Cracking paint and torn canvas

grumpymutt

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Had this piece framed and a small part of the canvas was torn and cracks have formed around the tear and on the top of the canvas. Is there anything I should do to help preserve this part from further damage? A thin layer of clear gesso?

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Welcome,
What I think you are showing us is a stretched painted canvas on a stretcher made with either adjustable or rigid bars. The fasteners (staples, tacks) are on the back side of the bars. We do not know what the instructions were for the picture framer to perform. Was it to be placed in a "floater frame" so the the edges were to be seen, thus the back fasteners? Or in a regular frame? Or did you tell the picture framer that you wanted to hang this painting without and frame?

We do not know what type of fabric was used (cotton, linen, synthetic, or plastic), the type of ground if any (traditional gesso, acrylic gesso, or none), nor the method of stretching. We also do not know the age of the art and its relative humidity level.

There appears to be cracks running along the turned 90° of the bars. The fabric also appears to be not covered with the ground and paint layer at this 90° bend.

Is this the way the art was when it was picked up at the frame shop, or was this condition noted at some time after the art was in your possession?

The cause of this appears to be adding too much tension to the canvas as it was stretched over this bend.
 
Yeah, lots of unknowns with this one.

Casual observations:
The canvas threads look at some points to be on the bias. That could account for the crazing in the pigments in the second photo.
The canvas does appear to be primed with something, as there is a spot where it has appeared to have flaked off a bit.
It's pretty obvious that there was masking tape used to define the edges of the image, and just guessing, the canvas may well have been painted unstretched.

A few more photos showing how the corners were treated, front, side and back would help, and a shot of the canvas from the back would as well.
 
Hi, grumpymutt. Welcome to the Grumble! :)

First, will share a few thoughts on how it might have happened, for if you plan to buy more such art in the future. From what you've shown, I'm guessing that the painting was one on a thinner fabric than the usual heavy cotton canvas. We get them in sometimes, usually from folks who bought them while traveling abroad, and the fabric is basically like bedsheet material. (It's also common for the artist to have left too little edge fabric for proper stretching, which is a whole other chat.) Even when a framer is very careful, there's the risk of this thin fabric tearing, or the staples breaking through. It also looks like older fabric, and the way the painting cracked makes me wonder if it's been around for awhile, too. That's always a risk with older paintings. I suppose, too, that an artist could use old fabric for a new painting. Whatever the case, it sure is a bummer. It's possible the cracking was caused from the paint being so old and brittle that it even gentle stretching was too much. It's also possible that, due to the nature of the fabric, the framer pulled very tightly, hoping to somehow get it flat. Your options were likely, to either have this, or a floppy canvas. Thanks for taking time to read all that, and if you already knew it, please forgive the redundance.

As to your question, there are different levels of treatment available. For this one, your idea of a light coating might be helpful (but let the experts here chime in on that). For pieces of high value, whether sentimental or monetary, painting conservators have more options. When paint cracks, it might only be in those places, but it could also be that the paint is separated from the canvas around the cracks, or in other areas, that one can't see. If the flakes are big, they sometimes inject fish blue through the back of the fabric, then attach the flakes from the front. And they have other wizardly tricks, as well. But, unless this piece is more valuable than I'm guessing, you'll likely be happy with a simpler fix.
 
Welcome to the G!

Making recommendations on what to do is a bit difficult without more information. Some information would have to come from the artist.

Without knowing the value of this painting (sentimental or monetary), it is impossible to give advice.
A conservator would know more and has more methods to solve this problem.

I too would like to see the back and the whole front. And a better shot sideways (not sure if I see ripples in the canvas, it looks like it.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'll try and answer all questions and share photos.
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It's cotton canvas, it doesn't feel like a bed sheet or paper thin, but isn't super heavy duty like a tarp. It is thicker than the pre stretched canvases I've used when painting 2ft by 2ft acrylic. there was gesso applied, it was painted unstretched.

I asked the framer to stretch it without a frame. Since the canvas didn't have a ton of room, they went with half inch thick stretcher bars.

I picked the piece up from an outdoor art fair in Argentina. . Don't think it was more than a few years old, didn't seem very dry. It isn't cracking in any other spot. There is white gesso on the side, no paint though. This was the condition of the art when I picked it up after being stretched.
 
Then I think it is the paint itself or a bad area of gesso that might be the problem, although it could be due to overstretching as well.

I would not have built a strainer like this but would have used stretcher bars instead. The advantage being that you can slightly adjust it to lessen the tension (or increasing it). Strips could be added to the canvas to extend it and make it easier to stretch.
 
Not surprising that there is crazing in the primer and paint. The primer doesn't look like gesso to me, but I can't be sure.
The tension from stretching can do that, and it's more likely to happen on something that was never stretched to begin with.
The weave of the canvas, if it is in fact woven, appears to be somewhat non-conventional, and that would throw another unknown into the process. It does appear that some of the threads are on a bias as I mentioned earlier.
I've seen my fair share of "tourist" art, and having some kind of failing is pretty much par for the course. The Haitian work in the 80's on Sea Island cotton (rice bags) using no primer and whatever paint was available, to the mass produced pieces from Asia, and many indigenous art forms like bark painting and Batik, all had shortcomings.

Could it have been done better? Maybe.
Should it have been done at all? Maybe not.
 
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The painting is dated 2023 on the back.
It appears that the problem is in the combination paint layer/primer. A normal painting should not be that brittle which is causing the crazing along the edges. A secondary factor is that the artist did not leave much canvas beyond the edges of the painting. This pretty much eliminates the ability to stretch your painting on rigid bars without the use of hand gripping tools.
 
This definitely looks like a fairly shoddy piece of work from the artist which has not stood up to the strain imposed by the stretching. Trying to stretch this as a wrap was probably not a good idea with the insight of hindsight. The wrinkling and crazing in those latest pics suggests that neither the priming nor the paint were of very good quality.

A conservator could reline the whole canvas, adding extra fabric and this would stabilise it and allow restretching but it would cost a small fortune.

A fast and dirty option would be to take it off the stretcher, mount it onto a hard substrate, which would also stabilise it and extend its life, and put a simple frame around it. You can then enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
 
Are you saying it will continue to crack if I leave it on the stretcher bars? Is there anything I can do to help preserve the piece stretched vs. mounted?

Appreciate everyone's assessment of what happened. I am primarily trying to figure out if I should do anything to prevent further damage and what options there are.
 
Any treatment going forward should involve the participation of a painting conservator. Even they would be unlikely to suggest a path forward without a hands-on inspection. There are simply too many unknowns.
Keep a close eye (no fingers) on it for now. If it appears to worsen then a conservator should be engaged.
The only practical proactive step I can think to do without engaging a conservator would be to protect the edges from physical damage by putting it in a floater frame.
 
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