Complex Relationships: A Materials Study of Édouard Vuillard’s Interior, Mother and Sister of the Artist

Édouard Vuillard (1868–1949) is well known for his small atmospheric paintings, often portraying his own home and family as the subject matter. Interior, Mother and Sister of the Artist (1893) underwent at least one restoration treatment before being acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1934. The painting was treated again in 1954, but no analysis was carried out to understand the artist’s methods and materials at that time. To better understand the choices of Vuillard in Interior, Mother and Sister of the Artist, a comprehensive suite of imaging and spectroscopic analyses was undertaken, including: XRR, UVF and IRR Photography, XRF, Raman spectroscopy and SERS, and µ-FTIR. Statistical analysis on the XRF data using MCR-ALS further revealed some of the intricacies of Vuillard’s technique and color choices, where a large number of pigments were used in designing this intimate composition, including lead white, zinc white, bone black, ochre, umber, vermilion, Geranium lake, red lead, ultramarine, Prussian blue, chrome yellow, chrome orange, zinc yellow, strontium yellow, cadmium yellow, and a chromium oxide green.

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Reviving Alexander Calder’s Man-Eater with Pennants: A Technical Examination of the Original Paint Palette

Heritage ◽

10.3390/heritage4030109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 1920-1937

Author(s):

Abed Haddad ◽

Megan Randall ◽

Lynda Zycherman ◽

Ana Martins

Keyword(s):

Cross Sections ◽

Modern Art ◽

Museum Of Modern Art ◽

Eds Analysis ◽

Technical Examination ◽

Red Lead ◽

Early Primary ◽

Titanium White ◽

The Many ◽

Color Scheme

Mat-Eater with Pennants, a rarely exhibited sculpture in Alexander Calder’s oeuvre, was commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and installed in 1945. To exhibit the large standing mobile in Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start (2021), the derelict sculpture had to be remediated; this initiated a collaborative investigation with conservation scientists, conservators, curators, and the Calder Foundation into the original paint colors hidden beneath layers of repaint. XRF analysis was carried out to elucidate the paints’ composition, followed by sampling for analysis to assess the paint stratigraphy and binders. Scrapings were analyzed by µ-FTIR and Raman spectroscopies; cross sections were examined with optical microscopy and analyzed with SEM-EDS. Analysis differentiated between the original paints, which contain Prussian blue, parachlor red, chrome yellow, and the many layers of overpaint, which contain titanium white, molybdate orange, a variety of β-Naphthol reds, red lead, and ultramarine. A model for Man-Eater, Mobile with 14 Flags, is also part of the museum’s collection, and was first considered as a point of reference for the original colors. Similar analysis, however, indicates that the maquette was painted after the Man-Eater was first installed, therefore is not representative of the original colors. In addition to investigating an early primary palette for Calder’s outdoor sculptures, this study helped develop the plan for the restoration of the original color scheme of Man-Eater.

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Julia Reichert and the Work of Telling Working-Class Stories

Film Quarterly ◽

10.1525/fq.2019.73.2.9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 73 (2) ◽

pp. 9-22

Author(s):

Patricia Aufderheide

Keyword(s):

Working Class ◽

Modern Art ◽

Museum Of Modern Art ◽

Social Commitment ◽

Lifetime Achievement ◽

The Subject ◽

The U.S

This examination of the career of Julia Reichert-a three-time Oscar nominee, the recipient of two lifetime achievement awards, and the subject of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 2019-follows the trajectory of her oeuvre, which intertwines social commitment and aesthetic concern. Reichert's work is a rare example of U.S. working-class film art made about working-class people. Her career parallels the evolution of a genre of socially-committed documentary in the U.S.

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The Films of Bill Morrison

10.5117/9789089649966 ◽

2017 ◽

Keyword(s):

Film Studies ◽

Contemporary Music ◽

Modern Art ◽

Museum Of Modern Art ◽

Library Of Congress ◽

Avant Garde ◽

Creative Play ◽

The Subject ◽

To Receive

Avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison has been making films that combine archival footage and contemporary music for decades, and he has recently begun to receive substantial recognition: he was the subject of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and his 2002 film Decasia was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. This is the first book-length study of Morrison's work, covering the whole of his career. It gathers specialists throughout film studies to explore Morrison's "aesthetics of the archive"-his creative play with archival footage and his focus on the materiality of the medium of film.

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Investigation of the Cross-Section Stratifications of Icons Using Micro-Raman and Micro-Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy

Applied Spectroscopy ◽

10.1177/0003702818777772 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 72 (8) ◽

pp. 1258-1271 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dimitra Lazidou ◽

Dimitrios Lampakis ◽

Ioannis Karapanagiotis ◽

Costas Panayiotou

Keyword(s):

Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Fourier Transform ◽

Cross Section ◽

Cross Sections ◽

Lead White ◽

Chrome Yellow ◽

Micro Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Ft Ir ◽

The Cross ◽

Ft Ir Spectroscopy

The cross-section stratifications of samples, which were removed from six icons, are studied using optical microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and micro-Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The icons, dated from the 14th to 19th centuries, are prominent examples of Byzantine painting art and are attributed to different artistic workshops of northern Greece. The following materials are identified in the cross-sections of the icon samples using micro-Raman spectroscopy: anhydrite; calcite; carbon black; chrome yellow; cinnabar; gypsum; lead white; minium; orpiment; Prussian blue; red ochre; yellow ochre; and a paint of organic origin which can be either indigo ( Indigofera tinctoria L. and others) or woad ( Isatis tinctoria L.). The same samples are investigated using micro-FT-IR which leads to the following identifications: calcite; calcium oxalates; chrome yellow; gypsum; kaolinite; lead carboxylates; lead sulfate (or quartz); lead white; oil; protein; Prussian blue; saponified oil; shellac; silica; and tree resin. The study of the cross-sections of the icon samples reveals the combinations of the aforementioned inorganic and organic materials. Although the icons span over a long period of six centuries, the same stratification comprising gypsum ground layer, paint layers prepared by modified “egg tempera” techniques (proteinaceous materials mixed with oil and resins), and varnish layer is revealed in the investigated samples. Moreover, the presence of three layers of varnishes, one at the top and other two as intermediate layers, in the cross-section analysis of a sample from Virgin and Child provide evidence of later interventions.

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Revealing Artists’ Collaboration in a 14th Century Manuscript by Non-Invasive Analyses

Minerals ◽

10.3390/min11070771 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 771

Author(s):

Michela Perino ◽

Lucilla Pronti ◽

Lucrezia Gaia Di Forti ◽

Martina Romani ◽

Cecilia Taverna ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Fiber Optics ◽

Reflectance Spectroscopy ◽

Energy Dispersive ◽

Lead White ◽

Late Medieval ◽

14Th Century ◽

X Ray ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Red Lead

In the last decades, the working methods of late medieval illuminators have been widely discussed by art historians and codicologists. Non-invasive analyses are able to characterise the painting methods of illuminators as well as investigate artistic collaborations among them. The aim of this study was to characterise the painting palettes and techniques of different artists who illuminated two leaves from an early fourteenth century manuscript. The analyses were carried out with non-invasive and portable techniques such as Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry, Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) and Raman spectroscopy. The paper highlights the differences among three rich and varied palettes and examines the pigments ultramarine, azurite, verdigris, earths, orpiment, red lead, vermillion, lead white, yellow lake, indigo, brazilwood and lac, used independently or in mixtures. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of non-invasive analyses as a tool to differentiate hands of artists who have worked on the same page. Furthermore, the comparison with analyses carried out on leaves attributed to the workshop of Pacino di Bonaguida allows to investigate in-depth the production of the main illuminators active in Florence at the dawn of the Renaissance.

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Museum of Modern Art

Film Quarterly ◽

10.1525/fq.1962.16.2.04a00090 ◽

1962 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 35-37

Author(s):

Eileen Bowser

Keyword(s):

Modern Art ◽

Museum Of Modern Art

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Ontological Laboratory in the Making: “After Year Zero” and the Resetting of Historical Imagination

Widok. Teorie i Praktyki Kultury Wizualnej - Siła kobiet ◽

10.36854/widok/2015.9.1179 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Anselm Franke ◽

Annett Busch ◽

Katarzyna Bojarska

Keyword(s):

Modern Art ◽

Museum Of Modern Art ◽

Historical Imagination

A conversation between Annett Busch, Anselm Franke, and Katarzyna Bojarska about the exhibition "After Year Zero. Universal Imaginaries - Geographies of Collaboration", shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw between June and August 2015.

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