AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Ongoing research at the Textile Conservation Workshop for the treatment of a suite of Henri Matisse textile artworks builds on work initially published in JAIC 2014, Vol. 53, No. 4. New treatment of 8 additional panels has increased our knowledge of the peculiar sensitivities of the materials and their wide-ranging conditions. The Océanie series, an edition of 60 oversized silk-screened linen wall panels arose from a collaboration between the artist Henri Matisse and textile designer Zika Ascher in 1946-1949. From 1940, until his death in 1954, Matisse was occupied with cutting shapes from paper that he arranged on surfaces to form the exuberant compositions of his last years. Two groups of Tahitian inspired cut-outs, pinned to the walls of his studio, were used as templates for the Océanie textile panels, le Ciel and la Mer. Thirty signed and numbered copies of each design were produced and are now dispersed throughout museums and private collections all over the world.

This artwork presents challenges that require the dual expertise of the painted textiles conservation sub-specialty that this joint session addresses. Unpublished historical records, and analytical and empirical testing yielded information about the improvisational nature of their manufacture, origins of the linen cloth, the dye-stuff, the preparation layer, the printing ink, the division of the edition between Ascher and Matisse, and the signing protocols.

Each panel consists of a dyed beige linen substrate with floral and faunal motifs silk-screened with oil-based, white printing ink. Although Ascher and Matisse had aimed for a decorative textile in which the ink fully permeated the linen, they were unable to achieve the design without a viscous, oil-based ink that sat atop the linen, barely penetrating the substrate. Fabricated in a war-time workroom, plagued by shortages, each formulation fell short of standardization. The resulting artworks consist of thick islands of paint-like motifs on a 13-foot expanse of unrestricted, light-weight, plain-woven linen cloth.

Since the 2014 JAIC article we have been fortunate to examine and treat 8 additional examples revealing a fuller scope of condition, affording a broader understanding of the original materials and how they have responded to specific environmental factors. Seventy-five years have elapsed since fabrication, spawning a surprisingly wide range of condition problems making each panel unique. Condition issues across the edition consist of inherent light-aging susceptibility, a strong tendency to crease, and the propensity of the sized linen to blemish because of its hypersensitivity to even the slightest hint of moisture. Printing ink conditions range from pristine to water-damaged, abraded, skinned, badly flaking and poorly over-painted. Augmented by research into artist’s intent, methods of fabrication, and materials analysis, a wider-range of treatment practices have necessarily evolved.

Conclusions include current solutions for stain mitigation, humidification/flattening on the suction table, printing ink consolidation with the ultrasonic nebulizer, and retouching. Persistent thorny questions, such as an unusual motif-ghosting phenomenon, puzzling fabrication techniques, identification of dye-stuff, stain reduction methods, ethics of retouching ink, and keeping up a current roster of the 60 panels are presented for discussion.