Paintings

I am an assistant registrar for a medium size museum that has no
in-house conservator. I have some questions on how to care for oil
paintings on stretched canvas and hope that this distribution list
is an acceptable forum for my questions that are more simplistic
than the DistList is accustomed to.

I would like to know what techniques and materials are appropriate
for backing paintings on canvas. What we normally use is Fome-Cor
cut to the size of the work and then screwed into the back of the
stretcher bars to prevent any damage to the vulnerable back. We also
cut out a small triangle (usually 1 1/2 inches tall)  in the
Fome-Cor for a ventilation hole and cover the hole/triangle with a
small square of muslin that is taped outside the edges of the
triangle/hole. I was trained to use this method but have serious
questioned it and wondered if there were better methods. Since we
don't have the budget to send all our works out to a conservator I
would like to know of any suggestions or publications that address
the proper backing of artworks.

My last question has to do with collection stickers that we place on
the frames and the stretcher bars or Fome-Cor backing of the
paintings. We currently use a non-archival self-adhesive pressure
sensitive label with information that includes our museum name,
accession number, title, artist, etc. Is there a better way of
identifying our work or a more "archival friendly" self-adhesive
label?

Holly Chase
Assistant Registrar
Brigham Young University, Museum of Art -#120
North Campus Drive
Provo, Utah  84602-1400
USA
801-378-8248
Fax:  801-378-8222


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:47
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 14, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-47-028
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