AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

In 1989, a masterwork of Washington Color School painter Morris Louis (1912–1962) was discovered vandalized with pencil marks during a routine gallery check. The painting, Beta Upsilon, was completed in 1960 by Louis a short time before his death by cancer. The artwork is the second largest in his unfurled series, which are recognized by the undulating rivulets of color that progress inward from the outside edges of the painting, with an expansive area of unprimed (raw) canvas exposed in the middle of the composition. The vandal had emulated the undulating colors by drawing two mimicking pencil lines, one along each side of the painting, and each one measuring over 32 inches in length.

Initial testing of the surface at the time of the event showed that removal of the pencil mark was not going to be easy. All conventional methods of treatment at that time were causing the mark to smudge or recede further into the textile, and due to the mechanical nature of the treatments, the woven fibers would become disrupted permanently. The expansiveness of the canvas was also a factor, as any localized cleaning of the areas affected would necessitate the overall cleaning of the expansive surface.

Thus began a research and testing project that would span over thirty years. This involved three generations of conservators at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a multitude of consultations with experts in the field, and the diligence of conservators to wait for science to aide in finding the ethical solution for the removal of the pencil marks.

This presentation will discuss the ethical challenges of advocating for a delayed treatment of an iconic work in a collection, along with an overview of the research and collaborative work that led to the creation of a new laser for use in the treatment of unprimed canvases. It will also highlight the challenges overcome during the treatment of this oversized canvas; which included the design of a custom-built worktable, innovative methods for tracking the progress of the laser application during treatment, monitoring the progress of cleaning with micro-cameras and digital tools that aided in the documentation and spot-checking of the canvas at all stages of the project.