Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises

Fig. 2: Our Railroad Workers and their Union, Exhibition catalogue Franz West, To Built a House You Start with the Roof.
Presentation
The museum is presenting the group in the same
arrangement as that created by Franz West at its
first exhibition in 1996. There were a few exceptions,
as West arranged exhibitions by himself
and would sometimes combine different groups
of artworks.
Ronald is presented in a pine showcase, which
is covered at the front and the rear with transparent
acrylic glass, fixed with screws. Probably
the object was originally not presented in the
case. There are indications that the frame was
made in order to protect the damaged Ronald
within the group presentation. At the rear of
the guitar screw holes of the supposed previous
mounting were found. Like the original artwork,
the copy was to be presented unframed.
Conservation Goals
Part of the project was the examination of the
paint layer structure and the earlier repair treatments.
An important question was how to treat
the object’s patina. The correlation between repairs
/ “patina” and their importance to the history
of the object was examined. To find out by
whom the earlier repairs had been undertaken,
people in Franz West’s working environment
were interviewed. Furthermore, objects from this
particular group were compared regarding structure
and surface appearance. It was not possible
to answer this question in the context of this thesis.
There were suggestions that the repairs and
overworking was done by West himself or, with
his permission, by one of his assistants.
As a result a strategy in dealing with the present
surface condition was developed. Part of
West’s concept is that objects can be handled by
the owner. The patina which is due to the handling
of the object is therefore part of its history.
As a result of the research into the artist’s modus
operandi, the surface was accepted in its current
condition.
In order to adequately stabilise the papier mâché
body’s structure, two methods had to be combined.
During the work, it became evident that it
would not be possible to stabilise the entire body
from surface to centre. Therefore it was decided
that only the surface and the subsurface areas
should be treated; while not a complete procedure,
it would strengthen the object’s structure
somewhat.
Another major aspect was to develop measures
to optimise the situation for transport, storage
and exhibition to prevent further structural
deformations when handling the object and to
thus minimize damage.
ICOM-CC Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting | Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013
78