Cleaning and characterization of artists' materials including acrylic paints and grounds

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"Modern Art - Who Cares?"  This provocative title of a 1997 conservation conference puts upfront what some people wonder.  The answer is, of course, that more and more people do care.  Modern art is often made of 20th-century polymers; for example, museums house plexiglas sculpture and acrylic paintings.  Barnett Newman's controversial painting "Voice of Fire," owned by the National Gallery of Canada, is made with acrylic paints.  Since the 1960s, approximately 75-80% of artists in North America use acrylic paints.  With new synthetic materials, artists can promote their artistic ideas in ways that traditional materials don't allow.  Acrylic paints are quick to dry and offer other novel properties to the artists not available with traditional oil paints.  Conservators too use synthetic polymers when treating works of art. Conservators, manufacturers and some artists (depending on their philosophy) are concerned with the longevity of materials.  In some museums, not all acrylic paintings can be displayed because they are in poor condition.  I am now concentrating my research efforts on acrylic paints and grounds.  In the future, I will be investigating other synthetic materials used in art objects and conservation treatments.  My lab is characterizing the changes brought about from cleaning, ageing, and the environment.  My students and I use chemical, mechanical, and surface methods to identify the materials that are removed when exposed to cleaning solutions and any changes in strength, stiffness, or other material properties.  My aim is to find conservation methods that do the least damage and enable important works to be displayed. In the next five years, I plan to perform research with ten conservation scientists, ten undergraduate summer students, and 60 conservation treatment students.  With so many works of art being made with modern materials, the future conservation needs are urgent and the potential impact my lab will make is significant.