Project Summary:

Retrato, translating to ‘Portrait’, was painted by a deaf Cuban artist Rolando López Dirube in1967. He was an expressionist artist contributing to the fine arts scene in Havana and Cataño, Puerto Rico from 1948-1997 (est). The owner brought this painting to Flux Art Conservation due to severe cracking and flaking of the paint caused by poor adhesion between the ground layer and fiberboard support. The painting was important to the owner and they wanted to see if anything could be done. After a thorough assessment and preliminary testing, Flux conservators developed a treatment plan to clean the painting and stabilize the paint layer.

The first step was to consolidate all the active cracking and flaking paint as well as any areas of paint loss. We used a syringe to flow adhesive under flakes of paint. The lifting paint was set down, as possible, using heat and pressure where necessary. Paint flakes that had fallen off, but were saved, were reattached to the painting as possible. After consolidation, the painting was cleaned. Losses in the paint were then filled and inpainted, helping the painting to regain visual continuity overall