary College (Dominican University), Florence, Italy in 1979. She continued her studies at Columbia University, School of Historic Preservation, 1986-87. In 1977 she began research studies in the use of lasers in removal of over-paint in the Applied Physics Department, Stanford University, Palo Alto. From 1978 to 1984 she was a Kress Fellow, studying Italian panel and Baroque paintings with Mario Modestini.

Presently, she is Research Associate in Paleontology, at the American Museum of Natural History. From 2010-2017 she served as Associate Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry and Biology, Duke University and is on the faculty of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics. She was also Research Professor in the Dept. of Physics, Union College.
Since 2001 she has been a consultant to the Vatican Conservation Department in the use of the erbium laser. From 2000 to 2005 she served as collaborating conservator at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Firenze, Italia. From 2007 to 2009 she worked at the Camposanto Monumentale, Pisa, Italy.
Since 2005 she has been Visiting Professor, Dept. Analytic Chemistry, “Bene Cuturale”, University of Pisa, and collaborating conservator at the ICVBC-CNR, Florence, It. She served as Senior Research Conservator at the Duke University (Nasher) Art Museum, Durham, NC from 2002 to 2005.
In 1994 she began research with Myron L. Wolbarsht, PhD, at the Duke University Free Electron Laser Lab, to explore various wavelengths for the removal of encrustations on painted surfaces. In 1999 a U. S. patent was awarded to Wolbarsht and deCruz: “Method for cleaning Artwork; The Use of lasers in fine arts conservation”, US Patent #5,951,778, Sept.1999.

She is a paintings conservator for private and museum collections. Her expertise is in painted surfaces and the scientific examination of art works. She has studied and worked as the artistic biographer of Frank Duveneck (1848-1919) and his oeuvres. She has had appointments as chief conservator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, conservator the Snite Art Museum, Notre Dame College, South Bend, IN, the Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC and as the 1988 visiting lecturor at Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC As a young conservator she worked as Kress Intern with the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, guest conservator the Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey CA, the San Clemente Dominican Monastery, Rome, It. and the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX.

Adele DeCruz holds an MFA from Dominican University and a certificate from the School of Historical Preservation at Columbia University. She has been a Samuel H. Kress Fellow, a consultant to the Vatican and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, and a senior Conservator at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Her special expertise is the use of lasers to remove encrustations from the surface of art works, and she holds a patent on this method.

Artworks: