Fine Art: Framing

Jared Bark, one of four partners at Bark Frameworks in New York, remembers walking up to a beautifully framed Matisse drawing in a San Francisco gallery. His delight soon turned to dismay when he discovered that its silk matting was not archival quality—meaning that it would not harm the work—and its thick pulp mat board was covered with white tape not unlike masking tape in quality. "The framing had everything wrong with it, but the piece looked great and distinguished," Bark recalls. "The materials were all second–rate. The piece, over time, was going to burn up."

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