Woodcuts by Ramendra Nath Chakravorty

The team at ARC studio worked on a set of woodcuts for four months at the end of 2018. The woodcuts contained in a folder had 24 units in total. Some of these units had fungus and foxing spots on them, almost all of them had termite holes and losses. The primary support (rice paper) of the woodcuts being very delicate made creases and mount board marks appear more evident. Edges were damaged, and a lot of the woodcuts had tears. Furthermore, the woodcuts had accumulated a lot of dust and dirt, and had turned acidic over time. Choosing the route of minimal intervention, the team first separated the woodcuts from their damaged and acidic mount boards. They were then de-acidified and went through dry and aqueous cleaning. Further, processes such as removal of stains, flattening of the support, mending and inlaying with compatible material were carried out. They were finally hinged again on to acid-free Japanese paper to act as a backing.