Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint PDF
Preview Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint
Klaas Jan van den Berg · Aviva Burnstock Matthijs de Keijzer · Jay Krueger Tom Learner · Alberto de Tagle Gunnar Heydenreich Editors Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint Klaas Jan van den Berg • Aviva Burnstock Matthijs de Keijzer (cid:129) Jay Krueger (cid:129) Tom Learner Alberto de Tagle (cid:129) Gunnar Heydenreich Editors Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint 123 Editors KlaasJanvandenBerg AvivaBurnstock MatthijsdeKeijzer DepartmentofConservationandTechnology AlbertodeTagle TheCourtauldInstituteofArt CulturalHeritageAgencyoftheNetherlands London,UK Amsterdam,TheNetherlands TomLearner JayKrueger ScienceDepartment NationalGalleryofArt TheGettyConservationInstitute Washington,DC,USA LosAngeles,CA,USA GunnarHeydenreich CologneInstituteofConservationSciences CologneUniversityofAppliedSciences Köln,Germany ISBN978-3-319-10099-9 ISBN978-3-319-10100-2(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-10100-2 SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014955358 ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerptsinconnection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. 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Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Foreword ItisagreatpleasuretopresenttheProceedingsoftheIssuesinContemporaryOil Paint(ICOP)Symposiumthatwasheldin28–29March,2013,inAmersfoortatthe headquartersoftheCulturalHeritageAgencyoftheNetherlands,RCE. OurAgencyisattheheartofculturalheritageintheNetherlands.Ourresearch group is concerned with the evaluation and preservation of our heritage in the broadestsenseandtheresearchdirectionsweneedtofollowinordertoguarantee a sustainable heritage. Along with national and international research partners at museums, universities and archives, we conduct research, characterise materials andanalysechangeprocesses.TheAgencyensuresthatthirdpartiescanapplythe knowledgethatwecanprovide. TheICOPsymposiumwasthefirstsymposiumfocusedonmodernpaintssince the Modern Paints Uncovered (MPU) conference held at Tate in 2005. Whereas MPUmainlypresentedresearchonmodernsyntheticpaintsespeciallyonacrylics, ICOP chose to focus on modern oil paints entirely.Many modern artists continue toworkwithoilpaints,andmodernoilpaintsincreasinglybecomeachallengefor conservatorsand collection keepers. Thereforeit was felt by the organisersthat it wastimetoorganiseameetingwhichcoulddiscussthesechallengesbypresenting informationonhistoricalandartisticproduction,scientificresearchondegradation phenomena,anddevelopingalternativeconservationapproaches. ICOP marked the end of a 4-year Research Agenda, for our Agency.1 In one of the programmesin the Research Agenda, Object in Context, the RCE research groupgeneratedknowledgeontheproductionofandchangesinheritageobjectsin theirartistic,culturalandsocialcontexts.UndertheleadershipofKlaasJanvanden Berg,the‘20thcenturyoilpaintproject’contributedtotheoutcomeoftheAgenda. The project brought many institutions together and was a breeding ground for 1OutcomesofthisResearchAgendaareaccessibleon-line:http://www.kennisvoorcollecties.nl/en/ researchagenda/. v vi Foreword students and graduates from Dutch Universities, but also from the UK, Italy, Portugal,FranceandGermany,someofwhompresentresultsintheseProceedings. I hope the Proceedings will be of interest not only to the participants of the symposium but also to a larger audience in the cultural heritage community for manyyearstocome. Sincerely, Ceesvan‘tVeen Director,CulturalHeritageAgencyoftheNetherlands Amersfoort,theNetherlands Preface Modernpaintsoffermanychallengesforscientistsandconservatorsalike,andhave consequentlybeenstudiedinsomedepthoverthepasttwodecades.ModernPaints Uncovered, a symposium held in 2006 at Tate Modern in London, was the first professional event devoted specifically to addressing the conservation issues of modernpaints. Researchpresentedthereincludedadvancesin analyticalmethods, improved understanding of the physical properties and surface characteristics of modern paints, and assessments of the effects of cleaning treatments on painted surfaces. However, at that time much of the profession’s attention was directed towards acrylic emulsion paints, the most widely used of all the artists’ syn- thetic polymer paints, with relatively few studies being undertakenon modern oil paints. Artisansandartistsareknowntohavebeenusingoilpaintsforcenturies1butpar- ticularlytheindustrialdevelopmentsinthenineteenthandespeciallythetwentieth centurieshaveresultedinsignificantchangestothatmaterial.Themodificationand applicationofoilpaintsbyartistshavecontinuedtoevolveinthetwentiethcentury. Inaddition,manypaintingsareunvarnishedandsoatmosphericinfluenceshappen directly to the paint surface. These developments make it reasonable to say that modernoilpaintingshavepropertieswhicharedistinctlydifferentfromtraditional paintingsandthusprovidemanyuniquechallengesforconservatorsandcurators. The Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint (ICOP) symposium, held in 2013 in Amersfoort,the Netherlands, provideda forumto discuss these challengesand to offernewinformationthatwillhelpconservatorsandcuratorsrecogniseproblems and interpret visual changes on paintings, which in turn may help to give a more solid basis for decisions on the treatment of these paintings. Furthermore, 1Raspe RE(1781) A Critical Essay on Oil-painting; proving that the art of painting in oil was known before the pretended discovery of J. and H. van Eyck; to which are added, Theophilus deArtePingendi,EracliusdeArtibusRomanorum, andareview ofFarinator’s LumenAnimæ. London,GoldneyandCadell. vii viii Preface interactions with paint makers and scientists were intended to provide more informationon the applicationand stability of paintsto artists who are concerned withthelongevityoftheirartwork. The presentproceedingsrepresent27 long andshortpresentationsat the ICOP symposium. The Chapters have all undergone a peer-review process and cover a range of topics. These range from developments of paint technology, working methodsofindividualartists,throughcharacterisationofpaintsandpaintsurfaces, paint degradation and the factors that influence this versus long time stability, to observationsofissuesincollections,cleaningandothertreatmentissuesaswellas newconservationapproaches. Research and Conservation Chapter “Twentieth Century Oil Paint. The Interface Between Science and Con- servationandtheChallengesforModernOilPaintResearch”discussesthewayin whichresearchcaninformconservationbycollaborationbetweenconservatorsand scientists. This is done through utilisation of phenomenologicaland experimental methodologiestoinvestigatethecausesofopticalchangesinpaint.Someexamples ofresultsbasedoncasestudiesofpaintingsandtheresultsofsystematicexperimen- talinvestigationofpaintsamplesaregiven.Thisessayiscorroboratedbyapersonal accountof25yearsofresearch,conservationtreatmentanddisplayofpaintingsat theStedelijkMuseuminAmsterdaminchapter“DoWeSeeWhatWeKnoworDo We Know What We See? Conservation of Oil Paintings in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam”. The relationship between painting technique and paint quality is discussed in relation to the worksof importantartists in the museum’scollection, including constructivists, Cobra artists and modern American painters from the 1950s to 1970s. Interestingly, while knowledge and appreciation of deterioration phenomena on these paintings has substantially increased in recent years, this in turnhasoftenledtolessconservationtreatment. Developments in PaintTechnology Manynewpigmentswereintroducedinthetwentiethcentury,especiallysynthetic organicpigments.Inchapter“TheDelightofModernOrganicPigmentCreations”, an extensive survey of their history and development in production is presented. Introducedin paints, the interactionof the organicpigmentswith the paintmatrix can bepoorwhichmay makethem vulnerableto solventsused in cleaningopera- tions.Inchapter“SensitivityofModernOilPaintstoSolvents.EffectsonSynthetic Organic Pigments”, the sensitivity of a range of these organic pigments towards dissolution and mechanicalaction in conservationtreatmentis discussed. Chapter “DistinctionbyMicro-RamanSpectroscopyandChemometricalAnalysisofCopper Preface ix PhthalocyanineBluePolymorphsinOil-BasedandAcrylicPaintsamples”describes oneofthemostimportantrepresentativesofthisgroup,PB15copperphthalocyanine bluetogetherwiththecharacterisationofitspolymorphousphases. An overview of developmentsin oil paint manufacture is presented in chapter “Modern Oil Paints – Formulations, Organic Additives and Degradation: Some Case Studies” and highlighted with a range of analytical results from a number of tube paints and paintings. In chapter “Charting the Development of Oil-Based Enamel Paints Through the Correlation of Historical Paint Technology Manuals withScientificAnalysis”,anoverviewofdevelopmentsintechnologyofoil-based enamelpaintsinthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcenturyisgiven;literaturepublished inFrenchandEnglishiscomplementedbyanalysisofhistoricaloil-basedRipolin enamelpaintsamplesproducedinFrance. Artists’ Ideas andWorkingMethods:Archival Sources Chapter “Towards Interpretation of Making, Meaning, and Change in British Twentieth Century Oil Paintings: The Relevance of an Artist’s Paint Archive” describesthearchiveoftheartistPatrickHeron(1920–1999),aswellashispaints that form a great resource for study. In chapter “Hans Hofmann’s Last Lesson: A Study of the Artist’s Materials in the Last Decade of His Career”, a technical studyofaverylargenumberofpaintsamplesfromthelate-careerworkoftheartist HansHofmann(1880–1966)ispresented.Bothstudieswillformabasisforabetter understanding of the works of these artists and preservation of their paintings in thelongterm.Inchapter“ZweiJünglingeundZweiMädchen,ATemperaPainting by Otto Mueller Circa 1917. Paint Analysis and Reconstruction”, materials used for the matte painting Zwei Jünglinge und zwei Mädchen (c.1917) by the Brücke artistOttoMuellerisdiscussedonthebasisofarchivalresearch,analysisandpaint reconstruction. The complex mixture of materials found in the painting indicates the use of animal glue/egg/oil tempera paints and highlights the later addition of materialsinconservationprocedures. CaseStudies ofPaintings:Esthetics andConservation Issues Threestudiesarepresentedintheseproceedingsdescribingtechniquesandpractical conservation procedures of the works of avant-garde artists: Théorème de Gödel (1957) by Georges Mathieu (chapter “Theoreme De Godel by Georges Mathieu, 1957.StudyandRestoration:ConsolidationThroughCohesiveRegenerationUsing a Solvent”); Cakes (1955) by the Croatian neo-avant-garde artist Josip Vaništa (chapter “Non-traditionally Painted Oil Painting: How to Treat It Properly? Josip Vaništa’s Cakes (1955)”) and Fleurs Grises (1953) by Nicolas de Staël. For all three studies, the non-traditional techniques are an issue that required careful
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