Charcoal drawings by Sunil Das

Sunil Das, one of India’s most important post-modernist painters was known for his charcoal drawings that depicted horses and bulls. For over 9 months, our team restored 17 of his works that came to the studio in 2017-18. These charcoal drawing on paper arrived in a fragile state – the support was weak, some of the works were pasted on mount boards, there were tears and losses, folds and charcoal smudges. Some had old interventions and repairs.

The treatment involved various procedures such as dry-cleaning of dust, dirt and charcoal smudges; mending of tears and losses; inlaying lost areas with compatible material and reintegration with compatible colour media. Some of the artworks had to be separated from the mount boards they were stuck on, and some had to be re-adhered to the board. A few of the works had to be fully lined.