Preserving and Repairing the Art Objects
The efforts to stabilize, clean, and repair the more than one hundred vulnerable
art objects in this exhibition have been going on for more than five years.
The rare kinds of Burmese, Shan, northern Thai, and Siamese artworks shown, even though they may not be more than a century or two old, have often not survived in good condition. There are many reasons: the tropical climate of their homelands; the fact that some of these types of artworks were made for short-term use and no particular effort was made to preserve them later; and—for Burmese objects—the multiple wars of the last two hundred years.
The museum’s conservation team, including specialists in paintings, textiles, and other objects, spent some 6000 hours studying and photographing objects and planning and carrying out the treatments to preserve them and make them look their best. Among the treatments were
- Reducing tide-lines on rare furniture—the result of flooding from a hurricane that hit Doris Duke’s estate where many of the artworks in the exhibition were once stored
- Refitting faux gems missing from court robes, offering vessels, and elaborately carved shrines
- Hand carving or molding and replacing small curlicues and flourishes long ago lost from richly decorated furniture
- Polishing the many thousands of tiny glass ornaments and mirrors that embellish so many Burmese and Siamese art objects
Paintings presented the biggest challenge, because they are of a rare, little-studied type. Special treatment methods had to be developed. Although some of the paintings still show damage and may not look “restored,” in fact they have been stabilized by adhering flaking paint, removing active mold, and, in some instances, applying a lining to the back. (If paint has long ago been lost from a critical area such as a face, museum curators and conservators choose to leave the losses alone, rather than guess what might have been there.)
Here are some examples of conservation work done on actual artworks in the exhibition. On the left are the "before" images, and on the right, the "after" images.
Couch
Every square inch of this couch was cleaned with a cotton swab and a 50% mixture of ethanol and water. Those tiny mirrors now sparkle! The old cushion had been lost, so conservators made a new cushion for it.
Painting
This painting had lost so much pigment, it was difficult to tell what's going on. Conservators toned in the missing sections with slightly less saturated colors. From a distance, the painting now looks much more complete, but if you look closely, you'll see where they've in-painted new pigment.
Panel Painting
This painting also had lots of flaking paint, but the image was still easy to read, so conservators didn't in-paint this one. Instead, they worked to glue the flaking paint back in place and prevent any more pigment loss to the painting. The top carved leaf had broken off, though, so after studying similar artworks, they created a new leaf by making a mold and cast from one of the existing carved leaves. The new cast piece is made of black epoxy, which they toned to look similar to the existing carved pieces.
Corroded Painting
This painting involved a very complicated conservation process. The green paint in this tall, fabric-backed painting was made from copper, and over time the copper had eaten through the backing fabric. The conservator held the fabric in place with thousands of tiny "band-aids" as she replaced the corroded backing with a green tissue that mimics the green of the original painting. This painting will undergo further treatment after Emerald Cities has closed.
The conservation of the objects in this exhibition was supported by the
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services,
and the Connoisseurs’ Council.
