Challenges in the cleaning procedure of 1960's Pop Art. Mixed gouache and egg tempera plywood

Abstract

In the 1960's Pop artist Francesc Artigau (Barcelona, 1940), painted a series of 9 works on plywood panel s using a traditional ground layer, commercial gouache, egg yolk and color pencils. After more than 30 years exposed to rubbish amidst an indeterminate number of dogs, the paintings show a deplorable state of conservation. The birch plywood supports had undergone a process of tremendous deterioration due to humidity from the ground and dog urine as well as from non-professional attempts at cleaning the works. The paint and ground layers also suffered from the effects of paint 1055, damp spots, 1055 of cohesion of materials, fungi, grime imbedded into all levels,erosion, and traces from cleaning tools.