Storing oil paintings with corrugated cardboard sheets between painted surfaces ApproveRejectUn-ApproveSubscribeUn-Unsubscribe
Question asked 2018-07-28 02:17:17 ...
Most recent comment 2018-07-30 16:01:38
Storage
Oil Paint
Art Conservation Topics
Greetings,
I recently moved studios and used pieces of corrugated cardboard (made for mirror boxes) in between the faces of the paintings- the surfaces of the paintings (oil on canvas, dry paint) to protect the textures from rubbing and scratching each other. After the move, I left these sheets in between the paintings for storage for similar reasons, but then remembered the acidic negatives of cardboard and wanted to know if this practice should be avoided. Is storing paintings in contact with cardboard going to be problematic related to the acidity?
Similarly, is there a best practice for storing a large amount of paintings fairly tightly packed in the studio while protecting the surfaces?
I am aware that not having light on the painting will be a long term issue, but perhaps plastic wrapping is preferable. In the past I have just gone dry face to dry face, but my surfaces have gotten more delicate and need more protection...
Thanks so much for any insight! I´ll research resource archive here in case this is discussed elsewhere.
T
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Moderator Answer
(kdeghetal)
Great we are happy you located our document in the Resources section on this subject. Honestly for very short-term storage, cardboard is not the worst thing in the world...but even with acid-free be mindful of how much pressure you subject your paintings too if you are using anything that is corrugated. Every great once in awhile we see paintings in which the texture (the corrugated pattern) has been transfered onto the surface of the varnish and/or still-wet painting. So just another thing to keep in mind!
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