AFM used to Aid Art Preservation

Intriguing Applications - Atomic Force Art

"Right side or left side brain, which way do you swing?" Yalda Javadi, Ionic

For some of us, the answer is "both": art and science merge for intriguing results, and occasionally it's within the same brain. Dr. Thomas Learner, Senior Scientist and Head of Contemporary Art Research at The Getty Conservation Institute In Los Angeles, California, has been partnering with scientists and researchers around the world for many years, using AFM and other techniques to further the understanding and practice of modern paint conservation and restoration techniques.

Ph.D. candidate Ana Pereira (Department of Conservation and Restoration, Universidade Nova de Lisboa) recently let us know she used AFMWorkshop's TT AFM to further this knowledge base in a project led by Dr.Maria João Melo, head of the Scientific Laboratory in the Department of Conservation and Restoration.

The Portuguese team investigated whether AFM techniques used by Dr. Learner on acrylic paints could be applied to study surface characterization of vinyl paints. Their work focused on the art of Julião Sarmento and were published in:  AFM in the Conservation of Contemporary Paintings: the Case of the White Paintings of Julião Sarmento. A Pereira, M Melo, P Eaton, S Schäfer and T Learner. Microcopy and Microanalysis, Volume 17, SupplementS2, July 2011 pp 1792-1793.

How did the morphology of Sarmento's white paint withstand the test of time vs. his black paint? What about paints he created and blended himself vs. laboratory reproductions applied to glass micro slides and artificially aged under a xenon irradiation? The TT AFM helped the team produce strong conclusions that correlated with other analytical techniques such as FTIR-ATR and GPC-SEC. Pereira's research using AFM continues, evaluating the impacts of various cleaning techniques on original Sarmento and reproduction vinyl paint samples.