Science gives art a helping hand

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Science gives art a helping hand

State-of-the-art technology at the University of Auckland has helped in the restoration of a painting by celebrated New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins, a work so deteriorated it hadn’t been exhibited for more than half a century.

State-of-the-art technology at the University of Auckland has helped in the restoration of a painting by celebrated New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins, a work so deteriorated it hadn’t been exhibited for more than half a century.

Sections of background in Frances Hodgkins’ 1925 Still Life: Anemones & Hyancinths, showed serious flaking upon entering Auckland Art Gallery’s collection in 1956 but it was unclear what caused it.

Conservator Genevieve Silvester, the Gallery’s 2015 Marylyn Mayo intern, contacted the University’s Auckland Science Analytical Services (ASAS) to make use of their expertise in scientific analysis.

A key part of art restoration is to understand what materials the artist might have used that could cause a work to degenerate.

ASAS Business Development Manager Kevin Daish says the biggest challenge was the size of the fragments available for analysis.

“The Gallery actually provided a ‘mock’ painting using materials commonly used in that era so we could at least figure out if the process would yield meaningful results before we started analysing paint from the original work,” Dr Daish says.

“After that trial, we examined just two tiny fragments taken from the painting itself and we were delighted to get useful results.”

ASAS Mass Spectrometry Manager Martin Middleditch analysed extracts of the two fragments using their new Sciex TripleTOF mass spectrometer, an instrument capable of identifying tiny amounts of different proteins in highly complex materials and the most sensitive equipment available in New Zealand for the purpose.

The results showed the deteriorated paint contained bovine proteins derived from cow’s milk, commonly known as casein.

“It is tempting to suggest that in this period Hodgkins was working primarily as a designer and that would probably have given her access to materials such as casein, a common paint in the graphics industry,” Ms Silvester says.

Earlier analysis work, at the School of Chemistry at the University, also identified a resinous coating in the upper layers of the deteriorated section.

The restoration project, using a heated spatula to increase flexibility in each flake of paint before pressing it back into place, took more than 100 painstaking hours.

“This has been a challenging project but a remarkable success and the artwork can finally be shown again to the public,” says Auckland Art Gallery Principal Conservator Sarah Hillary.

The restored Still Life: Anemones & Hyancinths can be seen in the exhibition Frances Hodgkins: Forgotten Still Life opening this Saturday 22 August at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

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