Paintings Department: Surface cleaning of impasto
Kelsey, Associate Paintings Conservator, during surface cleaning treatment
During the construction of a new residence, our client opted to move all works to a secure, temporary storage facility, an approach we strongly recommend to prevent accidental damage and limit exposure to dust and debris. During this period, each artwork was evaluated by our team to assess whether any conservation treatment was required prior to their long-term display in the new residence.
Born in 1926, Roland Petersen is a Danish-born American painter, printmaker, and professor associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement. He became the second faculty member of the nascent art department at the University of California, Davis, where he taught from 1956 until 1996 and worked alongside Wayne Thiebaud, William Wiley, and Mike Henderson. Petersen was instrumental in shaping the department into one of the nation's foremost centers for artistic innovation in the country and carrying forward the legacy of Bay Area Figurative pioneers such as Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, and Elmer Bischoff.
UC Davis’s annual Picnic Day celebrations had a lasting impact on Petersen. Originating in 1909 as an invitation for local residents to tour UC Davis’s new dairy barn, the event’s vibrant community spirit launched his iconic Picnic series in 1959 and Petersen returned to the subject repeatedly, exploring it through bold applications of geometry, vibrant color, and compositional form.
Petersen’s Figure in Sunlight (1968), arrived at the studio exhibiting a general layer of surface dirt with significant dust accumulation along the impasto ridges,localized tension cracking and several paint losses. The initial phase of treatment involved consolidation to stabilize the areas of loss. This was followed by surface cleaning to remove accumulated dirt, particularly from the textured impasto. Subsequently, the cracks and losses were then filled, inpainted, and visually integrated to restore the composition’s continuity with the surrounding paint layers.
Before cleaning, Figure in Sunlight (1968) overal
Before treatment, detail of surface dirt and dust
After cleaning
After treatment
Before treatment, detail of tension cracking
After treatment