Challenges of surface cleaning paintings by Asger Jorn (1914-1973): an inventory of existing practice

This paper presents a survey of the issues conservators encounter when surface-cleaning paintings by Asger Jorn, with the aim of contributing to the formulation of best practices for cleaning Jorn’s and similar paintings.

Nine interviews were conducted with experienced conservators working throughout Europe. In addition, the conservation reports of 95 of Jorn’s paintings were studied and 34 works were visually assessed.

Conservators are conservative in their approach when surface-cleaning Jorn’s paintings, which are described as suffering from cracked, brittle and powdery paint, soft paint with imbibed dirt and water and solvent sensitivity/solubility. They feel that Jorn’s unstable materials and paint modifications strongly limit the range of safe cleaning treatments. Conservators fear removing original material and unwanted optical or chemical changes. Time-consuming preliminary examinations and extensive testing followed by careful treatments that utilise different cleaning methods per colour, appears to be the approach favoured most commonly by the conservators interviewed.