Conservation—a sticky issue

Press, 26 February 1986, Page 18

Conservation —a sticky issue

Sellotape, masking tape and synthetic glues are the bane of Lynn Campbell’s working life. As the new conservator at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Mrs Campbell - spends a lot of time ensuring that the paper art collection is kept in good order.

Modern works only need the minimum of conservation work — a soak in lime water to remove acidity from the paper, and perhaps a matting finish. Older works, however, particularly those bought from auctions and given to the gallery, often need repairing before they can be exhibited, and to ensure their preservation.

This is where the aforementioned adhesives are often a problem. Used to attach paper works of art to backing boards, they are virtually "impossible to remove,” says Mrs Campbell. In conservation, where

separating a print from its backing board is often the first step, “the biggest bane is Sellotape, masking tape and synthetic glues,” she says. When finally removed, they leave stains sometimes impossible to get rid off. Mrs Campbell, who emigrated from Britain to take up the post of conservator last December, spends half her week maintaining and repairing the gallery’s collection of paper art, and writing “before and after” reports on the condition of visiting exhibitions.

The rest of her time is taken up monitoring the gallery environment to ensure that the conditions and light levels are right for each exhibition.

Prints and paintings can be damaged by the most common elements. Light is the main cause of damage... too much and colours fade and . the paper darkens. Damage is also caused by the acids within the paper and in the air,

foxing (thought to be a kind of mould), air burns, creases and rips. Once free from any backing or surrounds, the work is usually draft cleaned with a special power to remove excess dirt, and then soaked in lime water (provided the image does not run in water).

Rips are mended with Japanese tissues, and missing pieces patched with matching paper.

All conservation work must be reversible, says Mrs Campbell. It is important that any future conservator can tell just what has been done to it That means that although patches and rips may be repaired to look like new again from the front, they must be obvious at the back, and water-soluble glue must always be used. Any touching up of paint work must also be done in a different medium to the original. When working on archival pieces, such as docu-

ments and scientific sketches and designs, any repairs must be obvious from the front as well as the back.

Most of the conserved paper works of art at the Robert McDougall are matted to set sizes so they can be exhibited in stand-ard-sized frames.

When not on show they are stored away by the thousands in wooden solander boxes near the conservation workshop in the gallery basement.

Works other than those on paper, such as oil paintings and sculptures are sent to conservators specialised in those areas, says Mrs Campbell. But what is it that draws this skilled printmaker to conserve other artists’ works? Mrs Campbell, who studied fine arts and print-making before training as a conservator in Britain, says she has always been interested in works of art on paper. "I , always hoped that if someone got hold of one

of my prints in a hundred years time and it was really bad and tatty, that they would conserve it” It is satisfying to see something “tatty, grubby and horrible,” come out looking dramatically better, or at least significantly cleaner, and know that it will stay like that for a long time, she says. And the job offers variety.

Since qualifying in 1981, Mrs Campbell has taught trainee conservators at Gateshead (where she studied); worked on a series of nineteenth-cen-tury Japanese prints and “beautiful aquatints of steam and water-powered engines” at the Royal Scottish Museum; and on the Arabic manuscripts of the Sultan of Iman, in Zanzibar. The only drawback is that when she goes to art exhibitions “I look at the problems instead of at the images. “I have to force myself to look at the pictures,” she says.