the historical significance of the object, rather it only approached the artifact’s aesthetic value, impaired due to parts of its design missing. The conservators agreed that a “deconstruction” of this restoration would be necessary.
There were also some structural questions with this restoration treatment. The poster became stiff and inflexible because of the ill-matched thickness of backing paper used for lining it. Large losses were made disturbingly obtrusive by the in-fills which were made a few tones too light and mismatched color used for the reconstruction of the lettering.
Deconstruction started with the removal of the backing paper. The artifact was humidified in a Gore-Tex and spun polyester ‘sandwich’ to allow for a slow introduction of moisture. The backing paper was carefully peeled off and the added re-pairs were removed with various spatulas and lo-cally applied moisture. The adhesive was reduced mechanically.
The poor condition of the original paper sup-port was revealed and it showed that only three fourths of the paper support had survived (Fig.
2). The paper support was structurally weakened and stained by mold and other degradation fac-tors. The artifact suffered extensive losses to
both lower corners and along its sides. Several loose fragments had to be reconnected with the main section of the poster with small paper tabs to keep them in place. Most tears and abrasions within the ink layer ran through the center fold line and had signs of direct retouching. In some places the color matching was off significantly, especially in the red ink areas where pinkish over paint became evident.
To remove the surface grime and dust, the front was gently dry-cleaned with eraser crumbs and a soft brush. The back was cleaned with small wads of cotton wool and deionized water to remove any residual adhesive. The object was then humidified gently and blotter washed.
The large losses posed a problem; in-fills were prepared from Japanese paper of an appropriate weight but their color had to be toned down. The toning became a complicated trial and error ex-ercise but with the help of ‘hellion textile dyes’
some even tones of warm beige and tan colors were obtained. Unfortunately several sheets of toned tissue were needed to fill all the losses, and not all of them turned the identical shade of tan.
The poster was then lined with a large sheet of kozo paper and wheat starch paste adhesive mixed with some thin methyl cellulose to ex-tend the working time. The lining process was
Fig. 1: Poster ‚Do Broni‘ after reconstructive restoration 1994
Fig. 2: Poster ‚Do Broni‘ after the additions were removed
completed with the help of two large sheets of Mylar serving as transferring aides. The object was then placed for 30 minutes under moderate weights in a ‘sandwich’ of blotter paper, spun polyester and a sheet of woolen felt. The blotters were changed a few times. When the poster was dry and flat, pieces of toned paper shaped to fit the areas of loss were attached with wheat starch paste from the front.
Small losses within the ink layer were re-touched with dry pigments, pastel pencils and Winston Newton watercolors. The objective was to make the main area of the image visually co-hesive but not to reconstruct the image or the lettering (Fig. 3). Retouching proved to be tricky in the areas where previous intervention had taken place but overall successfully unified the main image.
The Nazi announcement broadside was printed in the 1940s in Krakow on a thin, pink machine-made paper (Fig. 4). This propaganda poster consists primarily of historical text and minimal visual elements. Therefore the goal of the treat-ment was to stabilize the object with minimal aesthetic intervention. Just as in the case of ‘Do Broni’, the condition of the object was poor. The paper support was dimensionally unstable, had numerous tears and losses along its main folds
and had its upper right–hand corner completely missing.
Although at first glance this treatment seemed similar to the treatment of ’Do Broni’, it proved to have its own challenges. The pink color of the broadside was unstable, so only blotter washing was possible. As in the previous treatment, lin-ing was necessary to stabilise the very weak and brittle original support. First, all the folded areas were reinforced from the back with thin strips of Japanese paper and wheat starch paste. Some of these areas were very brittle and abraded. After a matching color was identified, an infill for the missing corner was created and attached from the back with wheat starch paste. As before, the lining process was aided by two large sheets of Mylar serving as transferring aides. Unfortunate-ly the first lining procedure was unsuccessful.
The paper chosen for the backing was too thick and the dimensionally unstable original support expanded too much during the treatment and as a result did not attach well to the backing paper.
A combination of a few factors made the second lining successful: It was done with a thinner kozo paper. The original object was humidified for a shorter time. After the lining paper was adhered to the back of the original, the back was
‘massaged’ with bone folders over thin blotters in the folded areas. To further reduce the creases
Fig. 3: Poster after 2012 conservation treatment Fig. 4: Nazi broadside before treatment
along its main folds the object was gently humid-ified and carefully stretched for a short time. The color of the missing corner was well matched which made the new infill look good. We debat-ed the idea of adding black stripes to the border on the attached corner. Thin strips of black paper were cut out to serve as a mock up frame. These strips completed the frame along the objects’ pe-rimeter, and visually unified this object.
Although it was an aesthetic choice, the miss-ing black frame was added in the end as it made the added corner less visible. Subjectively speak-ing, only then the greatest effect was achieved with the least amount of interference (Poulsson 2010:107).
Conclusion
The extent of the loss compensation depends on the goals of the treatment and the values attached to the artifact, but also the individual and subjective attitude of a conservator. The pri-mary goal of these treatments and conservation in general, is not to make an object look new or whole again, rather it is to stabilise it and reduce the damage that distracts from the design. If the artwork is considered to be of historical value, then its authenticity is vital, and the conserva-tion will focus on stabilising its physical aspect first and foremost (Poulsson 2008:63). Some conservators may choose to employ minimal loss integration methods so that evidence of the objects’ loss and age, although still present, will recede to the background. Often, the artwork is considered important because of its aesthetic quality. Then ‘retouching may be used as means to preserve the legibility and the composition of the image. It may be considered a necessary or unnecessary evil (…) No matter how it is re-garded, retouching has been and still is (…) a part of paper conservators’ repertoire (...) and subjec-tive criteria will always influence the decision taken…’ (Poulsson 2008:107).
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the whole conserva-tion team at the Warsaw Rising Museum:
Anna Grzechnik, Dorota Rakowska, Magdalena Grenda and Piotr Matosek for their invaluable insights during my work with these objects.
Authors Ewa Paul
Warsaw Rising Museum Kiev, Ukraine ewampaul@gmail.com
Anna Grzechnik
Chief Conservator and Director of Collec-tions at the Warsaw Rising Museum.
WRM, ul. Grzybowska 79, Warsaw 00-844, Poland;
agrzechnik@1944.pl
Biblioraphy
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