Extended Abstract—A Preliminary Study into the Effects of Cleaning Polyvinyl Acetate Paints

The effects of cleaning treatments on paintings made with synthetic paints are a major concern for conservators of modern and contemporary art. Synthetic paints typically include a complex mixture of additives that are likely to influence the paint’s response to different treatment methods, and their high sensitivity to most organic solvents narrows the choice of products that can be used. Knowledge gathered during cleaning of traditional oil or egg tempera paintings can clearly not be directly correlated to contemporary paintings. It is widely recognized by the conservation profession that further research into the chemistry and properties of synthetic paints and their response to conservation practice is therefore urgently needed. This study presents the preliminary results on the effects that selected cleaning methods have on test films of polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) paint and discusses implications for cleaning paintings by Julião Sarmento (born 1948). He is one of the most prominent contemporary Portuguese artists who made wide use of PVAc paints (Pereira et al., 2007). In the 1990s he started a series of paintings, commonly called the White Paintings, that require surface cleaning already because of a combination of their monochromatic white backgrounds and affinity for dirt pickup.