The Fengxian Museum's Centre for Conservation and Restoration undertook the restoration of an Iranian oil painting, Portrait of Faroque Gafari, in 2021. This work was made by the artists of the coffee house painting school, a famous Iranian painting group, for farok Gafari, a famous Iranian New Wave director, and is collected by his daughter Mariam Gafari. In this issue, through an interview with Li Yang, deputy director of the Cultural Relics Conservation and Restoration Center of Fengxian Museum, we will understand the story behind the restoration of this work.
ask
What was your original intention to spend such a big price to repair such an oil painting?
Li Yang: The original intention was not to disappoint our customers. The content of this work is a portrait of the client's father, a beloved object that accompanied her growing up and was full of memories of her father, which is of great significance to her. Although it is not a masterpiece, since we have accepted the commission, we should go all out to repair the work and live up to the trust of our customers.
Of course, at first we did not expect the difficulty of repairing. After the work first entered the restoration center, we made a detailed inspection and analysis, and realized that the materials, techniques, disease phenomena, etc. of the work have strong particularities, which are rare cases of "difficult and complicated diseases", and repairing it has considerable uncertainty and risk. Therefore, it is necessary to operate in accordance with the international standards and norms for the restoration of oil paintings in the collection, and invite restoration experts with international project experience to preside over the work, so that the restoration can be completed safely and properly.
The nail condition in the corner of the work
What happened to you the most during the entire repair process?
Li Yang: The professionalism and professionalism of the restorer. The work is an oil painting on advertising canvas, which is complex in material, seriously ill and facing endangered damage. In particular, diseases such as ridged armor and pigment layer superposition are not seen in textbooks, cannot be found in the literature, and even if there are many years of experience, it is difficult to encounter problems, which is a technical difficulty that needs to be overcome in the restoration of domestic oil paintings. From the contact in August 2021 to the restoration in February 2022, the work took 7 months and more than 200 days, involving the joint efforts of nine professional oil painting restoration experts, restorers and interns. In particular, the chief restorers, Wang Fang and Sun Hongyan, came from other places and stayed in the Fengxian Museum Center for nearly 4 months, devoting themselves to the research and restoration of this work day and night and weekend, and trying their best to solve one problem after another.
Technical difficulties are not the only challenge. The restoration center has not been established for a long time, and many instruments and tools have not been fully equipped, nor have enough funds to support it. Softening the canvas support requires a heating table, we don't have and can't afford it, and the restorers will find their own way to build it. We bought an industrial electric blanket with a thermostat on Taobao and spread it on the table, and then went to the machinery factory to cut an aluminum plate to lay on it, using the heat dissipation performance of the aluminum plate to achieve simple heating. However, the accuracy of this is necessarily not good enough, and the aluminum plate needs to be continuously monitored and adjusted. What test is used? The restorers sat around the table and pressed their arms to the aluminum plate to feel the temperature with their own skin, while also observing the reaction of the work. However, the restorers were too focused on their work, and after a long time, they forgot to take their arms away, and when they finished, they found that the arms had been cold and burned and blistered, and then they felt the pain. There are many examples of opening the way in the mountains, building bridges in the face of water, and solving difficulties by yourself.
Under limited conditions, in the face of a large number of unknowns and challenges, they have demonstrated superb scientific literacy and technical ability, combined with solid theoretical and practical experience, to complete such a remarkable thing. I believe that what supports them is the love and enthusiasm for the cause of oil painting restoration, and the sense of responsibility and responsibility for the mission, just to give the work better protection and give it the ability to overcome time. This is also the belief and confidence that motivates me to persevere in this cause.
Damage the back of the work
What parts of a painting restoration team should be composed of, and how is the division of labor?
Li Yang: Purely from a technical point of view, the restoration of modern scientific oil paintings has archival records, photographic drawings, detection and analysis, restoration and processing, framed and framed and other work, and there should also be tasks for historical research, and the knowledge background and skill requirements of each work are not the same. If the repair is treated as a service, it also needs to include business operations, customer service, quality management, project management, risk management, etc., in order to ensure that the communication is professional and credible, the work is safe and sound, the repair is completed on schedule, and the quality is consistent.
The reason why this exhibition can be presented is that it combines the joint efforts of museums, literary and historical experts, curatorial teams, restoration teams, operation teams and many technical partners to be able to sort out and present the process of modern scientific restoration so completely and deeply, as well as the significance of the results to art and culture.
Partial parts of the restored work
What are your expectations for the future of oil painting restoration?
Li Yang: Ceramics, bronzes, silk fabrics and other traditional Chinese arts, the mainland does not attach enough importance to the preservation and restoration of oil paintings, the research is not deep, and the restoration of oil paintings is seriously disconnected from the overall development of the industry, which has become a short board that restricts the sustainable development of the industry. As a practitioner of oil painting restoration, I first hope that all sectors of society can increase the importance of oil painting, elevate oil painting to the concept of cultural relics, and let the protection and restoration of oil painting get more attention and support from social forces.
Secondly, I hope that the oil painting restoration industry can attract and absorb more talents, especially cross-border talents, do a solid job in the discipline construction and basic research work related to the restoration of Chinese oil paintings, and attach importance to the scientific nature of research and discussion of restoration work, which is the basis and beginning of all our work, and also the concept support for the healthy development of the restoration cause.
Third, modern restoration is a science, restoration projects are an engineering, the restorer should be an engineer rather than a craftsman, and the engineer should have ingenuity but not a craftsman. On this basis, I hope that the cultivation of Chinese cultural relics protection and restoration talents can strengthen the cultivation of scientific literacy, inject the spirit of speculation, attach importance to process management, and contribute to the development of China's cultural relics protection in the new era. In this regard, the international modern oil painting restoration is a relatively mature system, and the mainland oil painting restoration industry does not have too much historical baggage, should be considered as a test field, to explore modern scientific restoration with Chinese characteristics.
Finally, as an entrepreneur, I will strive to lead the team to do a good job in the quality of oil painting restoration services, make breakthroughs in the formalization, scientificity, standardization, transparency and convenience of restoration services, accumulate a little experience for the healthy development of the industry, and make a little contribution to the protection and sustainable inheritance of Cultural Relics in China.