35-AC-2011_Turin, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, G. Gallizio, La notte barbara, inv. P/2380

Facilitated description: 

 

The Barbarian Night is a painting of contemporary art. Giuseppe (Pinot) Gallizio painted the painting in 1962.
The painting is very large, in fact it is more than 9 meters long.
The painting is kept at the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM) in Turin.
The "La Venaria Reale" Conservation and Restoration Centre (CCR) restored the painting in 2011.
The project was also attended by a restoration student who in his thesis studied how to move and roll up such a large painting.
The restorers dismantled the painting from the support, rolled it up and took it to the workshops in Venaria.
The restorers cleaned the painting from dust and removed the glue from the old restoration. In this way the colors are back bright.
Then they glued the detached color parts with glue and thermocautery (warm tool used to flatten the raised color).
They repaired the damaged parts of the canvas by gluing the unstitched threads.
They filled the color gaps with a layer of putty (plaster and glue).
They colored the stucco with watercolors similar in color to those of the painting.
In the end they eliminated the folds of the painting.

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

The restoration was part of an educational project then merged into a thesis entitled Conservation and restoration work, the conscious rolling up and proposals for archiving a contemporary work of art of exceptional size: the Barbarian Night of Pinot Gallizio by Paolo Gili. The study deepened the rolling techniques for the transposition of the canvas at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin. 

Restoration

The intervention began with the dismantling of the tella from the support structure and with the rolling on a polystyrene cilid for transport to the Conservation and Restoration Center "La Venaria Reale". The restoration began with the cleaning of the surface through dusting and microaspiration and the removal of adhesive residues dating back to previous restorations with wraps and scalpels. In this way it was possible to remove the opaque effect from the surface and correctly relocate the color flakes incorporated in the adhesive. Subsequently the consolidation of the decoesi fragments was carried out with injections of adhesive and thermocautery and the deformations of the textile support were resolved by means of laying on a horizontal plane and moistening with adhesive and mini low-pressure table for the very evident folds, crumples, accumulations caused by nails or hooks. The lacerations of the canvas were then compensated by recovering the weft and warp threads with head-to-head gluing. The most obvious gaps were compensated by grouting, then chromatically integrated with pigments bound in gum arabic and watercolors. 

 

Bibliography

- P. Gili, Conservation and restoration work, the conscious rolling up and proposals for archiving a contemporary work of art of exceptional size: the Barbarian Night of Pinot Gallizio (thesis), Prof. A. Rava, C. Pagliero, A. Iaccarino Idelson, Degree course in conservation and restoration of cultural heritage, academic year 2011-2012; 
- T. Cavaleri, A. Piccirillo, T. Poli, A. Giovagnoli, O. Chiantore, P. Gili, Barbarian Night: from the industrial product to the artist’s atelier, in Colour and Colourimetry, Proceedings of the 9th Colour Conference, GdC, Milan, Florence 2013, p. 282-293;
- A. Bassi, V. Bertone, P. Gili, A. Rava, The study and restoration of a large canvas and innovative research for rolling. The Barbarian Night of Pinot Gallizio, in "Kermes. La rivista del restauro", n. 98, April-June 2015, pp. 60-72.