Artcare - Auckland Art Gallery

Paintingsing and tearing. Special precautions should be takenwith unframed paintings with delicate soft surfaces, asthese may be damaged by the cardboard itself and mayneed a travelling frame to keep everything away fromthe surface. Nothing should be leant directly against thefront of a painting.Paintings should be stacked vertically and placedface to face and back to back with corrugated cardboardsheets in between. This eliminates the danger of protrudingdecorations and hanging apparatus on framesdamaging the faces of adjacentpictures.Stack works of a similarsize together. Put the largestwork at the back, tapering tothe smallest at the front.Adjacent pictures must belarge enough to cross eachother completely. Do not stackpaintings that have fragilepaint layers. They should belaid flat and conservationadvice sought.Paintings should beStored in Frames—framesprotect pictures from abrasion.If not framed or in atravelling frame, a paintingshould be wrapped in Tyvek (asynthetic paper) or clean softtissue (preferably acid-free).Keep tape away from the front of the painting.Wrapping paintings in clean tissue or Tyvek is advisablefor those pictures with delicate surfaces, such as colourfieldpaintings or ones with bare canvas exposed. Thesetypes of pictures rely on surface effects and any damagecan be difficult or impossible to treat, ruining theintended effect of the artist. Plastic can also be wrappedaround these works if they are already wrapped intissue.The Frame as Part ofthe Art ObjectAn original frame can be an important partof the work of art. The artist may havechosen it to complement or bring out somethingin the painting, and by removing ityou could alter the artist’s original intent;or the frame may epitomise the age of thework, making it part of its history. Originalframes should therefore be reused if at allpossible.Plastic, including bubblewrap, should never come indirect contact with the paint surface, as the two layerscan adhere together or leave permanent marks on thepaint surface. The painting should be wrapped in anacid-free tissue or Tyvek first and the bubblewrap shouldbe wrapped with bubbles to the outside.Slot Storage—frequently paintings are packed intoslot storage units without any protection from the storagestructure or the other paintings. The results areabrasion, scratches, scuffing, breaks and tears. Theseare all things that could haveeasily be avoided with a minimumof expense. Paintingsshould not be stacked togetherwithout a protective layerbetween them.If you have a large numberof paintings to store, thenit is advisable to use a rigidstructure for this purpose.Moving screens are useful forlarge collections, but they areexpensive and therefore forsmaller collections slot storageis probably more practical.Slots prevent too muchpressure building up fromlarge numbers of paintingsleaning against each other.Slots are best made of sealedwood, having bases lined withcompact foam (such as expanded polyethylene) to protectframes and picture edges. Sheets of a rigid materialsuch as corrugated card should be used to separatethe paintings.Roll Storage—unstretched canvas paintings can bestored on screens if they have eyelets or Velcro, but otherwisethey will have to be stored flat or rolled. Paintingsshould not be rolled if they have a thick or brittle paintlayer, collage elements, or delicate support.37