Non-physical Painting Restoration in Improved Reality

Abstract

How to restore a painting when physical and chemical alteration of the painted layer has not yet reached a final stage and is partly caused by unknown ageing processes? Can we make a painting look restored without any physical intervention on it? We encountered this problem in the course of conservation treatment of paintings of the famous Serbian Cubistic and Informalist painter Lazar Vozarević. In the period of 2015–2017, the “Lazar Vozarević” Gallery, based in Sremska Mitrovica, carried out a large project of conservation and restoration of Vozarević’s paintings from different periods. The conservation and restoration treatment was successfully carried out on all paintings but one, a painting from his Informal period, entitled “Untitled” (1961). Due to its physical deterioration, the painting could not be successfully restored using conventional well-established methods. We came to a decision to propose a virtual restoration treatment which would be conducted in a mixed reality environment. In strictly controlled light condition, an exact virtual retouch would be projected onto the canvas, so that the result would be a unique installation, which would emphasize and unify both the original painting and its virtual counterpart.