Poly(Vinyl Acetate) Paints: A Literature Review of Material Properties, Ageing Characteristics, and Conservation Challenges.

Since their development in the 1950s, poly(vinyl acetate) [PVAc] paints (also known as vinyl) have been used by many artists, most notably in countries such as Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom; they are also used globally as a common binder for house paints. However, only a relatively limited number of heritage scientific studies have focused on vinyl paints. Consequently, many critical aspects of this material, such as the degradation processes, variations in paint formulations, and responses to conservation treatments, remain largely understudied.

Exploring the Materials and Condition of 20th-Century Dolls in Zoe Leonard's 2000.

Systematic condition and analytical surveys were carried out on Zoe Leonard's (b. 1961) 2000, an installation artwork in Tate's collection consisting of 162 children's dolls. The dolls were manufactured at various points within the 20th century and encompass several potentially problematic synthetic polymers found in modern and contemporary museum collections.

The stability of paintings and the molecular structure of the oil paint polymeric network.

A molecular-level understanding of the structure of the polymeric network formed upon the curing of air-drying artists' oil paints still represents a challenge. In this study we used a set of analytical methodologies classically employed for the characterisation of a paint film-based on infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry-in combination with solid state NMR (SSNMR), to characterise model paint layers which present different behaviours towards surface cleaning with water, a commonly applied procedure in art conservation. The study demonstrates, with the fundamental contribution of SSNMR, a relationship between the painting stability and the chemical structure of the polymeric network.

Conservation Issues of Modern Oil Paintings: A Molecular Model on Paint Curing.

The 20th and 21st century oil paintings are presenting a range of challenging conservation problems that can be distinctly different from those noted in paintings from previous centuries. These include the formation of vulnerable surface "skins" of medium and exudates on paint surfaces, efflorescence, unpredictable water and solvent sensitivity, and incidence of paint dripping which can occur within a few years after the paintings were completed. Physicochemical studies of modern oil paints and paintings in recent years have identified a range of possible causal factors for the noted sensitivity of painting surfaces to water and protic solvents, including the formation of water-soluble inorganic salts and/or the accumulation of diacids at the paint surface, which are oxidation products of the oil binder.

The role of the polymeric network in the water sensitivity of modern oil paints.

Spectroscopic and mass spectrometric analytical techniques were used to characterise two naturally aged Winsor & Newton (W&N) Winsor Green (phthalocyanine green, PG7) artists' oil colour paint swatches dating to 1993 and 2003. Infrared and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis indicated that the swatches were of closely similar composition, yet the swatch from 2003 was water-sensitive whilst the swatch from 1993 was not. Water-sensitivity is a conservation challenge associated with significant numbers of modern oil paintings and this study aimed to further develop our understanding of the molecular causes of water sensitivity.