Exhibition on Treatments and Techniques Used to Conserve Rare Works on Paper at the Getty

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Works on paper are inherently more fragile—in terms of sensitivity to light and handling—than mediums such as canvas, panel, bronze, or clay, and often show the passage of time more acutely than their counterparts. Frequent handling by artists in their workshops and later by collectors, combined with poor storage and display conditions, often leads to distracting damage. As a result of their fragility, drawings in the Getty Museum’s collection spend much of their life inside solander boxes in climate-controlled storage areas, where they’re protected from light, mold, insects, and other threats to their preservation; and, the fascinating “secrets”—of how they were made and displayed, damages they sustained, and treatments they were given—often go untold. The Secret Life

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