AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

When canvas lining is not viable, what tools remain in the conservator’s arsenal? In recent decades, the conservation community has acknowledged a potential decline in hands-on treatment skills, particularly those relating to complex structural treatments. Irrevocable damage suffered by countless paintings by way of uninformed and underprepared structural treatment has led towards a watershed movement away from involved structural treatments and associated instruction, prompting training initiatives to be launched internationally in an effort to preserve and build upon generations of knowledge.

This case study revisits the opportunity for renewed discussion of structural conservation methodology, and a practical exploration into stabilization measures undertaken as an alternative to canvas lining in an effort to preserve access to the canvas verso. Specific challenges in the treatment of this twentieth-century, oil on canvas painting included canvas shrinkage, tented paint, improbable media, and sentimental value, which had resulted in a complex interplay of instabilities with no simple solution. This discussion will navigate the advantages and disadvantages, as well as provide practical demonstrations, of consolidation techniques for paint on deformed canvas supports, canvas re-sizing, and loom-tensioning methods.