Conservators of modern and contemporary art regularly work with objects containing industrial materials, and the design of a conservation assessment or treatment plan can be complicated by material properties and formulations whose function and behavior appear to be at odds with preservation goals. Until recently, scholars looking for information on these “unconventional” art materials have found few resources within the conservation literature. Many art conservators are not familiar with the material characteristics of products designed for other markets, and attempts by art scholars to properly interpret industrial research are complicated by unfamiliar language and what appear to be incompatible influences or objectives. As collaboration increases between cultural heritage professionals and industrial material experts, researchers from both disciplines are learning to apply lateral thinking to assess seemingly disparate viewpoints and create a more comprehensive picture of material behavior. This combined expertise forms a vast resource uniquely positioned to provide insight into artists’ working methods and materials, thereby informing modern art scholarship, research, and preservation. In this talk, a fine art conservator recounts her introduction to coatings and polymeric materials science, her subsequent use of historical house paint research to guide the preservation of iconic paintings from the mid-twentieth century, and the growing trend towards collaboration between the arts and industry in the conservation of our cultural heritage.

Revisiting a conservator’s journey: Embracing the Rashomon effect in materials research

254th National Meeting (2017)

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