LOS ANGELES, CA.- The care and conservation of paintings on canvas is an ongoing concern for museums and collections around the world. In 2019, Yale University, with the support of Getty, held an international conference, where nearly four hundred attendees from more than twenty countries gathered to discuss this vital topic. This was the first major symposium on the subject since 1974, when wax-resin and glue-paste lining reigned as the predominant conservation techniques. Over the past fifty years, such methods, which were often destructive to artworks, have become less widely used in favor of more minimalist approaches to intervention. More recent decades have witnessed the reevaluation of traditional practices as well as focused research supporting significant new methodologies, procedures, and synthetic materials for the care and conservation of paintings on fabric supports.

Using Getty’s digital publishing platform Quire, Conserving Canvas compiles the proceedings of the conference, presenting a wide array of papers and posters that provide important global perspectives on the history, current state, and future needs of the field. Featuring an expansive glossary of terms that will be an invaluable resource for conservators, this publication is the most authoritative in nearly fifty years on the subject of conserving paintings on canvas.

Reflecting Getty's commitment to open content, Conserving Canvas is available online at www.getty.edu/publications/conserving-canvas and may be downloaded free of charge as a PDF or EPUB. For readers who wish to have a bound reference copy, a paperback edition is also available for purchase.

Cynthia Schwarz is senior associate conservator, Yale University Art Gallery. Ian McClure is retired senior director of the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and the Susan Morse Hilles Chief Conservator, Yale University Art Gallery. Jim Coddington is retired chief conservator, Museum of Modern Art, New York.