Thavibu Gallery | Contemporary Art from Thailand, Vietnam and Burma |
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| CONSERVATION - Care for your
Paintings |
| This page is meant to educate and equip you to better
care for your paintings and art works. It gives practical advice
applicable to everybody’s needs and is also an introduction to
conservation and restoration. However, these are specialist areas which
require advanced technical skills and experience. |
| Conservation
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| Emphasis in the past was on restoration of the painting to its former glory. This often included substantial
‘creative’ painting restoration in addition to cleansing. Nowadays, conservation is emphasised which includes careful cleaning
and measures to stabilise the painting. The target for most collectors
is preventive conservation i.e. to prevent deterioration,
and the need for active treatment is reduced. |
| Deterioration
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| All paintings begin to change from the moment the
painter finishes work on them. The effects of natural aging, light,
heat and humidity, and accidental damage all take their toll. Natural
aging is intrinsic to the materials of the painting. Pigments fade or
change colour, the medium changes character and renders the paint more
transparent, crack patterns (craquelure) develop as the paint dries,
contracts and moves with the support. Some of these alterations are
obvious, some more subtle. |
| Prevention |
| The most important preventive measure anyone can do to
protect their art works is to avoid direct sunlight since it can change
the colours of the pigments and cause colours to pale over a period of
time. The second measure is to avoid extremes in terms of temperature
and humidity, and in particularl sudden and large fluctuations in
temperature and humidity. A stable ‘room-temperature’ climate is the
most favourable for art works. |
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Conservation by Media |
Preventive
Conservation |
| Oil paintings on canvas |
Keep paintings away from direct sunlight |
| Acrylic paintings on canvas |
Avoid extreme temperatures and humidity |
| Lacquer paintings on board |
Avoid fluctuations in temperatures and humidity |
| Works on paper |
Keep canvas paintings stretched and upright or hung on a wall |
Two useful books are |
Do not store paintings in tight packing |
| Conservation of Paintings by The National Gallery UK - a small pocket
guide, 78 pp |
Do not attempt to 'fix' the painting yourself |
| The Restoration of Paintings by K.
Nicolaus, Konemann - a comprehensive book, richly illustrated with
examples and details, 422 pp |
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Oil paintings on canvas |
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| Most canvas paintings have a broadly similar
layered structure. It begins with the canvas and then work up through the
preparation ground or priming, the paint layers, and the varnish. The paint layers themselves are composed of coloured pigments
mixed with a binding medium, often a drying oil. They can vary enormously in
thickness and complexity from thin transparent washes (glazes) to thick opaque
textured brushwork (impasto). Certain pigments are more stable than others in
terms of resisting influence by light, humidity, etc. Varnishes, consisting of
of natural or synthetic resins, invariably discolour with time and this is one
of the reasons why pictures are cleaned. |
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Oil paintings have shown to be durable over the
centuries. Oil paintings should be stored stretched and possibly framed. Only
when they are relatively new can they be rolled up. Over time, the paint
becomes harder and more brittle. Hence, paint can start to crack and flake if
care is not taken to store the paintings properly.
All active interventions to the painting should
be handled by experts only. Professionally, cleaning of a painting is defined
as the removal of dirt, discoloured varnish layers and non-original repaints
from its surface. Only the expert can decide on this particular painting's
characteristics in terms of varnish, pigments, binding materials, and so on and
the necessary intervention needed. An amateur's efforts often causes havoc.
The only thing a layman collector can do is to wipe the surface clean with a
soft piece of cloth. |
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Acrylic paintings on canvas |
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Acrylic paintings use water as a solvent rather
than derivatives from oil. The pigments are often brightly coloured and
they dry faster than oil paintings. Often, they are not varnished.
In terms of preventive conservation, they are treated in a similar way as oil
paintings. |
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Lacquer paintings on board |
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| Lacquer paintings are normally durable and
resistant to many kinds of external impact. The board may warp sometimes, but
it can be straightened out in a strongly built frame. Since the board itself is
made from plywood, cotton, clay and layers of lacquer, it will normally not
crack, though extreme cold or dryness should be avoided. The surface of a lacquer painting can be polished
by the palm of a hand. Small pieces that have fallen of a lacquer
painting can be glued on to it, though more extensive damage must be repaired by
an expert, likely a Vietnamese expert, since they are the masters of lacquer
painting. |
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Works on paper |
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| Works on paper, drawings and watercolour, are the
most sensitive to external influences. Thus, most works on paper are framed
with an acid-free mat and covered with glass so the art work is in fact
contained inside a protective box. Works on paper should be kept in dry places
away from humidity which may cause mold growth or spots on the paper. Fastening
works on paper by adhesive tape will cause brown spots over time to the paper
and should be avoided. When a mat is used, it should be acid free since normal
paper/cartoon often contains acids which are detrimental to the paper itself and
can also cause discolouration to other pieces of paper adjacent to it. There are ways to restore damage to works on
paper, but it requires careful assessment and technical skills and is thus a job
for specialists in conservation measures. |
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Jorn Middelborg |
Thavibu Gallery
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