Conservation of the Ackland's Attributed to Sesshu Screen

Condition of Screen When Acquired

The Ackland's folding screen attributed to Sesshu Toyo (1420 - 1506) was purchased because it had potential to become the centerpiece of the Ackland's collection of Asian art, but its condition was so poor that the curators chose not to exhibit it. Originally a six-fold screen, in the course of time, approximately one and one-half of the six panels of the Ackland painting were lost. One guesses that through some accident portions of the painting were irretrievably damaged. In an unfortunate attempt to make the surviving portions presentable, they were subsequently pieced together to form a single sheet, backed with Japanese paper, and attached to a plywood board - a mount that is both aesthetically wrong and deleterious to the painting. Because the composition was conceived not as a single plane, but as the surface of a folding screen, the decision was made to attempt to return this masterwork to a condition and presentation that would be more faithful to the artist's original intention.

Though there were numerous small losses in the surface of the painting, and some of them had been repaired rather crudely in the past, none of the original painting had been altered. Even in areas where the original paint was abraded, no attempt had been made to retouch, or strengthen the original brushstrokes. This fact is key to the value of this painting even in its compromised condition. The attribution to Sesshu work is based in large measure on the purity, strength and variety of this brushwork. Now these qualities are much easier to appreciate without the distractions of stains and poor repairs.

Restoration of the screen became the Museum's highest conservation priority. The required treatment was very complex, and there are few conservation professionals in the country, indeed in the world, who have the necessary expertise. The Ackland is very fortunate that Sondra Castile and Takemitsu Oba of the Asian Art Conservation department of The Metropolitan Museum of Art accepted this project.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TREATMENT
After extensive examination, testing, and documentation of the object, the first step of the treatment was to stabilize the paint. A diluted adhesive was applied to the paint layers so that no pigment would be lost during the subsequent stages of treatment. Following this step, the painting was separated from the plywood mount. The various sections were still joined together by several layers of paper backings. They were then laid face down, moistened from behind, and the various backings and backing fragments removed from the reverse of the painting. Only then were the sections of the painting separated from each other. Conspicuous repairs were removed and stains were reduced where possible. Small patches of the painting that had been misaligned were re-positioned. Tears were drawn together and losses filled with papers of similar thickness and texture, dyed to match the original paper. Only then were new paper backings applied to each of the separate panels.

(At this stage some of the new paper backings had been applied to the separated sections of the painting. One of the lattice-work inner frames is visible in the background on the left.)

While all these procedures were being completed, the new folding screen was being made on which to mount the panels. This required the construction of six interior frames of wood lattice-work covered on both sides with layers of hand-made paper.

One of the greatest challenges of the treatment was the restoration of the large loss at the right end of the composition. The missing area was filled with undecorated paper similar in texture and dyed to be compatible with the original.

To complicate matters, in the previous mounting, surviving portions of the design had been patched together (and other portions, presumably, discarded) to form a tidy rectangle. In the process, the two flying birds at the upper right had been awkwardly misaligned. One cannot know what other elements have been lost from the original composition. Much study was required to choose an appropriate location for the bird at the far right.

The final phase of treatment was the "in-painting" of the areas where new paper had been used to fill small losses on the original paper. These areas were toned to blend them with the adjacent areas of the original. No outlines or painted featured were added to these repairs and no toning was applied to any areas of original paper.

In Asia there is a long tradition of specialized care for folding screens and for scrolls. The techniques and materials used have not changed substantially in hundreds of years and modern conservation research has confirmed their value. If skillfully conserved and protected these works will survive well for centuries. Thus, the Ackland's screen attributed to Sesshu is now prepared to bring pleasure to the people of North Carolina for many generations.