Conserving Modern and Contemporary Paintings

Modern and contemporary paintings are frequently large, comprise unusual materials, or have sensitive, unvarnished surfaces. Minor damage, such as small scuffs, can look highly obvious on paintings with flat fields of colour. These factors can mean that treatments are challenging and require different approaches than those taken for older paintings.

This virtual seminar, aimed at conservators in private and museum practice and students, provides a general overview of approaches and learnings derived from the collective experience of a conservation studio that specialises in modern and contemporary paintings. In particular, conservators who have recently been faced with the care or treatment of modern paintings for the first time may find this a useful introduction.

Topics will cover a broad range of issues and solutions, such as approaching matte surfaces in cleaning and retouching, structural repair of non-traditional painting supports, and preventive measures for sensitive paintings. These will be illustrated with case-study treatments from the Julia Nagle Conservation Ltd studio’s archives. Differentiating damage and artists’ intentions, planning treatments, using mock-up experiments, working with artists as stakeholders, and client confidentiality issues within private practice will also be covered.

Topics well-covered in the literature and other seminars, such as aqueous cleaning chemistry and gels, will not be repeated. Instead, the seminar will focus on important, but less frequently covered, practicalities of planning and carrying out care for young patients.

Rowan Frame has been a member of the Julia Nagle* Conservation Ltd team since 2021 and is an ICON Accredited Conservator. She completed her postgraduate training in easel paintings conservation at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge.

*Julia Nagle ACR FIIC: A Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic works, Julia is an experienced conservator who has worked at Tate, English Heritage, UCL, and the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge. She opened her own studio in 2009, one of the few in London recognised for its specialist expertise in modern and contemporary conservation.