Preserving Your Artwork

So, you’ve found the perfect work of art. Now, how do you protect it? Learning how to protect your artwork from damage is an essential part of building an art collection. Fortunately, there are some relatively easy precautions you can take to make sure that your art will look pristine for generations to come.

These 10 tips come directly from art handling experts from across the country. Collectively they handle millions of paintings every year in the service of framing or storage. Here’s how you can enjoy, and protect, your art from daily dangers:

1. Avoid or limit direct sunlight. Exposure to intense sunlight can drain the color from almost anything, including your new favorite work of art. Avoid hanging your artwork anywhere where it will receive constant doses of direct sunlight.

2. Know when to frame with acrylic plexiglass, not glass. What if you specifically wanted to hang that perfect picture in your sunroom? If you don’t want the sun dictating your design choices, just make sure that your picture is framed with a UV filtering acrylic rather than glass. It’s lighter than glass and will protect your art from fading or yellowing in direct sunlight.

3. Pay attention to humidity. The amount of water in the air can have a huge impact on the overall health of your art. Make sure to monitor the humidity level in your home and, ideally, keep it around 55%. This can be quite the chore on the gulf coast. You can track your home’s humidity with a simple hygrometer and control it with a dehumidifying unit.

4. Watch your hands. Always avoid directly touching your paintings or acrylic framing surfaces without wearing cotton gloves. If you do, you risk damaging them by exposure to your fingerprints and natural oils.
Keep your glass or acrylics squeaky clean.

5. When cleaning the glass or acrylic panel protecting your artwork, always use a soft non-abrasive cloth or microfiber towel. You should also consider purchasing an acrylic or ammonia-free glass cleaner.

6. Dust—don’t clean—your paintings. If you have a unique painting that’s not behind glass or acrylic, don’t use any cleaners or solvents on the surface to clean the painting…EVER. Instead, just lightly dust off the artwork with a soft feather duster or sable brush.

7. Never leave your art in a tube. If you’re not ready to hang your art yet, do not leave it rolled up in a protective cardboard tube. You always want to store your art flat. Acrylic paint or embellished paintings stored in tubes can become stained, cracked, or dried up, if they’re left rolled up for too long.

8. Keep your stored artwork separated. When you’re storing multiple works of art, always keep something in between each work while they’re lying flat. Place a 2- or 4-ply rag or conservation matboard cut 2 inches larger than the artwork in between each work. This will help protect the artwork from acidic damage, curling, and potential creasing.

9. Store art in a cool, dry, dark place. Pantry rules apply when you’re trying to protect unframed artwork. The best way to avoid damage from sunlight, humidity, and temperature fluctuations is to keep your art somewhere cool, dry, and dark.

10. Know when to seek professional help. If you have a painting that is starting to crack and curl, then it is time to talk to a professional conservator. There are steps that can be taken to rehydrate cracked paint, but those steps are best left to professionals. Remember that the longer damaged art sits, the more extensive (and expensive) conservation will cost.