Indian Painting Restored!

Further to my much earlier update on the restoration of the great Alfred Zimmerman Civic Theatre lobby painting, and the faithful recreation of its mighty frame lost in the 1975 'restoration', I'm pleased to confirm that it is DONE, and (to repeat the most commonly-heard comment) it is now the stunning jewel on the crown of the great lobby/foyer

As noted earlier, it was necessary to restore the missing upper parts of the painting in order for it to fit into an accurately-restored frame, based on the solitary known colour photo of the full painting (sans its original frame) found by heritage researcher Mike Butler in the October 1975 issue of The New Zealand Womens' Weekly. 

As we could not fund the huge cost of having this restoration done professionally - and it may not have warranted it anyway - I discussed the prospect of undertaking the restoration myself with the Auckland Art Gallery's Chief Conservator Sarah Hilary, calling on old (but only slightly rusty) artistic skills. 

Sarah graciously agreed, and guided me on some issues I might have been tempted to do otherwise with, and gave me a go-ahead to add the missing particle-board backing sections, canvas, and lost areas of the upper triptych painting. To do this has seen the 4.5 metre by 3.5 metre, 280kg work occupying about a third of our garage at home for the past 18 months while I periodically found time to work on it. 

Some aspects of the restoration commitment were unexpected - such as the fact that the multi-layered 1975 Rimu timber 'frame' had its base layer fixed through the outer edge of the actual painting (hiding a further 60mm of image all round), with no fewer than 210 8-gauge steel screws! This necessitated burnishing, flattening, filling, texturing, and repainting every one of them, and of course no two had the same colour. The upper parts -sky, moon, golden elephant carriage, fans, gilt hardware etc, are now back and marvellously visible again for the first time in 34 years. 

As well as restoring the main missing sections, I elected to add substantial timber mounting lugs, outside the canvas, to hold the big multi-part gilded plaster frame we planned to reconstruct, and also a large welded aluminium frame by which the work would now be remounted permanently on its original location. 

It now weighed even more, and getting it back to the Theatre involved seven well-built movers and a large covered truck. We did have a moment's horror when we realized that in its restored size it would no longer go through the front doors of the Civic, but mercifully the huge stage dock doors coped easily, and on the 1999 widened route from the auditorium to the lobby, the bare painting just fitted through diagonally, with about 50mm to spare.

The frame was made in Christchurch in about 16 parts, and after the painting was craned into position and bolted heavily to the wall, the frame was built up section-by-section over the new mounting lugs. I had provided a full-scale Mylar transparency for the plaster workers, so with a few minor exceptions that we solved on site, most of it fitted well. The overall size is now closer to 5 metres by 4 metres, and the estimated weight is something like 320kg. It is very substantially fixed to the wall behind it.

I have also cleaned and revarnished the whole painting, which has a stunning effect on its vibrant colours. The frame was assembled by Tim Sullivan's plasterer team, and the bronze gilding was applied carefully by Keron Smith, all skilled craftsman who had worked on the theatre during the 1999 NZ$42 million restoration and adaptive changes.

The recreated frame cost some NZ$41,000, but as intended I have gifted my restoration work on the painting, all done in my own time - just seeing a small token of one's efforts permanently on display in such a venue is reward enough! 

We (The Edge and myself) now intend to install some discrete permanent lighting for the work, since its location is slightly shaded in the traditional mysteriously-lit foyer.  

My family has high hopes that I will now give more adequate attention to home maintenance tasks, which is indeed already happening, and after the elephant mosaic tiles restoration, and the sculpture for the 52 golden shire horses holding the edge of the sky high in the lobby, I will need to call a halt on further gifted time & effort. 

Only one relatively small remaining task beckons: a repaint in respectable traditional Hindu colours and tones of the Ganesh Vase that has always been in the Civic.

Ganesha on this vase is currently covered in somewhat lurid house paint, is missing head-dress jewellery, and both intact and traditionally-broken tusks. I also intend to find a more appropriate permanent location for him in the foyer. 

I will however do this work in the theatre, at some convenient quiet time before the mighty Civic's eightieth birthday in December this year...so my family can rest (relatively) easy.

 photos are on the slide show