{"id":8380,"date":"2013-06-05T23:26:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T04:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=8380"},"modified":"2013-06-05T23:26:08","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T04:26:08","slug":"41st-annual-meeting-book-and-paper-session-may-30-the-materials-techniques-and-conservation-challenges-of-richard-serras-oil-stick-prints-by-im-chan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2013\/06\/05\/41st-annual-meeting-book-and-paper-session-may-30-the-materials-techniques-and-conservation-challenges-of-richard-serras-oil-stick-prints-by-im-chan\/","title":{"rendered":"41st Annual Meeting \u2013 Book and Paper Session, May 30, "The Materials, Techniques, and Conservation Challenges of Richard Serra\u2019s Oil Stick Prints" by Im Chan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oil<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nI knew very little about Richard Serra\u2019s works on paper prior to Im\u00a0Chan\u2019s interesting presentation.\u00a0 She had the challenge of examining and housing a collection of Serra\u2019s enormous oil stick prints at the National Gallery of Art.
\n

\"oil
Texture of the print surface<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFirst she explained how\u00a0the\u00a0prints were made using a combination of screen printing and oil stick.\u00a0 The oil stick itself was actually an adaptation of proprietary paint sticks that Serra would melt down, adding linseed oil and wax to make a large soft brick that could be drawn across the paper or pushed through a silkscreen, giving the print surface a thick\u00a0\u00a0texture.\u00a0 Im recreated the mixture and described it as being like butter.\u00a0 As an amateur artist, the idea intrigues me, but as a paper conservator, it sounds\u00a0a bit horrifying!\u00a0 But I was impressed to learn that Richard Serra actually prepared his\u00a0papers with a coating of Golden acrylic gel medium to protect the paper from oil penetration, and some prints even have acrylic gel\u00a0between layers of ink.\u00a0 Naturally, however, there is some yellowing of the paper, and the media itself is also tacky.
\n
\"oil
Cross section in visible and UV light<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe scientific analysis of her presentation dealt with the problem of the oils.\u00a0 She explained that oleic acid usually\u00a0oxidizes to azelaic acid as it ages, but if it\u00a0does not then the media will remain tacky and malleable, vulnerable to indentations and dust.\u00a0 The free fatty acids in the oils can migrate to the surface of the image and appear as cloudy efflorescence, marring the visual uniformity of the black ink field.\u00a0 She mentioned that when stored with cover sheets, many of the prints had transferred media and efflorescence to those cover sheets as well.\u00a0 Framed prints did not have glazing, and thus they were vulnerable to dust.
\nIm Chan\u2019s work involved identifying and analyzing the problem, not actively treating all of the prints, and I could sympathize when she said it was difficult to resist getting her tweezers out to pick off all the dust and stray fibers stuck to the ink surfaces.\u00a0 She and her colleagues planned storage systems that would allow the prints to breathe, such as a box made of honeycomb board that had a sheet of microchamber paper across an opening in the lid to allow the exchange of air but to trap offgassing elements, having mentioned earlier that the prints had a strong smell of linseed oil, as I can well imagine!
\nIncidentally, the next day Joan Weir presented a talk on displaying another Richard Serra work on paper with some similar problems.\u00a0 It was quite interesting to hear her talk after Im Chan\u2019s scientific presentation, so I already had a good understanding of what the artwork was like. \u00a0 That talk was:
\n(Contemporary Art Session 1) \u201cWhen Conservation Means Stapling: Touring an Unsupported, Unglazed, 9ft x 21ft, oil paint stick on Paper to Three Venues\u201d by Joan Weir.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I knew very little about Richard Serra\u2019s works on paper prior to Im\u00a0Chan\u2019s interesting presentation.\u00a0 She had the challenge of examining and housing a collection of Serra\u2019s enormous oil stick prints at the National Gallery of Art. First she explained how\u00a0the\u00a0prints were made using a combination of screen printing and oil stick.\u00a0 The oil … Continue reading “41st Annual Meeting \u2013 Book and Paper Session, May 30, "The Materials, Techniques, and Conservation Challenges of Richard Serra\u2019s Oil Stick Prints" by Im Chan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":7942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,23,15,16],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-8380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-book-and-paper","category-specialties","category-specialty-sessions","tag-aics-41st-annual-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}