BLUEPRINT FOR A TEMPLE II

The Better Image Project
Treatment completed March 2024

Description

Francesca Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. She was the daughter of two artists, Betty and George, and grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and Tuscany. She studied art at RISD and in Rome in the late 1970s. Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred, or obscured. When the artist passed away at the age of 22 in 1981, she left behind some seven hundred photographs.

The Woodman Family Foundation was later established by Francesca's parents and is dedicated to the stewardship of the artistic legacies of Betty, George, and fRancesca. The Foundation maintains the family’s substantial collection of artwork by each artist, along with preserving and cataloging their extensive archives. Last year, the Woodman Family Foundation partnered with Gagosian for the gallery to represent the work of Francesca Woodman. Many photographs by Woodman have come through the conservation studios at TBI, due to the preservation efforts by the Foundation, including Woodman’s grand Blueprint for a Temple II.

This work is a collage of diazotypes and gelatin silver elements and stands approximately fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide. The work brings together details from old New York decorative bathroom tiles and fixtures, along with Francesca and her friends posing as ancient caryatids, which echo classical Greek and Roman art and architecture. Woodman started experimenting with creating diazotypes in the late 1970s and used it widely throughout the decade. The diazotype printing process in which commercially exposed printing papers were mechanically exposed and fixed with gas, allowed Woodman to experiment with reproduction in large scale and in a range of colors. 

This Temple, along with another Temple owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, were included the exhibition Beyond Photography at the Alternative Museum in New York City in the spring of 1980. This was the year before the artist died and the only time these pieces were exhibited in her lifetime. As such, it was a very exciting time for the Woodman Family Foundation, Gagosian, and for The Better Image to work together to finally be able to show Blueprint for a Temple II for the second time. The exhibition also  included many gelatin silver prints and other large diazotypes. 

Much collaboration has happened between the Foundation, the Gallery, and our conservation studio to plan for treatment of individual elements, hinging of the Temple, and then finally installation.

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PHASE I: TREATMENT

Below are the six diazotypes I treated at The Better Image. The first is a stand-alone lifesize Caryatid part of the exhibition at Gagosian, while the other five were part of the Blueprint for a Temple II. Other Temple elements were treated by Nancy Reinhold, Hannah Shapiro, and Elena Best. 

Caryatid
1980, diazotype, 76 7/8 x 36 3/8”

Condition

This untitled unmounted diazotype comes from Francesca Woodman’s Caryatid series. As received this photograph was in generally very good condition. It appears chemically stable with deep, rich tonalities, although the process is known to be light sensitive. Physically there are a number of minor disruptions generally confined to the perimeter. These include surface abrasions along the top, bottom, and lower right edges, a complex tear at the right of the top edge which also has a small loss associated with it. Along the bottom edge, toward the left corner, there are small losses that have exposed the underlying white paper fibers and a small tear toward the center. The bottom right edge is slightly crushed and disrupted along six inches.

Treatment Report

1. Edge tears were realigned and mended with 4% Klucel G in ethanol with Japanese paper adhered to the verso for additional support. The loss at the tear on the top center edge was bridged with Japanese paper adhered to the verso with 4% Klucel G in ethanol and then filled with an insert made from an original diazotype sample provided by the Woodman Family Foundation. This was also adhered with Klucel G, with additional toning using Carbothello® pencils along the edges of the inserted fill.
2. Creases and damaged areas at the lower right edge were relaxed with controlled moisture, flattened and reinforced from the verso with mends of Japanese paper adhered with 4% Klucel G.
3. Areas of losses were toned using Carbothello® pencils applied directly. Our goal was to reduce the visual impact of these losses under normal viewing conditions.

Before Treatment Photography

Before Treatment Images by Hannah Shapiro, Conservation Assistant

During Treatment Photography

After Treatment Photography

Before Treatment Photography

After Treatment Photography

BP.012 (A) #25 and #26
1980, diazotypes
#25: approx. 10 ½ x 10 inches
#26: approx. 13 x 36 inches

Condition

These diazotypes exhibit an overall inward curl, minor to moderate creases and folds, small pinholes with minor losses, while the largest of the diazotypes exhibits a significant amount of skinning and edge tears.

#25: Scattered handling creases, surface abrasion, and overall inward curl of print due to rolling. Fragment at corner at risk of detaching. Six horizontal creases in center and another moderate crease at edge of print. Seven pinholes with minor associated skinning and image loss.

#26: Significant skinning on recto of print along with scattered handling creases, fine abrasions, torn and uneven edges. Pinholes in center of print and edges. Overall inward curl due to rolled storage. Blue pencil mark on print, uneven image fading. Tape adhered on the corner of the verso of print with remnants of skinned print adhered. The tape creates a hard distortion in the area and is unable to lay flat.

Treatment Report

#25: Consolidated and mended edge tears using wheat starch paste and Japanese paper mends applied to verso.

#26: Consolidated and mended edge tears using wheat starch paste and Japanese paper mends applied to verso. Locally humidified and flattened creases.

BP.012 (A) #27 and #28

1980, diazotypes

Condition

These two diazotype elements (#27 and #28) come from the bottom left corner of the Temple. They both exhibit an overall inward curl, minor to moderate creases and folds, small pinholes with minor losses, while the largest of the diazotypes exhibits a significant amount of skinning and edge tears.

Treatment Report

1. Tears were realigned and mended with 4% Klucel G in ethanol with Japanese paper adhered to the verso for additional support.
   
2. The losses on Element #28 on the top left corner and bottom right corner were bridged with Japanese paper adhered to the verso with 4% Klucel G in ethanol and then filled with an insert made from an original diazotype sample provided by the Woodman Family Foundation. This was also adhered with Klucel G. Additional toning used Carbothello® pencils along the edges of the inserted fill.
   
3. Scattered areas of dye losses, abrasions, and tears were toned using Carbothello® pencils applied directly. Our goal was to reduce the visual impact of these losses under normal viewing conditions.

BP.049 (B)
1980, diazotype
24 x 18 inches (sheet); 19 x 17 inches (print)

Condition

Folds along the bottom edge of the sheet, handling creases throughout, and overall distortions from being rolled. Sharp creases, two horizontal and one vertical spanning the width/height of the print, minor tears at edges of these creases, and small hole in center. Overall yellowing of the paper support and surface dust and grime. Minor tear center right edge and pinhole at top center edge. On verso, fingerprints at center, stain at center right, and surface grime overall.

Treatment Report

1. Mended edge tears using wheat starch paste and Japanese paper mends applied to verso.
2. Locally humidified and flattened creases.

Hinging Elements #27 and #28

After treating Elements #27 and #28 (see above), and following protocols determine with Nancy Reinhold, I set out to hinge these works to the larger Temple.

Mounting Silver Gelatin Prints 

Along the right edge of the Temple there are 3 matted silver gelatin prints and 1 unmatted diazotype. There is also an additional unmatted diazotype below the Temple. We needed to find a way to safely and easily secure these prints to the wall. The diazotypes also needed some added support since they were unmounted, but visually needed to keep the overall original appearance of the work being stapled flat to the wall. For the diazotypes I attached thick japanese paper wrap around hinges to the verso of the work using 8% klucel g in ethanol and secured to a 4-ply mat board with double sided tape. With another sheet of 4-ply mat board, I cut out circles to fit rare earth magnets along the top and bottom edges. These magnets were housed between a sheet of tyvek and secured with Lineco tyvek tape to the mat board. The two 4-ply mat boards were then secured together with double sided tape.