GAWAIN WEAVER ART CONSERVATION
Summer 2022About Gawain Weaver Art Conservation
Gawain Weaver was born and raised in Marin County, California and graduated with an M.A. in art history and diploma in conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 2005. After graduation he completed a two-year fellowship in the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at the George Eastman House and Image Permanence Institute in Rochester, NY, followed by a year as a researcher at the Image Permanence Institute, He then returned to Northern California to open Gawain Weaver Art Conservation in 2008. More infomation about GWAC here︎︎︎About the Internship and Key Projects
Eight week summer internship experience at Gawain Weaver Art Conservation in Marin County, CA. I was involved in various projects, including, but not limited to:- Tear mending and dry mounting of resin-coated digital print
- Surface cleaning of two pages of a Muybridge album
- Varnish removal on two large silver gelatin Ansel Adams prints
- Silver mirroring chemical treatment using iodine-alcohol
- Assist in the lining of large print using Dacron lining technique
- Disaster triage of two boxes of photographs and negatives
- Identifying photographic print processes for sample sets
- Digitization of 1500+ glass plate negatives using Capture One software
- Unframing large prints and photographs
- Unmounting of albumen cabinet card using mechanical methods
- Condition reporting of prints and photographs
- Selenium toning experimentation
- Aesthetic compensation using Spotone and watercolors
- Photodocumentation of artworks before, during, and after treatments
CONSERVATION LAB
Gawain Weaver
Head Conservator
Courtney Helion
Assistant Conservator
Jennifer Olsen
ConservatorSydney Collins
Conservation TechnicianTEAR REPAIR ON RESIN-COATED PRINT
Description
This photograph of high school baseball players during the 2017-2018 school year, was torn into 5 separate pieces. The goal of this treatment was to rejoin the separated fragments, stabilize the print, and remount.Treatment Summary
The treatment began with realigning the tears starting with the bottom left corner piece, then moving to the larger and more complex tears. I was using a 1 to 3 rice to wheat starch paste. The rice paste is slightly weaker than wheat, so the mixture helps to provide for a better slip for working. One technique I used in order to help align the fragment, was using strips of the adhesive from post it notes to temporarily align pieces on the verso. Since the surface of RC prints are basically plastic, non-polar and wax-like, the starch paste directly on the polyethylene won’t hold very well. Most adhesives would have more of an affinity for themselves than for these non-polar surfaces. So I was working with very small sections of the exposed paper to mend.
Some areas there was more overhang to work with, others not so much. But the goal for mending was to reintegrate the photograph with enough stability so that further mounting could take place and that would really keep the whole image together without falling apart again.
So the next step was remounting the print to a 4-ply mat board using the dry mount press. I preheated the press, assembled the mount package, then placed the package in the press for up to 4 minutes with rotation.
Some of the challenges of the project was that it was difficult to align the fragments without leaving gaps or visible paper fibers. Areas where there was more visual activity was easier, while the large black areas were most difficult. This was also my first time using the dry mount press, and it was a bit difficult trimming the dry mount tissue to size and then trimming the excess mat material to the exact print size.
VARNISH REMOVAL
Description
Ansel Adams was
an American landscape
photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white
imagesof the American West.
Adams coated his photographs for
aesthetic reasons, in order to create a brilliant and even surface. To him a
good coating would unify a worked surface by imparting a lustrous surface with
high reflectance. Using coatings as a protection method was also important to
Adams. He would coat unglazed photographs to provide easy maintenance and
physical protection. He also was aware that coatings could discolor over time,
but argued the coating was a necessary compromise for regular displayed prints
without glazing. Adams preferred coating prints with
a spray lacquer, which are generally made with a cellulose nitrate. Treatment Report
Whether or not to remove a coating
depends on many factors including the photograph type, age, condition, rarity,
artist’s intent, and treatment viability. It is critical to evaluate the
condition and intended use of the photograph, along with other important
factors relating to ethics, connoisseurship, history, and alternatives to
treatments.- Confirmed the coating as cellulose nitrate using the diphenylamine spot test with some
varnish gathered on a cotton swab.
- Removed the varnish using acetone on hand-rolled cotton swabs.
Challenges
Some challenges that arose with this
particular print on the left was that the surface was very crazed so there was concern that
the yellowing varnish could be pushed further into the cracks making them even
more visible and more difficult to remove. In this instance I started working
very slowly and changed my cotton swab as soon as it turned yellow.
SILVER MIRRORING REDUCTION
My
next project was part of a seminar day focusing on one technique to reduce
silver mirroring. While it was part of an educational afternoon to learn the
process, we were also seeing if this technique would be a viable option for a
client as the silver mirroring on their negatives was becoming a noticeable
distraction on their resulting enlarged prints.
Treatment Report
Print
or negative is placed in:
Description
Silver mirroring occurs when the silver in a photograph degrades. As the silver breaks down, some silver ions travel to the surface of the photograph and reduce to into metallic silver and silver sulfide, which produces a mirror-like deposit on the photograph. Silver mirroring can sometimes cause certain features of the photograph to become obscured. This condition can be exacerbated by poor storage conditions, such as storing photographs in high-humidity and acidic environments. While it is a form of silver image deterioration and while not the artist’s intent, it can also function as a sign of authenticity. Therefore In the treatment of photographs, the reduction of silver-mirroring is never approached lightly, but it is occasionally done in order to minimize any disfiguring effect upon the image.Treatment Report
Print
or negative is placed in: - Iodine-alcohol bath for 2 mins
- Photo-Flo for 1 min
- Fixer for 2 mins
- Running water for 1 min
- Hypo Clear for 3 min
- Wash for 10+ minutes
- Dry