Beginning the process
Galvanized stovepipes were used to roll and store the canvases
Unrolling, layer after layer of paintings
Dean Sobel, museum director, gives his initial reactions to the paintings
Huge canvases, layered and now awaiting conservation
One of my favorites… the energy in those brushstrokes!
Glimpses
The inventory notebook initially created by Still’s wife
This spring, at Denver's Clyfford Still Museum, I got to see the unrolling of a number of Still's works that had been in storage for years. Many bundles of paintings have been unopened since arriving at the museum. Packages are opened when the conservators are ready to begin working on them. A docent mentioned the opportunity and I'd signed up months in advance to be there, along with about 25 other curious people — plus a team of conservators, photographers and museum officials.
When Still finished a painting, he would remove the canvas from the stretcher bars so that the bars could be re-used to begin work on another canvas. Galvanized chimney pipes (the only easily-sourced tube that was long enough) were used to roll multiple canvases together. The rolls were stored in a barn. The rolls were numbered and some have notes and thumbnail sketches of what might be inside. However, even the conservators were not absolutely sure what was inside all the rolls.
Here are some photos, taken in the conservation room at the museum... The paintings looked pretty amazing flat on the table so it will be especially exciting to see these re-stretched and hanging in the museum sometime in the future. I've also included a photo of some of the inventory sketches, done by Still's wife, that the museum uses as reference. Charming as they are, it made me especially grateful for all the amazing tools we have these days to document, inventory and archive artwork!