Art restorers try to bring back sense of original

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): In 1986, a world famous painting was damaged. An assailant use a knife to tear Barnett Newman's Who's Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue III. The attack lasted only a few seconds, but the painting's restoration took four years.

It is an illustration that paintings are not eternal. The eternity of a painting, following on from a discourse of fetishism, is in the intrinsic, in its inner soul, but not in its physical aspects.

But German man of letters Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832) answered in the negative. Goethe said simply that dusty paintings have had their beauty tarnished "for, of course, as soon as a painting has suffered in this way, our enjoyment is immediately spoiled".

In developed countries, especially where modern arts expand in accordance with developments in other fields, the restoration and conservation of art has become an inseparable part of the art classical statement "every good painting cracks".

Renate Kant, one of the art restoration and conservation experts from Petanu River Studio, Bali, said the history of restoration was as old as art itself. Even painters and sculptors of the Renaissance tried to restore damaged works. To them restoration was also a creative behavior. They had nothing against embellishing paintings and sculptures by applying new coloring to old layers of paint, a practice which horrified art historians in the 19th century. They removed everything which appeared incongruous in style, and restored buildings, sculptures and paintings in what they thought was the sense of the original.

Today, such changes and additions are seen as unacceptable, for at the end of such interventions is an imitation because the original work is lost. According to Kant, a good restorer will be capable of retaining originality of the work and its beauty without having to erase traces of history.

Causes of artwork damage are, thankfully, rarely as spectacular as the Newman incident. "Mostly they occur through the simple, daily effects of transportation, direct sunlight or climate changes," said Kant, a German national.

Southeast Asia's climate exerts an especially harsh toll. Humid weather ages the paintings quicker than in more moderate climates. Canvasses become brittle, bindings corrode and acrylic paint dries out. Once the painting is damaged, fungi and microorganisms have a field day. A rapid decline follows.

To cope with the dangers, Kant and several artists and friends have developed an Art Care Program to make it possible for Southeast Asian artists to care for their paintings, maintain them and protect them from harm.

The restoration job is not easy. Paintings with several styles, technique and media need special skills. Imagine cracks in an old painting in the class of Raden Saleh or, as with Newman's work, ripped. Love of detail, a sure hand and endless patience are a must for their work. Good restorers are not just masters of their craft, but they also know the scientific background of their profession.

"When we restore a work of art we proceed like a doctor treating a patient," Kant said. "First we make a precise examination. The damage is researched and documented. Then we analyze which materials the artist used, so that we can match our curative measures precisely to them."

Specialized microscopes are an important help. Kant said she restored masters like Walter Spies and Raden Saleh and several historical buildings.

There are cases which, of course, require more thorough examination, such as analysis of binding agents and pigments, or X-rays and computer tomography. Kant and her colleagues' longstanding contacts with European research laboratories guarantee that such tasks are expertly and precisely executed.

Kant said she decided on restoration only if the painting would not be recognizable without her intervention. In such cases, reversible retouching, consolidation and reconstruction are legitimate means.

"Our client receives, of course, a detailed text and photo documentation of the measures undertaken."

Restoration, above all, is a matter of changing points of view and an interpretation of the past. It is also, therefore, a living philosophy. In this sense professional restorers are important due to their critical reflection and ability to connect complex facts and contrary positions.

As a science and profession, restoration and conservation of cultural assets has yet to become part of the art education agenda in this country, despite the Indonesian art world developing since more than a quarter of a century ago. In fact, the development of modern Indonesian art is limited to "know show" and not yet accompanied by "know-how".

Simply put, we know the technology and how it can help us, but we have not prepared a workshop or ways to improve their use.