Painting

A woman uses a cotton bud to clean a painting

Dore Hawthorne, Lithgow munitions factory canteen, 1944 (detail), urchased 2011

About

Made of organic materials, paintings change as they age. Painting Conservators are responsible for their maintenance and preservation, as well as advising on hanging, handling and installation. The diversity of materials in paintings — from oil on canvas to mixed media synthetic paints on everything from glass to polyester — means that the team must work with versatility and immense skill.

Canvases become acidic and brittle. Paints crack. Timbers dry and distort.

Painting Conservators are constantly monitoring works, and intervention comes in two forms: structural and cosmetic. The former can include re-stretching canvases or re-building supports. The latter addresses everything from cracking and flaking, to discolouration and accumulated dirt.

Frames form an integral part of many paintings, protecting works and influencing the overall aesthetic. Maintaining or reproducing historic frames also falls within the Painting Conservators’ broad skillset.

Related

Conservation

Preventive

Two women enclose a paper-wrapped object in a plastic bag to undergo preventative conservation

The Preventative Conservation team’s aim is to preserve all works of art by controlling the environment in which they are displayed and stored.

Collection Study Room

Three students looking at two textile works of art in the Gallery’s Collection study room

The Collection Study Room provides public free access to works of art from the National Gallery's collection that are not currently on display.

Analysing the Ambum Stone
Conservation analysis and treatment

A small prehistoric stone carved object in the form of an animal the resembles a long-beaked echidna.

A lucky find following a breakage allowed the National Gallery’s Conservation team to date and analyse the rare and mysterious Ambum stone.

Read Time 7 minutes

Inside Vivienne Binns’s Tower of Babel

Photograph of conservator checking small object with light

Vivienne Binns's Tower of Babel 1989 is a sculpture of 80 small dioramas mounted onto a wooden substrate and elevated on a pedestal.

Read Time 3 minutes
Conservation

Time-Based Media Art

It's a portrait image of Urs Fischer from in front and below, so he's looking at his phone. Not yet melted enough to have any dripping wax bits

Time-based media art describes works of art that are dependent on time, duration, or function including video, film and audio artworks.

Conservation

Objects

Photograph of object conservator using flashlight to inspect cylindrical sculpture

Object Conservation encompasses the most varied sector of the collection, from monumental works in the Sculpture Garden to delicate bark paintings.