For years, the canvas of Peter Upward’s Pacific 1972–73 painting had been rolled and stored in an outdoor shed, exposed to the elements. This resulted in many condition issues: the cotton canvas had extensive creases and several holes; the matte blue painted background was stained throughout; and the painting’s most distinctive feature – two gestural swirls of pink and orange poured paint – showed extensive cracking. A creative approach was required to restore this painting, especially given its unconventional shape and large size.
Peter Upward had produced several circular paintings around the time he made Pacific. In 1962, at the peak of his career, he moved to London where he began producing what was referred to as his ‘circular’, ‘disc’ or ‘sun’ series of new works. Moving away from his highly gestural and textured calligraphic paintings, for which he was then best known, Upward intensified his colour palette and simplified his gestural mark-making. Pacific is particularly unique because it is one of the artist’s largest circular paintings, standing at 2.3 metres in diameter. It was made on his return to Sydney in 1971 and exhibited two years later at the Round House at University of New South Wales. Due to its size, the canvas was eventually taken off its original strainer, the wooden frame to which the canvas was attached, for ease of storage.
Raymonda Rajkowski, NGV Conservator of Paintings, working on the restoration of Pacific. Photo: Predrag Cancar/NGV
The conservation treatment involved many complex steps, always beginning with documentation, examination and testing. For instance, the type of paint medium used by Upward was identified through scientific analysis as a polyvinyl-acetate (PVA) paint and the blue pigment used for the background was found to be ultramarine blue. The 1960s and 1970s saw many artists upscaling the sizes of their paintings and, by consequence, they needed to use larger qualities of paint. Commercial house paints, typically based on PVA mediums, came in larger tins and their colours could be altered by mixing dry pigment or tints. The way paint was applied to the canvas by artists also changed. Upward and others used broad brushes, ladles and even brooms, to pour and spread paint onto canvas laid flat on the studio floor.
The first challenge of the conservation treatment was to flatten the canvas. This was achieved with the aid of a custom-built circular aluminium working stretcher, or ‘loom’. The canvas was evenly secured around the perimeter of the loom and the fabric gradually stretched. Other structural work was carried out at this stage. The creases, for example, were reduced by introducing moisture and humidity in a controlled manner, while the holes were carefully repaired thread-by-thread under a microscope. Once flat and stabilised, the canvas could be finally measured more accurately for a circular timber stretcher. It was a significant moment to properly stretch the canvas and reinstate it as a painting.
Improving the appearance of the stained and cracked painted surface presented an entirely different set of challenges. Any damages, scratches and even fingerprint marks on flat, matte abstract and monochrome paintings are notoriously difficult to restore. These surfaces are unforgiving since any restoration work can be easily spotted. They truly put the colour and gloss matching skills of the conservator to the test. Pacific was no exception and involved considerable retouching to cover the permanent stains appearing through the centre of the work. A reversible inpainting medium was applied thinly and carefully, with a small paint brush and only enough to reintegrate areas in the most sympathetic way possible.
Raymonda Rajkowski, NGV Conservator of Paintings, working on the restoration of Pacific. Photo: Predrag Cancar/NGV
Inpainting or retouching a painting can be a satisfying part of a treatment, if all goes well. The process, however, is often slow and laborious, requiring a conservator to continuously judge and re-evaluate their work. Appropriate lighting is particularly important to the process, especially when attempting to colour match blue pigments. An optical phenomenon, known as metamerism, occurs most commonly with the colour blue, where a colour match may be perceived adequate under one light source yet mismatched under another. The texture and gloss characteristics of the painted surface also influences how colour is perceived. At first glance, the blue colour of Pacific appears uniform across the face of the painting. However, at closer inspection, there are subtle broad brushmarks and accumulated paint along the edges, indicating Upward had applied layers of thinned paint that had absorbed into the woven canvas fabric. As the texture of the canvas equally contributes to the surface appearance of a painting, it was another important visual factor to consider when inpainting Pacific.
For conservators, it is always a rewarding process to return a painting to a displayable condition. This painting was particularly meaningful as it also offered an opportunity to develop new treatment strategies and better understand these vulnerable paintings. Pacific, now restored to its former glory, represents a fascinating moment in Upward’s painting practice and showcases his legacy as a daring abstract painter.
Raymonda Rajkowski is NGV Conservator of Paintings.
This article first appeared in the November–December edition of NGV Magazine.