Hrant Galstyan
More than 25,000 local and international artworks are stored in the National Gallery of Armenia, located in Yerevan.
The collection of paintings includes works by Hakob
Hovnatanyan, Vardges Surenyants, Martiros Saryan, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya
Repin, Tintoretto, Rubens and Jan van Goyen. Experts claim that most of
these pictures, some centuries-old, are in danger.
The gallery’s halls lack the required temperature and humidity, and the images are exposed to ultraviolet rays and dust.
The administration of the gallery and the Ministry of
Culture acknowledge the problem, but even the fate of the gallery
building is uncertain.
"This means that even if you calculate 25.5℃ with the
fluctuation, it passes the permitted limit by 10-12 degrees. If you
touch the pictures in the summer, they feel like a boiling teapot, and
the sound of cracking is heard. That’s how terrible the situation is,"
says the painter.
Temperature and relative humidity are among the
environmental factors that can contribute to the deterioration of
valuable collections. According to the International Council of Museums
(ICOM), the possible consequences of very high or very low temperatures
and relative humidity are physical damage (e.g. distortion, crack,
separation of canvas and paint), chemical degradation, as well as
activation of insects and fungi. Temperature and humidity are
interconnected, but a temperature increase is enough to speed up the
chemical processes. At 30℃, some of the corrosive reactions can be twice
as fast as at 20℃.
ICOM states that the temperature in showrooms (as well as
the storage areas) must be constant, within the range of 18-22℃. Other
sources state 19-24℃ as desirable. The relative humidity should be
between 45 and 55%.
Temperature and humidity in the National Gallery of Armenia
are rarely within this desirable range. Results of monitoring provided
by the Ministry of Culture show that the average temperature in winter
hardly reaches 18℃, and in the summer, it exceeds 30℃. The relative air
humidity doesn’t reach 35%.
Poor, but stable conditions, always better
Temperature fluctuation in the same room during the year
can reach up to 20 degrees. Whereas the stability of storage conditions
is more important than compliance with ideal standards.
"It's more profitable to keep the pictures in bad, but
stable conditions, than in seemingly good, but unstable in terms of
temperature and humidity conditions," says painter Arthur Khachatryan,
adding that the pictures can be displayed at temperatures below 18 ℃ or
above 22 ℃, if the environment remains constant throughout the year,
regardless the weather conditions.
Museum artworks can be subjected to moisture and
temperature fluctuations due to weather changes, as well as the transfer
of those samples (from warehouse to showroom or from country to
country) and due to the ventilation system malfunction.
Ventilation is one of the issues facing the National
Gallery of Armenia. Not all the halls of the gallery are ventilated. The
director notes that the reason is financial and adds that out of 57
halls, only 28 have ventilators.
When Hetq visited the gallery in June, we saw only four air
conditioners in 25 halls of the European, Russian and Armenian art
galleries, all in the halls of Russian art. The temperature here
fluctuated between 21-25 ℃. The devices are not always on. The workers
say that they sometimes turn them off, as the air temperature quickly
drops. Experts claim that turning the system off and on may cause more
damage to collections than lack of ventilation.
There is no ventilation in European and Armenian art halls.
Here, the temperature is above 30℃. In the European art halls, there
are portable electric fans, which reduce the temperature only for a
short distance and for a short time.
Two fans are in Italian, another two - in the Flemish
halls, where works of Donatello, Tintoretto, Mancini and others are
presented, including five to six-hundred-year-old artworks.
Corrosive rays and dust from open windows
Gallery workers must open the windows to ventilate the
exhibition halls and create working conditions. They have no
alternative. The artists say there was even a case when somebody fainted
because of the heat.
As a result, dust and dirt penetrate the rooms. Ongoing
construction takes place outside. The building is surrounded by traffic
on three sides. Car emissions can also penetrate the halls.
On the day of our visit, the windows of almost all the European and Armenian halls were open.
Exhausts, however, are not the only external factors that
damage the artworks. Accepted advice is to eliminate natural light from
museums, as light and ultraviolet radiation are the biggest enemy of
fabric, including canvases. Because of their photochemical effect,
colors become faded, and tissues become more fragile and easily
separable.
"Light can multiply the adverse effects of bad weather
conditions. Damage caused by light often accelerates from high relative
humidity and temperature," says the handbook by the International Council of Museums.
It is preferable to have artificial lighting sufficient to
see the collection and work. If, however, natural light is the main
source of lighting in a museum or a gallery, it is recommended to
disperse and filter it, covering the windows with UV protection films.
Artificial lights are switched on in all the halls of the
National Gallery of Armenia, but windows or curtains are also open. The
painters add that the frame glasses direct the light to the paintings.
Arthur Khachatryan says that nobody puts glasses of such poor quality on
their own windows.
A New Ventilation System or a New Building for the Gallery?
The Ministry of Culture responds that "they are going to install solar insulation on the windows". Specialists of Consel LTD,
that studied the Gallery months ago, concluded that "none of the
windows in the gallery comply with the Armenian construction and energy
efficiency standards" and suggested replacing them.
The company also proposed to design a new ventilation and
air conditioning system, as the energy efficiency of the former system,
which has been operating for about 40 years, is quite low, and the
repair and future operation of the old equipment “doesn’t make sense”.
The ministry hasn’t commented on the suggestions of the
company. The above-mentioned standards of lighting and temperature are
preserved, for example, in the hall of the "100 canvases of social
realism" temporary exhibit, whose organizer is not the gallery. Most of
the halls here have artificial lighting, and the main temperature is
21-24℃.
Gallery Director Arman Tsaturyan links the poor conditions
in the permanent exhibition halls to insufficient financial allocations.
"There’s an axiom, the money is never enough. But realizing that this
is a state structure, and the state cannot be generous given its other
problems, we must be satisfied for the moment," says Tsaturyan.
There is no funding allocated by the state budget 2017 for
the heating and ventilation system in the gallery. Tsaturyan adds that
they bought several air conditioners with gallery funds, and have
applied to the Ministry of Culture for the rest.
"I am sure that we will have better conditions soon," the director says.
Consel LTD made proposals to introduce a new system in
accordance with the directive of culture minister Armen Amiryan.
However, the ministry considers all measures, including the acquisition
of new equipment, as a temporary solution, since the gallery will be
housed in a new building. Minister Amiryan made the claim at the
beginning of the year, at a meeting with the gallery director.
The culture ministry is short on specifics. What new
building are they talking about? When will the gallery be relocated?
What will the current building be used for? The ministry hasn’t answered
these questions, saying that "the issue is not clarified yet".
If things don’t change, the paintings won’t last long
Artists say that the issue should be resolved this summer.
Edgar Amroyan emphasizes the urgency of maintaining the artworks in the
European department, taking into account their antiquity and, hence,
high value.
The European section has 350-500-year-old artworks. The
earliest exhibits date to the 14th century, like an unknown Roman-Greek
artist's Virgin Mary from the Annunciation.
The painters say that the collection reached Armenia with great
difficulties and it was the third museum in the USSR. Even now, they
say, it can be considered as one of the bests, but only in terms of the
collection.
Edgar is now in Auckland, New Zealand. That town’s gallery
collection is about 60% of the Armenia’s Gallery collection, and its
classic artworks number not more than twenty. Nevertheless, the air
temperature in the Auckland gallery is 21℃, there is
moisture-maintaining equipment, and weather conditions are taken into
consideration when adjusting conditions inside.
Edgar and Arthur say that these problems are unacceptable.
European standards even consider microbes brought by the air conditioner
undesirable. They are afraid that thousands of artworks stored in the
warehouses are in worse shape.
They are sure that many foreign professionals will agree to
assist the gallery for free, if Armenia covers their transportation and
accommodation.
"If it goes on like this, the artworks won’t last long," Edgar says.
"Hetq" (http://hetq.am/eng/news/80619/armenias-national-gallery-heat-dust-and-sunlight-threaten-valuable-artworks.html), July 15, 2017
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