Unvarnished Truths

George Bisacca | The Brooklyn Rail | 30th July 2019

All artworks deteriorate. Conservation is thus a “necessary evil”. Colours can fade or shrink as they age: varnishes can lose transparency. Modern artists, trying for visual impact, sometimes use materials with “unresolvable” problems. Which approach best respects a work and its artist – “a hygienic interest in the object [or] an aesthetic interest in the image.”?