But what does a restorer do at a contemporary art fair?

But, a moment: does current art really need to be restored? If you just got out of the oven! A year later we met her in her workshop in northern Madrid to ask for details. Then shoot: «You don’t even imagine it. We are like art doctors. We practice preventive medicine. Because, we, the last thing we want is to have to restore. And you, who have spent money on a work, what you do not want is to intervene it, because this works as in the human being: once they open you ‘the system is touched for the future ».

What Betancor refers, whose company will be for the fifth consecutive year the signing of preferential conservatives in the Madrid appointment, is that the work of an art conservator is basic regardless of the nature or time of the piece that is acquired or treasured. And this moves on different fronts. The first, perhaps the least thinks, the reception of the works on their arrival at the fair, “Thus checking the state in which they arrive, being present in the unrest and, if there has been any problem, testify that it occurred in the transfer, which makes us a guarantee for insurance.” In this sense, and within the framework of an art fair, galleries are the main demanders of this service.

Purchase guarantees

If it is necessary to repair – that would be the second frame of action – and it is considered that the solution can be carried out in less than 24 hours, this type of brigades intervenes, “for which we also get in touch with the artist if that is possible.” On Tuesday before the arc inauguration is, for issues like these, “the one with the greatest stress.”

However, When an interesting thick work is generated, invisible For the rest of the Visitors of the Fair, it is during the days that this is celebrated, in which the conservatives make, for those customers who request it, reports on the state of conservation prior to a purchase: «In appointments as Artbasel, This service is assumed by the gallery owner, because they, when a purchase occurs, stimulates them to show maximum transparency to the collector.

In fact, if there are any anomaly, which is reflected in the reports, our work can serve the buyer To renegotiate the acquisition price. Even in this sense, we serve to avoid mistakes. People do not know what a cracking is and what you are seeing does not have to be a technical problem in the work ». The report is attached to the purchase certificate and invoice. “That also greatly facilitates the subsequent relationship with insurance,” concludes Betancor.

For our interlocutor, in Spain it still costs to understand the importance of its work: «We act as experts, and advise in the best possible way Before acquiring a piece of art, which, however contemporary, begins to self -destruct from the day that leaves the artist’s workshop. It is much cheaper to make a previous expert opinion than having to restore. And the funny thing is that this, when we acquire a house, we have it super clear: a appraiser goes before you mess in a mortgage. This would also be ideal before you buy a work ».

Because then there is the problem of the materials, the main battle horse of the conservative. Here Julia Betancor is clear about it: «Those of contemporary art are not necessarily those of the traditional. The oil on canvas has been trite for centuries. But when you start working with plastics, with metacrylates, with all mixed, that becomes a watchmaking pump ». Wood, vinyl, cellophanes that are scorching and the worst enemy of paper, glue that yellow, and unspeakable supports. Betancor remembers a piece that recently entered the workshop that used bubble paper as material on which it was pictorially intervened: «Where is there a paper on the resistance of bubble plastics? -Exorta the professional. There is no. But about Velázquez or Goya, their processes, their techniques, you have entire libraries ».

The Boca Ear

The service offered by Betancor and his team is not yet known by the Spanish collector and much less for the general public. The study estimates that 25% of the arch galleries do know about its existence, although very few use it («some signs of the Board of Trustees, such as Moisés Pérez de Albéniz either Mor Charpentier»). However, from where your help is most requested, it is from the private collector: «This work is very discreet, and the mouth works very well. I have to keep the confidentiality of what I do, about what I do and with whom I do. But it ends up creating a very beautiful relationship of trust ». Julia makes this statement at a study table in which a great José Guerrero who has to evaluate her status. And his word fulfills: «I can only tell you that it belongs to a very top Venezuelan family. People who move a lot of work; much more than that of others that are more visible in media ».

In five years, the work of this workshop has grown considerably. Actually, there are not many specialists like her in our country. On their tables, more or less identifiable material such as brushes, brushes, products to work typical of any artist. But soon others begin to circulate before our eyes that we can intuit so that they are useful (Increase glasses to repair details, lasers That, by influencing the surface of the paintings, they give rise to landscapes of wakes, mixtures of pigments and fractures that we could not imagine of their existence), and others that seem taken from science fiction movies.

This is the case of propadyn, a “dynamic stabilizer of moisture.” Betancor explains us for what is used: «Not only dust or light. Moisture is usually the great enemy of the work of art. And therefore, also depending on where you live, we find some conditions or others in the pieces we intervene. In Madrid, they accuse dryness. On the coast or in the north, the wet Kill any paper. The propadyn are clay bags that control this and the temperature of a piece. They were born for the food industry and I discovered it at a packaging fair ». A correct placement at the back of the work when it is framed can end many inconveniences in this regard.

Beside him, the Spot Bot. A kind of ‘seeking’ that is introduced into the transport boxes of the works of art and allows regulating the humidity of it from the mobile, “in addition to being a fantastic locator that makes you know where it is at any time. Costantini took the Frida Kahlo who gave to the last Biennial of Venice with one of these ». Its price is around 500 euros.

And that opens another melon: how much does a service like this cost? «It can be expensive, but depending on what you compare it. He is actually a professional who is advising you for an hour, half a day of fair or a whole day. The rate also depends on the type of customer and the business that moves. But for you to get an idea, the support of a senior conservative, one day, in Spaincan come out for about 500-600 euros. In the United States, in Maco-Mexico, That is what is charged for an hour. Fairs like Tefaf directly have us in the Board of Trustees. I do not contemplate buying art, whether traditional or contemporary, without a conservative. Neither I, nor anyone with presence in the artistic field. Besides, When you are going to leave 60,000, 100,000 or 300,000 euros in a work, We are lowering the price of a disgust ».

Perhaps, for Betancor, one of the most beautiful chapters of his activity is to work hand in hand with the artist. “Sometimes things can complicate, because, if you have to repair something, they believe that it is worth painting, but what they do with that is to create a new stain, give rise to a new work.” Our interlocutor remembers what has been for some colleague to face the ‘authors’ of David Lynch’s drawings. «But there are many who ask for advice, those who approach when they are going to try new materials (Uxío da Vila, photographer, now that it is launched to the use of waxes; Alexandre Arrechea asking for that good glue, the Parloid B74, that has already taken him out of some hurry …) ».

Miquel Barceló would not have fallen the UN dome With a conservative nearby. Nor the Guggenheim His good budget in the ‘Puppy’ of Koons would be left, or the city of San Sebastián to maintain the ‘comb of the winds’ with a question prior to this guild. For Betancor, the ideal to avoid major evils is that this check, by any collector, is understood as an ITV, which is passed every year.

And when you see these white guts at the fairs they approach to thank you. The good health of what they observe hung, depends largely on them.