By Dusan Stulik, David Miller, Herant Khanjian, Narayan Khandekar, Richard Wolbers, Janice Carlson, and W. Christian Petersen

Edited by Valerie Dorge

The cleaning of a work of art often involves removing not only dirt and grime but also unwanted layers of varnish, gilding, and paint from the work's surface. The challenge for conservators lies in finding a cleaning agent that will act on one layer without affecting the layer being preserved and without leaving any harmful residues on the cleaned work. This book, which examines gel cleaning in the treatment of paintings and painted works of art, presents the methodologies, data, and results of a collaborative project of the Getty Conservation Institute and the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, Delaware.

Among the issues covered are the theory and application of gel cleaning systems, the detection of residues left on the surfaces of objects cleaned with these systems, research into solvent-gel and solvent residues, stability of surfactants during natural and artificial aging, and recommendations for formulating gels for specific cleaning tasks.

Contributors include scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute; California State University, Northridge; the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation; and the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library.

180 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 inches
6 color and 34 b/w illustrations
75 charts and graphs, 23 tables
ISBN 0892367598, paper, $32.50

This GCI book can be ordered online by visiting www.getty.edu/bookstore.