RESTORATION OF KAZIMIERA ZIMBLYTE (1933-1999) ARTWORKS, MADE IN COLLAGE TECHNIQUE
Year:
Anno 2017/2018
Category:
Conservation
Paulius Zovė
Lithuanian Art Museum Pranas Gudynas Restoration Centre
Kazimiera Zimblyte (1933-1999) - painter abstractionist, author of collages and installations. She’s considered as the pioneer of Lithuanian minimalism and abstractionism.
Collages made on large format building pressboard sheets. The surface covered with numerous overlapping, wrinkling, various fragments of paper shapes, creating a unique surface texture. Glued with white glue, it makes rigid thick aggregates under the paper after it dries. Details of thick paper and corrugated cardboard packaging attached only at one edge, variously flanged and unfolded, thus creating the impression of dimensionality. Collage surfaces and details painted in high-gloss, grainy texture bronze color and gray-green paint. Clearly visible stroke marks its aggregates at the paper fragments boundaries and wrinkles.
Dimensional details torn, deformed, crushed to the ground, some fragments missing. The central part of the paper severely damaged, extracted, visible tons of surface dirt. Collage ground - large format cardboard is not enough rigid to lift it up, doing so it bents. Due to these deformations, parts on cardboard coming off, falling or crack that’s why paper layers were decided to glue on.
Artwork’s basis reinforced, glued cracks and dimensional details while gluing pressed locally, compressing with small clips. Missing parts were recovered in consideration of silhouettes, predicted by collage unpainted areas. Surface look restored on the basis of remaining detail shapes. Their blanks glued made of corrugated board and kraft paper, or formed of glued together paper layers. Restored details retouched with tempera and watercolor paints, mixed with bronze powder. In accordance with the works of art restoration ethical and aesthetic principles, restored fragments slightly different in texture and lighter compared to authentic.
