Search

This essay takes Pollock’s painting Pasiphaëas a comparative for Mural. Both paintings were begun in 1943 and were significantly larger in scale than the artist’s previous works. Using technical analysis to study Pasiphaë, Duvernois, Arslanoglu, and Centeno explore the similarities and differences between Pollock’s painting materials and techniques in Pasiphaëand Mural, ultimately drawing two conclusions: that the canvases for these paintings were cut from the same roll, and that Pollock began painting both canvases not with dark outlines but rather with fluid brush applications of lighter pigments.

ELISA has been used extensively in scientific research and medical diagnostics since its invention in the 1960s. The application of ELISA to identify proteinaceous materials used in works from cultural heritage is a recent development and presents an important area of further investigation. This study introduces an optimized ELISA with a horse radish peroxidase (HRP) reporting system to identify select proteins in the adhesives and binders used in artworks. The described methodology is successfully applied to samples obtained from three different artworks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Furthermore, these experiments use protein quantitation to study the impact of specific pigments/binder combinations on the antigen detection by commercial antibodies. Our results suggest that the aging of specific pigment/binder combinations could impact the ELISA detection of proteins in artworks.

The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, owns one of the largest motorized works made by the renowned American artist Alexander Calder, titled Half-Circle, Quarter-Circle, and Sphere. Created in 1932, and acquired by the Whitney in 1969, this seminal work was featured in an iconic exhibition held in 2017 and entitled Calder: Hypermobility. Prior to that, the object underwent a series of treatments in order to repair its main kinetic elements that had become compromised during its lifetime. While the work’s mechanism retained its creator’s ingenious engineering solutions, the motor, urethane belts, plug, and electrical wires turned out to be neither original, nor authentic to the period. The appearance of the piece had also been altered, as most surfaces displayed multiple layers of overpainting and, thus, did not deliver the proper gloss, hue, and texture. These observations prompted a first, comprehensive scientific study to investigate the stratigraphy of Calder’s painted surfaces on Half-Circle, Quarter-Circle, and Sphere, with the final goal to comprehend and restore its original appearance through careful removal of the overpaint. Non-invasive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis was carried out to gain initial insight into the paints’ composition. After that, extensive microscopic sampling was performed to assess the possible presence of original layers below the repainting throughout the object’s surface. Cross sections were examined with optical microscopy and analyzed with Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopies, as well as scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), in order to identify pigments, colorants, and extenders located in the various paint layers. Scrapings were also investigated with pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) for a detailed characterization of the binding media. Scientific analysis revealed, in selected white and red areas, up to eleven layers of overpaint composed of a wide array of modern materials, including pigments (titanium white in the form of tetragonal rutile and a variety of synthetic organic red pigments) and binders (alkyd or late formulations of enamels based on ortho-phthalic acid/phthalic anhydride, glycerol and pentaerythritol, polyvinyl acetate with various plasticizers, and acrylics). On the other hand, the identification of materials that were available in the early 1930s, such as zinc white, calcite, and gypsum, as well as traditional drying oil binders, supported the hypothesis that a layer of original paint may still be present in certain areas. In addition to shedding new light on the stratigraphy of Calder’s painted surfaces, this study informed the optimization of a treatment plan tailored for the safe removal of the overpaint to uncover the original layer, wherever present.