Cleaning 2010: New Insights into the Cleaning of Paintings. Preprints containing the abstracts of the International Conference “New Insights into the Cleaning of Paintings (Cleaning 2010)” held in Valencia in May 26th to 28th and organized jointly by the Instituto Universitario de Restauracion de...more
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In preparation for the 2009 exhibition The China Project (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia), Wang Youshen’s 1986 painting Yu Gong and His Later Generations was cleaned. Wang graduated in 1988 from the Folk Art Department of the... more
In preparation for the 2009 exhibition The China Project (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia), Wang Youshen’s 1986 painting Yu Gong and His Later Generations was cleaned. Wang graduated in 1988 from the Folk Art Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, majoring in illustration and graphic art. Wang’s practice was formed during the New Wave period (1985–1989) in China, and he was included in the seminal 1989 exhibition China/Avant-garde held in Beijing. The Queensland Art Gallery’s painting is a rare early student work on hardboard. It is unvarnished, well bound, and of variable gloss (Figure 1, left). The paint film is generally stable; however, there are areas of yellow paint that are actively flaking. The painting was very dirty. Solubility testing showed that dirt was best removed using aqueous solutions but that all colors were sensitive in deionized water, particularly red paint.
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The Dulux Archives in Melbourne hold a set of four laboratory notebooks written by Brian Roberts while a trainee paint chemist at British Australian Lead Manufacturers (BALM) Pty. Ltd. in 1949. This paper focuses on information contained... more
The Dulux Archives in Melbourne hold a set of four laboratory notebooks written by Brian Roberts while a trainee paint chemist at British Australian Lead Manufacturers (BALM) Pty. Ltd. in 1949. This paper focuses on information contained in the notebooks detailing company testing and practical tools for managing known zinc oxide reactivity in oil-based house paints. Acceptable application and weathering properties of zinc oxide in oil paint formulations emphasized good quality larger particle size zinc oxide pigment at correct pigment volume ratio, appropriate driers and importantly, the use of stand oil. The notebooks provide a prompt to consider the effect of the stand reaction on linseed oil acids and subsequent soap formation. Although stand oils can contain a high proportion of acids available for reaction with zinc ions, due to Diels-Alder reactions during the stand process a proportion have likely become cyclic. The subsequent cyclic zinc carboxylates may inhibit aggregation ...
Drawing on past research and the pioneering case studies of metal soap degradation published more than 15 years ago, this paper reviews the early findings of metal soap-related degradation in seventeenth-century oil paintings carried out... more
Drawing on past research and the pioneering case studies of metal soap degradation published more than 15 years ago, this paper reviews the early findings of metal soap-related degradation in seventeenth-century oil paintings carried out by the MOLART and De Mayerne group of researchers in the Netherlands. The various manifestations of lead soap alterations identified are described: aggregates and associated pinpoint losses and texture alterations, insoluble efflorescent crusts, and darkening due to increased transparency from saponification of lead white paints. Mention is made of degradation phenomena associated with other metal soaps, potassium, calcium, copper, aluminum, and especially zinc soaps. A brief history of metal soaps is also presented. Finally, the essay looks at the implications for conservation in the light of recent advances in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of metal soap formation, and discusses the challenges currently faced in treating and caring for works of art affected by metal soap alterations.
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Research Interests: FTIR and Synchrotron
... AIC Paintings Specialty Group Postprints 1999, pp ... Williams, R. Scott 1988, 'Blooms, blushes, transferred images and mouldy surfaces: what are these distracting accretions on art works?'... more
... AIC Paintings Specialty Group Postprints 1999, pp ... Williams, R. Scott 1988, 'Blooms, blushes, transferred images and mouldy surfaces: what are these distracting accretions on art works?' Proceedings of the 14th annual IIC-Canadian Group conference, Toronto, Canada, May 27 ...
Using the recently developed techniques of electron tomography, we have explored the first stages of disfiguring formation of zinc soaps in modern oil paintings. The formation of complexes of zinc ions with fatty acids in paint layers is... more
Using the recently developed techniques of electron tomography, we have explored the first stages of disfiguring formation of zinc soaps in modern oil paintings. The formation of complexes of zinc ions with fatty acids in paint layers is a major threat to the stability and appearance of many late 19th and early 20th century oil paintings. Moreover, the occurrence of zinc soaps in oil paintings leading to defects is disturbingly common, but the chemical reactions and migration mechanisms leading to large zinc soap aggregates or zones remain poorly understood. State-of-the-art scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy techniques, primarily developed for biological specimens, have enabled us to visualize the earliest stages of crystalline zinc soap growth in a reconstructed zinc white (ZnO) oil paint sample. In situ sectioning techniques and sequential imaging within the SEM allowed three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of sample morphology. Improvements in the d...