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Ravi Varma paintings fade away in Kerala's humidity and heat

The sorry state of many Raja Ravi Varma paintings at the Sree Chitra art gallery in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has brought to fore questions regarding the larger issues of art conservation and restoration.

Even as art critics and the general public lament at the slackness of authorities in preserving such works, museum officials maintain they have definite constraints due to lack of infrastructure for adhering to international gallery specifications.

The building which presently houses the gallery had been originally a guest house owned by the royal family of the erstwhile Travancore state. Set up in 1938 with maharani Sethulakshmi Bai of the Travancore royal family as the guiding spirit, the gallery is famous for its Ravi Varma, Svetoslav Roerich and Mughal collections.

''Plans for a new building have been in the air since 1965,'' says C S Yallaki, director, museums and zoos, Thiruvananthapuram. The foundation stone for a new building was laid in 1984, but it has since been rendered to oblivion.

The gallery has 24 rooms, but the rooms are small and the space crunch axes the viewing pleasure of the visitors. The lack of space has also prevented the authorities from erecting stand-off barriers in the gallery. Visitors often examine the paintings at close range and any mischief on their part could cause irreparable damage to them.

Besides, fluorescent tubes glare dangerously close to the paintings all through the day, exposing them to ultra violet rays that accelerate the aging process.

The gallery has no dehumidifying apparatus, let alone airconditioners that act as humidity regulators, a must for every gallery, especially those in humid places like Kerala.

Dr M Velayudhan Nair, conservation officer of the state archaeological department and former director, National Research Lab for Cultural Conservation, Lucknow, identifies light, insects like silver fish and high rate of humidity as the main factors contributing aging in oil paintings.

Dr Nair says the humidity rating ideal for art galleries are something between 50 to 65 per cent. In Kerala, it is between 70 to 80 per cent most of the time. And during monsoon, the humidity is near the cent per cent mark. ''Even condensation will occur in oil paintings under such conditions,'' says Dr Nair.

The oil paintings cannot be placed under glass casings as they are more susceptible to humidity if covered.

''A high rate of fluctuation in humidity is all the more harmful to oil paintings,'' adds Dr Nair, ''The frame of the painting will expand and contract as a result. In the long run, stress builds up between the paint layer and the canvas layer, leading to flaking.''

At present, museum authorities have no other way but to take the damaged paintings to the National Museum in New Delhi, which has dry climate and low humidity, for restoration.

The museum authorities have recently identified five of the Ravi Varma works as requiring immediate attention. These include two renowned works -- Mohini and Rukmangada and a portrait study, Dada Bhai Naoroji. The other works are Draupati at the court of Virata, Ramanatha Rao and Amma Thampuran of Mavelikkara.

Known Ravi Varma expert and art critic M G Sasibhooshan fears that the paintings are slowly moving into a state of permanent disrepair.

''Damages are damages,'' he says. He personally feels that restoration is a sham. ''Nothing much can be achieved by restoration. The best thing would be to preserve them by supplying an ideal environment,'' he says.

Sasibhooshan alleges that many of the paintings, including that of Ravi Varma, are virtually heaped one above the other inside the store room of the gallery due to lack of space, in absolute disregard to international norms.

''In modern galleries such paintings are kept in open revolving shelves at a respectable distance to each other,'' he says.

UNI

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