Art Fakery and Forgery of Post War Abstract Expressionists

I thought you would be interested in this article, if you haven’t already seen it: http://nyti.ms/Kazn1W
Here’s a link to a Sonya Rapoport that I saved: http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/travel/sonya-rapoport-post-war-expressionist-painting-picked-up-in-carmel/

“The Scream” a Painting by Edvard Munch broke a world sales record tonight

Edvard Munch’s iconic work, “The Scream,” broke a world record tonight, becoming the most expensive artwork sold in an auction.

Estimates for the sale varied from $80 million to $200 million. The artwork — which is not a painting but is pastel on board — ended up selling for $119,922,500, surpassing the previous record-holder, Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,” which sold for $106.5 million in 2010. Cezanne’s “The Card Players” has the honor of going for the highest price, period (meaning not at auction) — it was sold in a private sale to Qatar (yes, the country) for $250 million last year.

“I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city.

My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

Packing Art – a video and a question

If you have time, here’s an informative video by the Art Institute of Chicago on packing art.. something all collectors should know about

Do any of you have nightmare stories about shipping artwork? Leave stories below!

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Art restoration problems

Art restoration problems in the lab… a quick 30 second “blow-by”

E. Rosco Shrader Condition Question

I was invited to inspect a painting by E. Rosco Shrader (1879-1960) that is part of the painting collection at Hollywood High School in CA Its a real shame that George Stern Fine Arts, the art dealer that put together the retrospective exhibitions for Shrader in the Fall of 2012 and E. Rosco Shrader’s own family represented by the artist’s grandson, Ed Shrader didn’t know about this painting so it could be included in the gorgeous catalog that was produced. If you would like to see a short video on the exhibition see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa0Edf0dnh8 (give it a THUMBS UP and comment?!).
E. Rosco Shrader was, in case you don’t know, an excellent artist whose influence was felt by 1000′s of artists (some of them became very well known) over several decades as a long standing Director of the Otis Art institute. This meant that he painted for pleasure and personal satisfaction mostly. This lends, I believe, a certain professional and intellectual purity or honesty to his art. This painting was one of his more complicated larger pieces among those that I’ve seen. For those of you that don’t know, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories was the art conservator for the estate which consisted of 100′s of paintings. So, we know paintings by E. Rosco Shrader.
Before my arrival at Hollywood High, I was told this painting was cleaned in 2003 so I wasn’t expecting to see a painting in need of much TLC. As we agreed the school’s representative had taken down the painting off the wall (hanging next to a nice Paul Lauritz) 15 feet high up where it hangs in the library. A nice feature is that the painting still has its original frame (refinish nicely in 2003). The painting is in excellent condition.
As is often the case the previous cleaning may have transfigured the painting from its old dull look and removal of the easy to remove yellowed varnish and grime may have seemed to result in beautiful colors. But sometimes, as is the case on this painting, there is left behind a harder more obstinate layer of discoloration… in this case a harder gray varnish that didn’t come off with the first cleaning. The result is a muted palette compared to what would have been considered Shrader’s intent.
We see this all the time in our lab. Either this hard gray layer is left behind because the person doing the cleaning doesn’t see it or the cost of the more indepth cleaning didn’t fit in the budget. Because there was a color improvement from the more superficial cleaning, then perhaps that was considered good enough. Removing the hard gray layer can often increase the cleaning budget by double… sometimes more if the original colors are sensitive. And, we have all seen paintings that were damaged when the cleaning was pushed too far by an inept person.
This harder underlying layer is often the result of 20 century artists adding linseed oil to their varnish… or coating the painting with linseed oil after they are done. But, let me also throw out a caution: I have seen restorers use the removal of the hard gray varnish layer as an excuse to charge double or triple the appropriate amount even when such a condition doesn’t exist. It is not unreasonable that you ask to see that this layer exists and also that you see a cleaning test that its removal can be done safely.
As a collector, you are the curator and these decisions are yours to make. Best wishes

Granville Redmond Condition Question

I recently had this question asked: We discussed the difference between skinning and/or paint loss vs. purposefully exposed canvas and how it can be difficult to discern even for an experienced eye. You then showed me how each appeared under the microscope, with the skinned/paint loss areas exhibiting jagged lines around the edges, while the planned use of canvas maintained a continuous flow and direction of varnish. In this Redmond (http://www.bonhams.com/usa/auction/19976/lot/59/), there appears to be a skinned area in the upper left corner of the painting among the trees. Am I correct in this diagnosis?

As I used the magnification feature of the Bonham and Butterfield website it looks to me like this is a matter of small residual dots of discolored varnish left behind from an incomplete cleaning in the recesses of the impasto. Some times, these little dots can be difficult and time consuming to remove safely. As you can maybe see this as logical: the previous restorer took the easy crud off and left the hard stuff behind for someone else to clean off. So, don’t expect these types of cleaning to ever go quick and cheap. Quick and cheap may have been what was done in the previous cleaning and it didn’t work well.

Once again, my disclaimer, I have not seen the painting nor this “problem” up close and personal. So I can not give you first hand analysis.Part of this answer is based on decades of experience in looking at conditions of paintings.

Thomas Hill Condition Question

I was asked a condition question about this painting coming up for auction at Bonham and Butterfields:
What is the nature of a painting that is termed “oil on paper affixed to canvas,” such as this Thomas Hill? http://www.bonhams.com/usa/auction/19976/lot/10/ Is this a standard medium and how does this affect conservation, condition and the value of a painting?

My Answer: Oil on paper is a normal technique for some artists and has been an artist technique, I would guess, since the 1600′s. Since the second half of the 1800′s the paper quality has been very poor. So, often in the face of embrittled paper, its been a technique of restorers to “line” or back the paper on a fabric. Sometimes this supposed method of holding together and saving the paper backfired and the paper item would get pulled apart over time, mostly depending on the glues used.

The first question to ask upon first inspecting the artwork is whether the paper glued to canvas was done by Thomas Hill or if it is a restoration. I don’t believe that mounting an oil on paper was a common technique of Thomas Hill. Is the paper in good shape or has it cracked, split or broken? Another question to ask is how thick the paint is. Is it a well executed oil painting with common painting techniques or is it a sketch? As far as how these conditions affect the value is not within my expertise.

If the artwork’s been glued to fabric in a poor quality method, the paper item can usually be taken off the fabric. The caveat, however, is the brittleness of the paper. The more brittle, the more potential damage and the slower and more careful the removal process (more expensive). Once off the fabric, the paper should be deacidified to stop the deterioration by acids. Was the artwork originally created as a painting to be framed as a traditional painting or was it originally a work of art on paper to be framed as a paper item? That might make a difference in the value.

All of these ramblings are theoretical as I have not seen this painting, which, by the way, is a very nice image in the photo. Thomas Hill is my favorite CA 19th century landscape painter.

Conservation questions? Call Scott Haskins 805 564 3438

Art appraisal questions? Call Richard Holgate at 805 805 5121

Anna Hills condition question

I had this question asked me about this painting in the next Bonham and Butterfield Auction: Is it possible to fix craquelure for a painting that is on a board, such as this Anna Hills? http://www.bonhams.com/usa/auction/19976/lot/94/

The answer: The board may be causing these cracks and if so, there is probably no hope of correcting the cracks (without doing something unethical like smearing Spackle on it and repainting). If it is a paint problem, then a relaxing of the paint layers is possible but probably labor intensive.. which means that it probably doesn’t make sense on a painting that’s not worth that much. I like the painting very much though. Nice composition and colors.

Painting Conservation and Sales – LA Art Show Example

The LA Art Show is a big deal and its really a feast for the eyes… sensory overload… really fun! I wrote in a couple of blog posts from our company’s website at http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/blog about two paintings we worked on just prior to the show for George Stern Fine Arts; maybe the most colorful painting by William Wendt you’ve ever seen and a wonderful CA Sierra Lake Scene by Edgar Payne. Both of these really great quality paintings were given to us at the last minute (we also received from other people a Redmond, an Armin Hansen, a 2 Seldon Giles, an August Gay) to do a difficult cleaning, lining and varnishing (inpainting wasn’t needed). The painting conservation treatments went great and the paintings turned out to look amazing. What a contrast to see them transform from their dirty, cracked aged condition back into their colorful original appearance!

Most Colorful Painting by William Wendt?

George sold the oil painting by William Wendt after the show opened for 15 minutes. I’m assuming someone knew about the painting (we had over 1000 hits on our blog post the first day I posted!) and wanted to be there right when the door opened to make the purchase. The reason I’m writing this blog post is because I’m proud to be on a “team.” George ( www.sternfinearts.com/) found the painting (what wizardry to find such great art languishing!), Scott M. Haskins and FACL did the art conservation work to give it back its original appearance (http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/in-lab/most-colorful-wendt-youve-ever-seen-george-stern-finds-treasure/), Bernard at Vandeuran Archival Framing (http://www.vandeuren.com/about-us.html) did a wonderful job on the 1st class custom carved/finished frame and George’s sales team took care of the rest. It makes me feel good to be part of such a quality process.
We were also part of the “team” on a painting that sold on the opening evening of the LA Art Show by Thomas Hunt. However, we had done the painting conservation work on this about 6 months ago. This painting had been previously worked on (by someone else). Yet, we had to get the cracking to lie down and we did a better more thorough cleaning to bring it up to its best original appearance. I guess that I feel that the final sale of these relatively expensive works of art is a validation of our efforts… and of our client’s trust in us to do the right kind and quality of painting restoration work. George usually asks us to do the best work possible to make the painting look its best. He never cuts corners or has us do partial art conservation treatments of the painting’s needs.

Drop by the LA Art Show and say Hi. We’re in booth G71 on the Historic and Traditional Art side of the Expo.

Painting conservation questions? Call Scott at 805 570 4140 mobile
Art appraisal questions? Call Richard 805 895 5121

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Stretcher Marks and Cracking-How can I fix this problem?

We are often asked why cracks and ridges in the paint form around the perimeter of the oil or acrylic painting on canvas as you can see in the photograph. The crack is usually located between two to three inches in from the painting and corresponds to the inside edge of the stretcher bars (strainer or wooden frame) over which the painting is stretched.

This damage is caused by the cheap quality and the poor design of the stretcher bars which is typical of these very common cheaply priced artist supplies.

There is nothing the owner can do about avoiding these cracks. Keeping the painting in a stable environment and not allowing anything to lean or put pressure on the front of the painting while in storage.

The only way to remove these types of cracks is by lining the painting, the visibility of the cracks can also be minimized by adjusting the lighting of the artwork.

These cracks form regardless of the quality of the painting or the famous status of the artist. These cracks formed in a painting worth about $175,000.00.

Questions about conservation/restoration? Call us toll free at 888-704-7757

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Questions about art and antique appraisals? Call Richard at (805) 895-5121

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Also see: www.tipsforartcollectors.org/blacklight-package

www.insurancepersonalpropertyassessment.com

What can you do at home or at the office to protect and save your artwork and collectibles from damage in an earthquake or hurricane?

Go to www.saveyourstuff.com/museum-wax-package