Identification of organic materials in Modern and Contemporary Paintings

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

12:00pm | 125 Hudson Hall

Presenter

Dr. Maria Perla Colombini , Director of the Institute for Conservation and Valorisation of Cultural Heritage, CNR and Professor of Analytical Chemistry

Modern and contemporary paintings are widespread not only in Museums but also in small private collections and private houses. Although individual countries are actively engaged in conservation of their painting collections, the degradation of these paintings is still an open issue. Modern paint media used by artists in the 20th century have expanded far beyond the traditional binders, by the introduction of industrially processed drying and semidrying oils, of synthetic materials and newly processed traditional natural binders. The range of phenomena and compositional features able to influence ageing processes and degradations is thus more complex than those occurring in traditional binders.

The availability of a wide range of organic and inorganic new pigments and binders, developed both for economic and health safeguard reasons, has led artists to experiment new material mixing and application producing admirable artworks but with a relatively low durability. The paint formulations, the exposed paint surface in combination with environmental factors such as light, changes in relative humidity and noxious gases, may have an effect on specific degradation of the paints. The chemical characterization of paints and the identification of specific materials from molecular patterns can assist in understanding the role that all the substances and environmental parameters play in the decay of the painting: such information can improve the maintenance and the restoration of modern and contemporary paintings.

This lecture will focus on the update chemical description of acrylic, alkyd and oil paint binders and their behavior under ageing by using analytical procedures based on Py-GC/MS, GC/MS and HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF. Specifically, it will be shown the development of an integrated methodology for the diagnosis of degradation phenomena in art, for an in depth, reliable understanding of typical conservation issues. Applications to easel and mural paintings by E. Munch, H. Kiefer, J. Pollock, K. Haring, and Capogrossi will be shown and discussed.

Maria Perla Colombini currently holds the post of Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry (Faculty of Science) of the University of Pisa. Her teaching activities are related to the courses of Analytical Chemistry and Chemistry of Cultural Heritage. She is the Director of the University Master on “Materials and Diagnostic Techniques in the Cultural Heritage field”. Her research activity is related to the development of analytical procedures based on spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques for the characterisation of micropollutants in the environment and, above all, of organic materials and their degradation products in works of art and archaeological objects. She is leader of several national and international research projects for the safeguard of Cultural Heritage. She coordinates the research group of the Laboratory of Chemical Sciences for the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage and is specialised in the characterisation of binders, organic dyes and resins (varnishes, adhesives…) by chromatographic and mass-spectrometric techniques. She organized several Congresses and Schools of Chemistry in the Cultural Heritage field. She is in the directive staff of the Chemistry of Environment and Cultural Heritage of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI).