A large table, well-padded, is set up for me in the L-shaped
room or the art store, wherever I am working. I don my latex gloves, and a mask
if there’s mould or a lot of dust. I take an art object over to the table and
work through my checklist. First of all, what is this?! I’ve done some reading
on different types of print, photographs and so on, yet still the answer is not
always clear (sometimes the conservator doesn’t know either!). For example, I’ve
had some items on which well-meaning people have stuck labels that completely
misinform me as to the medium. I’ve also had to deal with some photographs of
drawings and paintings, which can be very confusing – is this a print? Or a
photo of a drawing…? And so on.
Moving on, can I spot any damage to the item, such as
scuffing, cockling of the support or bits missing (‘losses’)? How is the object
mounted – if on board, is this acid-free? Is there any dirt and, if so, is it on
the item or just the glass in its frame? Or, if an old photograph, you come up
against that crucial yet bewildering question: ‘Is this discoloured or did it
always look like that?’
If the item is framed, is this the original frame and if
not, do we really need it? If not, it’s time to get the pliers out, goggles on and
pull out nails or do whatever necessary to get the backing off – often revealing
that someone has stuck the object to its mount with sticky tape – aaagh!
If paper is involved, I try to ascertain what might have
caused any ominous grubby marks. If an acidic mount, such as wood or most types
of board, has been used, the paper usually has brown lines or other marks on it
because the acid literally burns the paper over time. Some artworks I’ve seen
have been in frames with a wood backing, which stains the entire back of the
object brown. Another very common thing with paper is ‘foxing’: those small
brown stains that form over the surface. These are caused by metal impurities
in the paper, which corrode. I’ve had one instance of suspected mould – some kind
of liquid was dropped on the object’s surface and the mould was attracted to
the liquid. I had to deframe the item straight away and put it aside for
special treatment. If anyone reading this has anything precious on paper – please
keep it somewhere dry!
Oil paintings are very often cracked all over, or can have
rips and tears or are slack on their stretchers. Though these don’t often have
frames, I’ve found a small painting of Walter Scott in the art store, with an
exquisitely ornate, art deco-style wooden frame. The frame is gorgeous but so
fragile, with losses and bits hanging off it, that I hardly dare touch it.
Alarmingly, it’s hanging on a rack and I’m dying to get it into a box where it’s
safe!
Just enough time to tell you some of the idiosyncratic,
often funny vocabulary that you’re supposed to use when describing artworks and any damage. Here are some of my
favourite terms:
Alligatoring: extreme shrinkage cracking in paint that
resembles alligator skin
Cotton Duck: a white cotton canvas used from 1920’s
Fishtail crack: an age crack that looks like a fish tail –
often in the corner of an oil painting
Craqueleure: another name for age cracking
Pentimenti: Where a paint layer has become transparent,
revealing what is below
Blind Cleavage: described in my glossary as ‘areas of
cleavage that are difficult to see’.
(Cleavage is where paint has lost adhesion to its ground – of course!!)
Plenty of fun to be had, then, but plenty of work…
No comments:
Post a Comment