Tom Tomc Restoration

Son of Thomas Tomc Sr., a highly praised antique dealer and owner of Gallery Fly By Night in Chicago, Tom has spent his entire life surrounded by art, and figuring out ways to fix and preserve it. At age 12, he started his poster adventure in Paris with his father. There, they scoured galleries for vintage posters and prints, and brought them back home. He noticed tears, folds, and missing areas of color, and set out to fix them. It was from that moment that Tom decided he wanted to become an artist himself.

Tom received a full scholarship to the Chicago Academy for the Arts, where he fully immersed himself in printmaking and color theory. He then moved on to Kansas City Art Institute - where he received the Thomas Hart Benton Scholarship, a fully merit based scholarship. There, he studied under direct color observation master, and Director of the Kansas City Art Institute Department for over 40 years, Wilbur Niewald. He continued his studies at the American University, in Washington D.C, after receiving the Morris Lewis Scholarship. During this span, Tom also received a full ride to Chautauqua three times, and studied advanced landscape painting and color matching from direct observation with Stanley Lewis. Both mentors were Guggenheim Grant recipients.

In a professional capacity after graduate school, Tom worked for many conservation studios in Chicago, like Spencer Weisz Gallery, Colletti Gallery, and Poster Plus. He became an expert at linen backing and conservation practices, all while compiling different techniques from different masters to fine tune the processes we use today!

During that time however, Tom started to notice what is now referred to as “overpainting.” This is a more economic form of restoration, as an entire surface area is painted over to hide damage like tears, cracking, etc. In many of the studios he worked in, there was a strict and efficient system of masking and overpainting on posters in order to maximize efficiency and profit. However, this is more like putting a bandage over the issue. Overpainting may look good to the natural eye, but to preserve the originality and value of a piece, we address only the areas that need restoration. Working on different projects like vintage maps and collectible trading cards, we know how scrutinizing a grader can be. Under blacklight, overpainting is very obvious. Why airbrush an entire area just to cover a few imperfections?

There has been a long-standing debate between the worlds of conservation and restoration. Generally speaking, the less you alter a piece, the more value it will retain in the future. With that being said, we’ve vastly improved the resale value of destroyed advertisements and posters, sometimes by tenfold. Our partnerships with large auction houses like Swann Galleries and autographed movie poster clubs has given us a view not only into the art itself, but the valuation. We know what will be scrutinized by dealers and auction houses, and we know the best practices.

Fundamentally, we like to compare restoration to the ship of Theseus. In this school of thought, we think about whether an object is the same object after having had all of its original components replaced. The ship of Theseus was preserved over hundreds of years, slowly being restored board by board until none of the original materials remained. In this case, can we still call it the original ship? Or is it something entirely new? While we are able to remove and replace parts of a piece, where do we draw the line? It is a greatly rewarding challenge to match the original colors and materials, and Tom can recreate almost anything. Our philosophy however, is to address only what is necessary, retaining as much of the original art as possible. With that being said, we are happy to take restoration as far as deemed possible, or to give you a free consultation regarding what we think is the safest and most valuable option.

With a custom built mounting wall and curing racks, we are able to linen-back large batches in a very efficient manner. A simple mounting job can be turned around in only a few weeks! We do take our time on restoration, but we will do extensive testing to get the best results possible.

“I originally named my company The Art of Restoration, because, fundamentally, it is an art. There is no guide to fix every situation, and it often takes learning through other projects to figure out a plan for the next piece. The difference between my company and any other, is that I solely care about the preservation of the art, and I will take the time to figure out any problem in a way that benefits all parties. Now, the company has my namesake, and it honors the legacy of customer relationships and entrepreneurship that my father started to create many years ago.”