The Alchemy of Art Conservation

Hello. As an American Friends of British Art, you have helped restore and preserve the cultural patrimony of Great Britain and its treasures. Preserving our art and architecture is so key that art conservators have actually made it their life mission. So what happens after you've funded a restoration? What does it actually entail to restore an artwork? You're about to watch a short video that will show you exactly what an art conservator does to bring paintings back to their original glory. You will enter into the world of art conservation and discover how an art conservator combines artistic mastery with perfected science and chemistry to save and preserve our cultural heritage. It'll be a fascinating journey that we are sure you're going to enjoy. Following the video, Barbara Stella, Chief Art Conservator at Stella Art Conservation, will share with you the eight most common mistakes you need to avoid in your home to better care for your art collection. The presentation will be packed with information and important yet simple tips to make sure you will preserve your treasures for future generations. Art conservation embraces an interdisciplinary and science-based approach to art. Conservators are highly educated and trained individuals who underwent years of studies in science, chemistry, history, ethics, and art, to name but a few. Indeed, art conservators are the guardians of our cultural heritage. They are passionate about the arts and dedicated to preserve our treasures for future generations. At Stella Art Conservation, we specialize in museum-quality art conservation and restoration of paintings, sculptures, artifacts, and other artworks, from the ancient to the contemporary. Our expert art conservators have superior knowledge in traditional as well as innovative fine art conservation techniques and are capable of restoring highly damaged artworks while preserving the artist's original intention. Our Chief Art Conservator, Barbara Stella, is a professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation and she stringently follows its rules and regulations. In the span of a 30-year career, she has performed treatments on artworks by prestigious artists such as Rembrandt, Monet, Salvador Dalí, Kenneth Noland, John Miro, Magritte, and more. Join us in this journey behind the scenes of Stella Art Conservation, narrated by our Chief Conservator, Barbara Stella. A conservation treatment always begins with the examination of the artwork. For that purpose, we use different tools and methods to reveal the actual condition of the painting. The specialized equipment we use for the examination are UV light, raking light, microscope, and eventually infrared x-ray. It's essential for a conservator to record all the information obtained throughout direct observation and in-depth researches regarding the artist, the history, and artistic techniques. When all this information is recorded, we can establish a conservation treatment protocol. UV light is an essential tool in art conservation. It enables our conservators to examine paintings and help us to detect previous restorations, as well as understand the materials used by the artists and much more. In this case, for instance, you can identify the retouching we did during the restoration of this beautiful portrait of Lily Landry. As you can see, the retouching are not visible in natural light. However, they must be identifiable under UV light to distinguish between the original and the restoration. Cleaning a painting is a very important and yet sensitive phase in conservation. Accumulated layers of dirt, grime, soot, smoke, discolored varnish, old retouching over time can alter the appearance of the painting. As a consequence, the image may look darkened, yellowed, or dull, or simply it doesn't appear as clear or sharp as you remember. By removing this layer, a conservator can bring a painting back to its original brightness. Cleaning an artwork requires skills and knowledge in chemistry, material science, and much more. It also requires years of training and practical experience. Indeed, improper cleaning can cause irreversible damages. To clean a painting, we use several methodologies and materials, from the traditional solvents, solvent gels, to the new methodologies and new materials that are constantly improved. So, today, we can also use microemulsion, aqueous solution, and adjusted water, where we change the pH of the water, making it more acidic or basic, based on what we need to solubilize on the paint layer. We also have the latest innovation in conservation, which is nanotechnology, another important technology that can be used particularly for sensitive paintings that do not support any water or solvent solutions. We perform preliminary tests to determine the most appropriate cleaning solutions and methodologies. We also evaluate the solubility of the material that needs to be removed from the surface. We do especially take into consideration the stability of the original materials and much more prior to proceeding with the cleaning. We do deeply examine the artwork and carefully select the proper cleaning solution. In this case of this painting depicting the Rialto Bridge in Venice, which is an oil on canvas, it presents a layer of nicotine on the surface. As you can see in this area where I removed the layer of nicotine, I was able to reveal the original brightness of the color. The difference is absolutely dramatic. For the cleaning in this phase, I used adjusted water, changing the pH of the water with a lower pH to remove the layer of nicotine. In this other painting depicting a portrait of a lady, we have a different issue, which is a very thick discolored varnish. Traditional oil paintings usually have a final coat of varnish over the paint layer as a protective layer from dust and atmospheric pollution. However, the varnish are natural resins that with time, light and humidity have the tendency to discolor and change the overall brightness and tone. The final phase is what we call the cosmetic treatment, which includes the retouching of losses. Here we recreate the color matching the surrounding original colors to restore the artist's image, but without covering any of the original paint. The retouching or in painting must be confined to specific area of loss and the materials used must be reversible. In this modern painting, Barbara cleaned both the paint layer and the raw canvas. As you can see from this picture, the painting had dirt, nicotine and foxin. And here is the picture taken after the restoration. Please note that the canvas was returned to its original color and no blanching was done to it. The technique used made sure that the painting will be preserved for many generations to come. This ancient French painting had many issues, yellowing of the varnish, tears, holes and many more. Please pay close attention to the area on top of the lady's head. And here is the painting after the restoration. Notice anything different? The hat was overpainted during a previous restoration and it was a true pleasure for us to bring the painting back to its original beauty, revealing the hat that the artist had so skillfully done. That's the purpose of an art conservator. We hope you enjoyed learning more about art conservation. And now is the presentation about the eight mistakes you need to avoid to better preserve your art. Enjoy! This is actually a very important topic to me and for each art collector. As a conservator, I truly believe that prevention is paramount for the preservation of the artwork. And in my 30 years of experience in art conservation and collection maintenance, I observed a few mistakes, as I was mentioning, that I would like to share with you so you can learn from other mistakes and have the chance to correct if you are repeating the same mistake in your residence. So when we go on site for collection maintenance, what we do, we examine all the pieces, all the artworks with magnified glasses. This allowed us to really identify the conservation state of the artwork. And we can disclose everything that is not visible in naked eye. And so we also check the environment because the environment can be a source of damage to the painting. So we check the relative humidity, the light, and so forth. And we will see everything during these lights. And so the purpose of collection maintenance is really to prevent possible damage that may occur if not promptly addressed. And during this on-site examination, I had a chance to identify these eight common mistakes. The first one, as you know, we do live in a beautiful paradise, Florida, but indeed it's very humid. And it's, therefore, it's very challenging for an art collector to display their art in proper condition. Just opening a window, opening a door, may cause a fluctuation of humidity that could have consequences in the art. When a painting is exposed to high humidity or fluctuation of humidity, it can suffer a wide range of damage. And I collected here a few little examples so you can have a visual of the damages that you can see in the art. So the first picture in the left is representing the canvas. And the canvas is very hygroscopic and very sensitive to humidity, particularly cotton canvas. And in condition of humidity or fluctuation of humidity could shrink or deform, creating creases all around the edges. The canvas can lose and creating also the structure mark. You can see many paintings, there is this mark around the edges, which is actually called the structure mark. Then, as a consequence, there are movement and we can have delamination or crack in the paint layer to the point to flaking and losses of color. For good panel paintings, the situation is even more dramatic. We can have, as well, delamination of color losses and flaking and the panel could work. And this could also be an irreversible damage. This slide I'm sharing a phase in what we do, we call the mold remediation. So over 60% of humidity painting are subject to mold infestation. And we do receive many paintings damaged by mold, especially here in Florida, the condition are proper. So over 60%, as mentioned, humidity, in even 48 hours, the painting can develop mold. So this is somebody, we have a blog, we have also Facebook, somebody mentioned this is our Ghostbuster pictures. So what I'm using in third is the PEPA vacuum to remove, and I'm removing it with a very gentle brush, removing the external part of the mold to first phase in proceeding with the remediation, the mold remediation. So what you can do, you can have in each room where you have your art displayed, a thermostat that you can check regularly, and you can see if there are a proper condition for your art. The best condition are 68 to 77 Fahrenheit degrees, and the humidity, it would be best to keep it between 45 to 55%. And fluctuations are inevitable, but don't be alarmed. Between 5% are acceptable for the painting. Second mistake is hanging your painting in a smoking or in a very hot area. So there is no worse places than hanging a painting over above a mantle or near a radiator, so heat machinery. And this would be leading to severe damages in your paintings. Most of the time, in severe cases, could be also irreversible. Let's see what can happen. Okay, so in the left side, you can see unbritten or the canvas, the canvas can be very fragile and brittle, so can be damaged very easily, can lead with tear, and we can have very important crack. In case of severe heat, like for instance, a fire event, or even a lamp, and we will see which kind of light we should use. So we can also have blistering, and most of the time blistering is irreversible. As a consequence, we also have, I apologize, as a consequence, we also have a smoke that we can, that can be produced from the radiators and from the fire, in case of fire, for instance, we have in the right, you can see a painting that was half clean and half kept with a layer of soot, and in the left, we have a layer of nicotine, which is pretty common, especially for painting of 70, and we do receive a lot of painting with a smoke layer, which is, can cause discoloration of the varnish, and you can see the nicotine is very yellow, so yellow and darken the surface, and the overall aesthetic of the painting. The other mistake, it's very, very important to consider, is avoid the red light or sunlight in your painting. This is something I see very often when I go on site, and I'm always very pleased to share this information. So, what could happen to your painting? So, the varnish, which is a protective layer over the color, can discolor much more quickly. The varnish is a resin base, and just heat or humidity or light, in this case, UV light and sunlight, can discolor, and you can see in the left side, we have photographs of a painting with a cleaning test, and you can see the difference in the area that was cleaned, and also the discoloration of the varnish. In the center, we do have embrittlement in the canvas, and the paint layer is powdery, very, very weak, because of the UV light, and in case of light, like, for instance, halogen, a light that produces a lot of heat, we can have blistering and bubbling. Never, never allow the light to directly face your painting. This would, this precaution would avoid any consequence with the damage on your painting. This is extremely important. So, what you can do, a very easy step, in case you have a painting near a window, and you can apply protective UV screen on your window, or eventually, you can use protective plexiglass, UV plexiglass. This is, in Florida, I still, I'm still a little bit worried about this precaution. It's better than receiving direct sunlight, but what I do recommend is to leave a little bit of space between the painting and the wall to allow air circulation. This would be a precaution, so you don't have, the painting doesn't have any condensation that could lead in mold. Next mistake. So, this is extremely important. I never emphasize enough the importance to be focusing in choosing your light in, that is functional, instead of something that is statical. So, what I do suggest, never use halogen or incandescent light, because they do emit a lot of UV light, infrared light, and they do heat the surface of the painting. That could lead to the damages we just feel. Much better is the LED light, which produces less heat, still a little bit of UV light, but it's definitely much, much better. So, let's go ahead. What recently I discovered, which is something I do recommend, if possible, I was attending to seminar about this topic, which is very important in conservation, and I had a chance to view the eco-friendly fiber optic system, which is very interesting because it doesn't emit any UV light, any infrared, and it also doesn't heat the surface of the painting, and it's also very, very beautiful to see, to view. So, it's definitely suggested, recommended. So, let's go ahead. I have a little bit, I have this. This is, if you like to use your light, it's better to have it on spotlights on the ceiling, and those are the criteria you may want to consider to hang, to prepare, to lighten your painting. Next mistake. This is something I see very frequently, and this is never, never use, have a painting over an outlet with plugs, and especially I see plugs from the light above the painting. Those objects protrude from the wall, and they may damage the painting. Let's see what could happen. My computer is very sensitive today. Sorry. So, those objects may hit the canvas, causing indentation to the point that could tear the canvas. So, a simple, simple tool is just to use flat plugs, but still make sure that the plugs doesn't reach the level of the canvas, and you still have a little bit of distance between the plug and the canvas, just in case the canvas loosens up a little bit so it doesn't touch the surface. Next mistake. Improper cleaning. It's a very important, important precaution to do. So, using the right products is extremely important. I have a chance to see, especially when I'm on site, when I examine the painting with magnified glasses, I have a chance to see the consequences of an improper cleaning, and I have a little story in this regard, anyway. It's a little bit different. So, this is to emphasize the importance to use the right tools in just dusting your painting. So, several years ago, I was still in Italy at the time, and I had my studio 20 years in Italy, and had a client come into the laboratory with a very valuable little painting, and she was, as you can understand, very, very nervous because suddenly her painting turned out to be totally white. It was indeed so white that I couldn't understand what was depicted. So, I started to inquire, did you move your painting recently to another location in your residence? Is it your very much humid? And everything was, no, no, no, no. So, it was kept in proper condition, was preserved properly, when suddenly she just disappointed to say, I don't know why. I take care of this painting, and I clean this painting almost every day. So, at that point, I had a little flash. I thought, oh my gosh, probably what you are using is not the proper material. Oh, it's actually a very old recipe. My grandma shared this treat to me, and you know, in Italy, we are very creative, and we do trust a lot the grandma recipe. So, she was sharing with me that she cut a potato, and she was massaging the surface of the painting with this potato. So, of course, the surface was becoming very much bright in the moment she was doing that, but then with time, layer on layer of starch, and then that was a funny event that I never experienced, but I was able to remove the starch, and the painting came back to its original beauty. So, just coming back to the tools you may want to use. Yeah, Barbara, if I can interject, because here in Florida, what's happening very often, when Barbara goes on site with the magnifying glasses, she notices that there is sometimes fibers stuck in the paint layer. So, the housekeepers don't actually know. They take something that's very delicate, but actually the fibers get stuck. Now, you don't see it with your naked eye, but when they see it with the magnifying glasses, you can actually see the fibers. So, even if the housekeepers think they're very delicate what they're using, if it's not what Barbara is about to share, it's not the best solution. So, you really have to check what they're using to dry clean their painting. Yes. In fact, as Sandra was mentioning, feather duster and electrostatic duster, they may seem gentle, but in truth, they can snag on a rough area, or they can scratch the varnish, or in case of impasto, they can, or in case of delamination that we were seeing earlier, these tools, they can really damage the art and remove totally, in case of delamination or flaking, remove the paint layer. Absolutely. So, what you can use, let me share this with you. It's very important never to use any deodorant or any spray close near to a painting, to clean maybe the object near to the painting, because this could lead to damage to the surface. What you can use is a very, very simple tool, which is a very gentle sable or gold hair brush that you can easily purchase online or to an art store. I have a recommendation and a suggestion. Prior to dust your painting, which has to be occasionally every four to five months, doesn't have to be often, five months is a good number, but prior to dust your painting, I do recommend to use, to examine your art with raking light. It's very easy to do. You just need to take a flashlight and you place your flashlight on the left side of your painting, the light goes across the surface, enhancing any damage, potential damage on the surface, like in this case. And if you see a situation similar to this, I highly recommend to just avoid dusting your painting because in case of delamination, even a soft brush could damage your painting and call your trusted conservator. Let's go ahead. Next, it's really, really very often we receive paintings damaged because of an improper hanging system. So very often we do have paintings that they may have a wire system and this is a very, very important to know. It's very unstable. Many times we do have paintings falling from the wall because the wire break. And what could happen is if the situation is that in the best scenario, we have damage of the frame, in the worst scenario, if the painting hits the floor or an object during falling from the floor, we may have holes, tears, we may have indentation of the, and also flaking or losses of color. So what you can do is to use a very, very easy system, which is the two D-rings at the side. I know sometimes I hear complaining that it's more difficult to hang your painting, but focusing on conservation, you need to consider that's the absolutely best way and the safest way. And also flange plate mounting is really important as well. Very, very useful. Never, never touch your painting with your naked hands because the oil on your skin may stain your painting. And especially in case of acrylic paintings, sometimes fingerprints are irreversible. So just use cotton gloves. If you purchase a painting and comes to you rolling a tube, protective tube, just don't leave it on your, don't leave it rolled because we can see consequences on the paint layer. I'm going to show you what you can have. Like in this case, there is, as you can see, there is a crack, horizontal crack across the surface because the painting was rolled and kept in a tube for a long time before it was re-stretched on the stretcher. So what you can do, in this case especially, it was rolled face in, and this is a very big mistake. If you have to roll your painting for transportation or maybe you receive it and you need to keep it rolled for a while, just roll it with the face of the painting out. Or lay, keep your painting between two carboards, acid-free carboards, which is much better, and in a dark and with proper condition of humidity and cool room. So that will be preserving your art for longer. So now that I shared with you the eight common mistakes, I like to show you a few before and after. Some restoration we did. This painting is, I did this restoration actually, it was one of my first restoration in Italy. And one day the Ministry of the Cultural Heritage called me, the director of the, called me and invited me to go on site to examine this painting. This painting is 16th century, Camillo Procaccini is the artist, all on canvas and pretty large dimensions, seven wide and 12 the height. And as you can see, it was really in poor condition. So when we went on site, the priest brought us to the attic of the church where the painting was stored. And he was sharing with me that the painting was damaged by a bomb during World War II. And since then was kept in the attic in very humid environment. And he handed to me the painting folded like a blanket. So you can see the damage were very, very much severe. We have tears, holes, delamination losses, flaking, all the protocol of the damages were all together in this painting, was very interesting to restore this painting. And here we have the, after the restoration. And on the right, there is a detail, which is the very right side of the painting. And this is just one tear, which was very large, was 20 inches by 18 inches. And you can have the during the restoration. So in this case, I was mending the tear. And I had chance also to repair all the holes around and I had to reline the painting. What does it mean to reline a painting? I used a secondary support. And I used an adhesive to attach the two canvases together. The secondary support was indeed needed because of the original canvas was extremely damaged and not being able to support itself. And here we have the same detail after the restoration. This painting, another large painting from Patlipski. And Patlipski, she used to paint during her color field era, she used to drop this color on the raw canvas. And the damage here was not only on the paint layer, but mostly on the raw canvas with water stains, nicotine, foxing. And you can see the discoloration of the canvas was very, very important. And here we have the painting after the restoration. And I developed strategically a technique and I used a material which wasn't blanching the canvas, as you could see. That's another Patlipski. You may saw the first one I did in the video. And this is the result of the restoration. As the end, I kept the most intriguing restoration I did. And this painting, I did this restoration in Italy. When the clients came to me in the laboratory and he gave me, assigned me to restore this painting, it was indeed in poor condition, as you can see. It is on wood panel. And we had the three panels totally detached, a lot of losses on the upper side of the painting. And while I was examining the painting, as we always do prior to the restoration, I noticed that the wood support was much older comparing the paint layer. So I was sharing this with my client and examining the art with the microscope, I discovered a little fragment of red color just underneath flaking. So I said, you know, I really think there is something different beneath this painting. Would you like me to inquire? He said, oh yes, please go ahead. I don't even like this painting, but it was in my family from generation and I felt the need to take care of this painting, but it's so ugly, he said. And I started to examine and I made a little cleaning test after discussing with my client and an eye popped and a little face popped. So, of course, I shared with my client and he was very, very excited and he decided to go ahead. With the removal of the new painting, which is probably turning the 20th century, so proceeding with the restoration, a figure was emerging, removing this black color and proceeding to the point with the cleaning that the situation was pretty confusing, as you can see. And I also discovered a little curtain and a mask in the left side that didn't pertain to both painting, didn't have nothing to do with everything was depicting as a crucifixion or the old painting that was re-emerging. So a lot of mystery around this painting. So after the cleaning, this was the result. And the client, of course, was very happy to discover that beneath that crucifixion, he found out a painting that was actually signed and dated 1521, as you can see. So that was a very, very interesting discovery. And it's in my experience working in conservation, I had a chance to see that, especially turning the century, since we're not the figure of a conservator, we're not still as today, we do have a lot of regulation at the time was most assigned to an artist. And even artists themselves, they used to reuse old paintings because they may even have nothing to, no canvas, they used to reuse old canvas and repaint over. And that was definitely a nice discovery. We hope you enjoyed this presentation. Should you have any questions, feel free to email us at info at StellaArtConservation.com. We will be happy to be of assistance and offer any information you may need. After all, that's what friends are, or better yet, that's what American Friends of British Art are for. Thank you all for what you do to preserve our cultural heritage and British art.