Paint applied directly from the tube

Agata Graczyk <agata.graczyk.fr<-at->gmail<.>com> writes

>This artwork has been painted with paint applied directly from the
>tube onto the canvas and the impastos resulting from this specific
>implementation are damaged in a specific manner: loss of adhesion,
>underboundness, water sensitivity of some of the colours).
>
>I am trying to complete a not yet exhaustive list of painters who
>have worked the same way ...

I treated an abstract oil on canvas by the Russian painter, Andre
Lanskoy (1902-1976) dating from 1955.  It is executed in a gestural
style with significant raised impasto applied mostly by spatula on a
white ground.  You can find an image of it by searching for the name
of the artist and the title, Pour les jours de la semaine.

The paint layer was relatively stable overall, except for a dark red
color that had been applied in squirts directly from the tube.  All
samples of this paint were extremely friable and had little cohesion
and adhesion to the ground.  Instrumental analysis done at the
Canadian Conservation Institute revealed that the pigment was
probably a synthetic organic red, C.I. pigment red 181.  The binder
was characterized as being a safflower oil that contained a high
proportion of azelaic and suberic diacids.  This indicates that the
paint contained a large amount of non-crosslinked chain-scission
products, which account in part for the paint's poor condition.  The
artist's technique here, simply letting the squirted paint sit on
the surface without further manipulation, is also a contributing
factor.

Michael O'Malley
Atelier des peintures
Centre de conservation du Quebec


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 29:41
                  Distributed: Sunday, March 13, 2016
                       Message Id: cdl-29-41-002
                                  ***