AIC's 45th Annual Meeting

This talk presents a method for removing certain types of stains and general discoloration in the unprimed canvas of color field paintings from the 1950's and 1960's. Building upon a well-established body of research and publication in the field of paper conservation, aqueous sun-bleaching has become widely accepted as a reasonable and valuable method to consider when stain reduction in works on paper is desired. These techniques have been modified and scaled for use in treating color field paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and other artists who employed staining techniques of paint application. The case for approaching stains in an overall manner and avoiding local aqueous treatments is made, the general parameters of the sun-bleaching treatment outlined, and a preliminary analysis of the canvas and paint media before and after treatment is described.