AIC's 45th Annual Meeting

This poster will focus on applying fills to losses in the Torneraj Armchair, a coated flexible polyurethane foam chair in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. While there is extensive literature on the consolidation of polyurethane foam artworks, there is very little information on creating fills for soft polyurethane foam sculptures. The Torneraj Armchair had sustained large losses to the foam and coating due to degradation of the polyurethane foam substrate due to photo-oxidation. Scientific analyses of the foam substrate and pigmented coating for the chair were conducted using polarized light microscopy and FTIR to determine appropriate adhesives and solvents for treatment of the chair. For this treatment, new polyurethane foam was selected as the fill material to retain properties of the original foam substrate. The use of liquid nitrogen to freeze soft polyurethane foam so that it can be cut and shaped into smaller sizes and grains will be described. This poster explores methodology for testing various fill adhesives using mock-ups, and describes how fills can be applied and inpainted to restore the overall appearance of foam artworks.