TOOLS
Modern Paint Damage Atlas
RCE
Paintings created by twentieth-century artists are a dynamic and challenging field of research for restorers, conservators and scientists. Since the middle of the last century, artists have been experimenting more and more with materials and techniques. How can we best treat these works of art and preserve them for the future? Key questions underlying the damage atlas include: how does the material composition of the painting influence the visual perception of its surface? What are the causes of change in the work and how can conservation techniques slow down, prevent or even reverse undesirable change?
Identifying damage phenomena
The Modern Paint Damage Atlas website is a tool that helps collection managers and restorers to identify damage to a painting and decide on any measures that need to be taken. The site provides an overview of the damage phenomena that can occur, describes their relationships to particular paint types and contains references to literature on the phenomena in question. Also included in the tool is a glossary.
The atlas is the result of years of research and close collaboration between several institutions. It was published in 2019 as part of the European CMOP project Cleaning of Modern Oil Paints (2015-2018).
The project partners were the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the University of Amsterdam, Tate, the Courtauld Institute and the University of Pisa. The tool was created by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.