AIC's 43rd Annual Meeting

Georges Braque's late painting Ajax (1948-1953) is a unique example of the artist's lifelong interest in exploring and manipulating artists' materials to achieve new surface effects. The painting, made with mixed media on paper attached to two stretched canvases, was recently examined and treated at the Art Institute of Chicago. It depicts a striding mythological figure outlined in black and white that harks back to Braque's graphic work on paper of the 1930s, but the experimental palette and the use of brushed and splattered paints with contrasting surface characteristics recall Braque's late paintings on canvas. Braque repainted the composition several times between 1948 and 1953, even as the surface showed signs of paint flaking and loss, as evidenced by contemporary photographs. He incorporated select areas of paint loss in the final work yet covered other losses in the later painting campaigns. Braque applied a thick glossy varnish to some areas of the finished composition, and then inscribed a stern warning on the reverse of the canvas in bold letters: "NE PAS VERNIR,” presumably to admonish future owners (or conservators) against altering his carefully modulated surface. Braque's complex technique, unusual combination of materials, and the condition history of the artwork raised questions about its intended surface appearance and the appropriate level of intervention during treatment of the fragile painting. This paper will discuss the technical examination and treatment of Ajax. Analysis of the paints shed light on the artist's late materials and revealed his 1940s palette to be unexpectedly diverse. Accounts of the artist's working methods and photographs of the painting in the artist's studio were particularly useful guides for the consolidation, cleaning and retouching.