From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 03/21/02-11:46:58 PM Z
On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, Sandy King wrote:
> Conversely, those same bugs that are so fond of the 100% rag boards
> are equally fond of prints made on all rag papers, which most of us
> use for the majority of our printing in alt work. In my research on
> pictorialism I have seen numerous, in the dozens, of prints (gums,
> oil, bromoil transfers, etc.) made on all rag surfaces that were
> severely damaged by bug problems (and mold and mildew), that began on
> the back of the print and migrated to the front. This is of course a
> storage problem but a real life kind of problem that many prints are
> likely to face.
>
> So the question I have is this. Who knows what the condition of Ansel
> Adams' prints would be today if they had not been mounted? Would the
> bugs (and mold and spores) have just ignored the back of the paper?
Research shows that REAL artists aren't so uptight about perfect
archivality -- they draw on and with all sorts of unsanitary unsavory
unorthodox and wayward materials. Francesco Clemente made faux Persian
miniatures and hired worms to make holes in them. Only photographers who
inhabit a medium that since DAY ONE has lacked confidence that it really
is art worry so about crimps, edges, protocol, and other possible or
imagined deviations.
That's not even to mention the considerable aestheticizing effects of a
little aging... I once saw a book on the topic, at the old (now sadly
defunct) Colliseum Bookstore at Columbus Circle... I was too broke at the
time to buy it... but the truth of the thesis is clear. (Would we love
all those old Greek statues so well if they had all their limbs and noses
-- not to mention the polychrome paint ??!!) Whoever saw the conservation
show at Met Mus'm last year might recall two portraits of Djuna Barnes. I
forget by whom -- but the old print, soft focus & beat up, was charming.
The relatively new one was a bore.
Anyway, IMO some browning, worms, mold, rough edges, whatever, would be
all to the good on an AA -- less sanitary, more character.
Judy
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