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Everything Old Is New Again: Revisiting a Historical Symposium on Zinc Oxide Paint Films

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Metal Soaps in Art

Part of the book series: Cultural Heritage Science ((CUHESC))

Abstract

On June 6, 1949, members of the Victorian Branch of the Oil and Colour Chemists’ Association gathered in Melbourne, Australia, to share their concerns regarding a sudden increase in problems associated with zinc oxide oil paints, problems which Association members posited were tied to industry-wide changes in processing methods for the zinc oxide pigment. The issues raised during this meeting inform and parallel current studies regarding metal soap behavior. This paper reviews the topics discussed at the 1949 symposium, distilling the historical research and its relationship to modern conservation and scientific inquiry. Topics include existing research literature, pigment processing methods and observed relationships between particle morphology and paint film behavior, and zinc oxide paint film failure patterns. Related metal soap research from the period is also discussed, including investigations of zinc oxide soap formation, the effect of environment on soap formation and film failure in zinc oxide oil paints, and the impact of zinc oxide-specific failure mechanisms on single- and composite-paint systems.

The text of this manuscript is authored by an employee of the United States Government. The publisher, by accepting the chapter for publication, acknowledges that the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Government retain non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A relative definition of “no problem” should be applied to speakers’ remarks throughout the symposium papers. The preferred material characteristics of house paint films differ from those of fine art materials. Regular repainting and short life expectancies allowed greater latitude in acceptable behavior for paint films, while some aging behaviors at odds with long-term preservation goals may not appear until after industrial paints reach the end of their anticipated commercial lifespan. Interpreting historical house paint literature from a preservation perspective has been covered previously by this author (Rogala 2011).

  2. 2.

    Indirect Process production was also an economical alternative due to higher pigment purity, lower lead content, lower water-soluble content, greater hiding power and tinting strength, and improved storage properties (Schmutz 1935; Morley-Smith 1950a).

  3. 3.

    Present-day texts simplify zinc oxide particle shapes into two primary categories: nodular and acicular, with the former used in reference to characteristically fine, rounded particles.

  4. 4.

    Attendees at a 1949 meeting of London Section of the Oil and Colour Chemists’ Association also noted the chalking of zinc whites in simple zinc-and-varnish layering (Morley-Smith 1950b, 268).

  5. 5.

    Industry research on the poor adhesion of stoichiometric salts in oleic acid appears as early as 1929, in a presentation at the Philadelphia Club by J.T. Baldwin which reported preliminary testing results suggesting that metal soaps appearing in zinc oxide paint remained separate from the body of the paint film under all testing conditions (Baldwin 1929, 866).

  6. 6.

    Previous work on this topic by this author includes Rogala et al. (2010) and Maines et al. (2011).

  7. 7.

    Weathering tests and lab experiments used to evaluate house paints far exceed the exposure conditions anticipated from a single conservation treatment, but the material response patterns revealed in these studies are relevant to cultural heritage preservation interests, e.g. the cumulative effects of conservation treatment over the lifetime of an artwork and the long-term exposure of art materials to unregulated environments.

  8. 8.

    Examples of confusing language pairings include Direct/American, Indirect/French, and irregular/nodular. In one audience exchange at the 1949 symposium, “Mr. Sutton asked whether the various phenomena of erosion, cracking, chalking, etc. could not perhaps be merely manifestations of one and same thing” to which Mr. Rischbieth “admitted that there probably was… some connection between these phenomena” (Discussion 1949, 265).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paintings Conservator, Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    Dawn V. Rogala

Authors
  1. Dawn V. Rogala
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Correspondence to Dawn V. Rogala .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Francesca Casadio

  2. Conservation Department, Rijksmuseum, Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Katrien Keune

  3. Conservation Department, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Petria Noble

  4. Conservation Department, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Annelies Van Loon

  5. Programme Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ella Hendriks

  6. Department of Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA

    Silvia A. Centeno

  7. Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

    Gillian Osmond

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Rogala, D.V. (2019). Everything Old Is New Again: Revisiting a Historical Symposium on Zinc Oxide Paint Films. In: Casadio, F., et al. Metal Soaps in Art. Cultural Heritage Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90617-1_18

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