The Preservationists: Sculptor And Conservationist Michael van Enter Just Figures Things Out
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Michael van Enter grew up figuring things out. When he and his siblings got rowdy, his dad, a professional illustrator with a passion for motocross, would send them to the workshop.
“He’d put an engine on the table, and it was my job to strip it,” Michael said. “It was a great learning experience because when you think about a motorcycle, it has brass, steel, and aluminum parts, and it all has to work together.”
He and his siblings grew up tinkering, drawing, and creating. Their mother was a floral designer, so it’s easy to see that talent and problem-solving were genetic traits in this family.
“I was the nutty kid in the basement building a suit of armor and making helmets at age eight,” Michael said.
Family time was spent in motion, racing everything from go-karts to snowmobiles and, of course, motorcycles.
“My sister became a professional motorcycle racer for seven years, then a pilot, and my brother got into the car dealership industry,” Michael said. “We all grew up on an engine and two wheels.”
After spending the 1960s in Montreal, the family returned home to South Africa in 1970 during the thick of apartheid.
“During those years, you became very resourceful and had to figure things out,” he said.
Figuring things out is how Michael ended up being a professional sculptor and one of the best conservators in America, but it was quite the journey. After graduating from the Johannesburg School for Art, Ballet and Music, he started to sculpt and paint. Recognition began after a large exhibition of his work in Johannesburg.
“I also gained a reputation for fixing other people’s sculptures, and that’s how I got into conservation,” Michael said. “Years later, I found myself in New York City working at the consulate because of my translation skills. I speak Afrikaans, English, Dutch, a smattering of French, and get by in German.”
Michael also tried his hand in the advertising business. After stints at McCann and Grey, it was clear it was not his destiny. Then life led him to New York conservator Douglas Kwart.
“He recognized I knew what I was talking about,” Michael said. “Before I knew it, I was working on a Henry Moore piece I’d seen in a textbook. It was gratifying to be left alone with several million dollars of artwork and be trusted with them. That was a great feeling for me and gave me a lot of confidence.”
While working in New York and at his studio in Stamford, Connecticut, was gratifying, he decided his time in America was winding down. Then a friend asked for help in moving to Dallas.
That was almost 21 years ago.
It took a while, but Dallas grew on Michael.
“I was still spending a lot of time in New York, but gradually business grew here, and so did the talent pool,” he said. “Now I think we have some of the most experienced people in America here in Dallas.”
Michael has worked with the City of Dallas, museums, foundations, and organizations on projects you will instantly recognize, from the Flying Red Horse to the Hall of State. He’s done paint analysis, developed systems for mosaic removal, put enormous sculptures back together, and restored Victorian bank vault doors. Yes, he can still put a motorcycle engine back together!
His big break in Dallas came from Architexas when he was asked to help save some Octavio Medellín mosaics.
“No one knew how to take them out of the wall,” Michael said. “I had been in Bulgaria and saw a Roman floor being excavated. From that, I learned what I did not want to do. I developed a new system for removing the mosaics from the wall, and that project got me known as a conservator in Dallas.”
Another project that sealed the van Enter Studio’s reputation was for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Register Rick Floyd brought him in to fix a George Ricky mobile that no one thought could be repaired. Of course, Michal figured it out.
The maquette of the Alexander Liberman sculpture. 
Michael van Enter working out the Alexander Lieberman puzzle.
Anyone who has been to Love Field will notice a huge red Alexander Liberman sculpture. Michael engineered putting it back together and getting it set in place, possibly one of the most challenging projects his studio has dealt with.
In early 2000, it had been outside the Bank of America building downtown. They donated it to the city of Dallas because they wanted to change the building. Unfortunately, it was cut apart with no regard for how it went together, put on wood pallets, and dumped in a field where it rusted and sank into the mud. Eventually, someone decided it should be installed at Love Field.
“Of course, no one knew how it went together,” Michael said. “There were no reference marks on it. Because of the three-dimensional nature of the piece, photographs did not help. So we had to build a 1/12 scale maquette to work out the geometry. It was not as easy as we thought it would be. When we finally built the model, we had to figure out how to rebuild it on location and lying down, which is not how it was originally built. Then we had to engineer a way of picking it up. It was an amazingly difficult project, but it’s beautiful, and it looks just right where it is now.”
“It’s fun fixing stuff, particularly when everyone else can’t figure it out, but the most gratifying part of the work is that your expertise is trusted,” Michael said. “It’s about teamwork, and you can’t do the work unless you have a good team and good clients. Dallas has been a great place to land, and I landed here at the right time.”
We are Texas proud and privileged to be an integral part of the preservation of Dallas and the local preservation community.
Michael van Enter
