A Multiwavelength Approach for the Study of Contemporary Painting Materials by Means of Fluorescence Imaging Techniques: An Integration to Spectroscopic Methods

Imaging methods based on visible luminescence induced by ultraviolet (UV) radiation are well consolidated in the investigation of ancient works of art, to map varnishes, retouches, and possibly some pigments. As far as contemporary art is involved, the wide range of synthetic materials, especially pigments, introduced from 1850 onwards, makes the possible application of the technique particularly challenging. Among the colouring substances used by artists in the 19th and 20th centuries, only cadmium-based pigments received attention due to their typical near-infrared luminescence. Nevertheless, the fluorescence emission exhibited by several synthetic pigments upon visible excitation was recently demonstrated and confirmed using UV radiation in the present work. The subsequent possibility of individuating such materials in paintings by ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF) images was explored on mock-up painting samples of a wide series of pigments dispersed in oil or acrylic binder. Visible and infrared luminescence images obtained by irradiating with visible radiation (VIVF and VIL) were also collected. It was thus evidenced the possible advantage of the choice of a different excitation wavelength in discriminating between the contributions of pigment and binder. Finally, a recent oil painting on panel was also examined as case study.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ЖИВОПИСУ У ПОСТМОДЕРНІСТСЬКОМУ ВИМІРІ

The purpose of the study is to identify the postmodernism principles' influence on formation of the distinctive features of Ukrainian painting in the XXIstсentury. Methodology. The research uses a culturological approach to consider postmodernism as a creative method and factor that influences the activities of Ukrainian artists. Formal-stylistic analysis is applied to clarify the connection between creative practices and the principles of postmodernism and to determine their features as well.Results.The analysis of Ukrainian artists' painting practice of the XXI century in the context of the postmodern worldview was carried out. The study focuses on postmodernism as a factor in the development of various artistic styles. The artistic and stylistic features of painting over recent years in Ukraine were analyzed. There was revealed the natural influence of postmodernist principles on domestic painting, characterized by the features of postmodernism, which is manifested in a variety of areas (conceptualism, transavant-garde, contemporary, etc.) and syncretism in art. Although the latest painting practices are integrating into European culture and tend to the Western European tradition, Ukrainian art still saves its distinguishing features. It was found that a feature of Ukrainian postmodernism is the conceptualization of painting, the introduction of deep content into a new format of painting and the synthesis of traditional fine art and new technologies. Scientific novelty lies in the identification of the main distinctive features and patterns of Ukrainian postmodern painting development. The practical significance. Presented results aid to trace postmodernism as a factor of influence on the peculiarities of the formation of new directions in Ukrainian painting practices, which can be used as a theoretical basis for further art criticism analysis of contemporary painting.

Zola and the Science of Painting

The article explores a paradox in Zola's writing: the resistance to advances in scientific theory by the author of Du Progrès dans les sciences et dans la poésie (1864), as the first of many such assimilations of scientific progress and artistic trends. This is exemplified by the challenge posed to his Naturalist aesthetic by Michel-Eugène Chevreul's seminal De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs (1839), popularised during the period of Zola's most sustained art criticism. This radical revision of the science of optics is increasingly accommodated in contemporary painting, from 1880 onwards, at the very moment of Zola's disenchantment with Impressionism. Although L'Œuvre, his novel of 1886, is set in the Second Empire (consistent with the historical limits of Les Rougon-Macquart), Zola inserts into his narrative the theory of complementary colours, the awkward anachronism notwithstanding, to explain his fictional painter's creative impotence. In relation to the latter, the article looks in detail at the genesis and textual details of a key passage in the novel in which Zola's irony at the expense of Chevreul's theories is almost explicit. At least as telling is his response to unsolicited advice about them: ‘J’ai plus de confiance dans l'observation directe que dans la théorie’. One could hardly conjure up a more succinct summary of Zola's unreconstructed approach to the science of painting which simultaneously testifies to his own principles of representation.

The Productive Inadequacy of Image for Contemporary Painting Image Based Operations in the Work of Beth Harland, Jacqueline Humphries and R.H. Quaytman

This article considers the productive inadequacy of image for contemporary painting. The mutability of image is tested against the material, spatial and durational conditions of painting, and the attentional attachments it might mobilize through an examination of the working methods of Beth Harland, Jacqueline Humphries and R.H.Quaytman. Painting is not positioned as image, but as a processor of image information, able to prompt an image response, A resistance to image is framed by the art historical and philosophical legacy of image expectations and preclusions that each artist feels compelled to work against, and the expanding opticality of our contemporary social, cultural and economic interactions.

An integrated analytical study of crayons from the original art materials collection of the MUNCH museum in Oslo

Among the artists’ materials of the nineteenth century, pastel crayons merit scientific interest since their early commercial formulations are mostly unknown and, until now, have been considerably less studied with respect to other contemporary painting materials. In this framework, research herein reports the results of a comprehensive multi-analytical study of 44 pastel crayons of two recognized brands (LeFranc and Dr. F. Schoenfeld) from the Munch museum collection of original materials belonging to Edvard Munch. The integrated use of complementary spectroscopic and hyphenated mass-spectrometry techniques allowed the compositional profiles of the crayons to be traced providing the identification of the inorganic and organic pigments, the fillers/extenders and the binders. All crayons resulted to be oil- based and the binder was identified to be a mixture of a drying oil (safflower or linseed oil), palm oil or Japan wax and beeswax. Among others, pigments such as ultramarine, chrome yellows, Prussian blue, manganese violet, viridian and madder lake have been identified. A significant alignment in formulations of the brands was observed with the only exception of the greens which showed distinctive pigment and filler compositions. The analytical information provided for these commercial artists’ materials will be of great interest for academia, museum and other institutions hosting art collections dating from the same period and it will be used by the Munch museum to draw proper conservation strategies of its own artwork collections.

On “Real Truth” and “Higher Truth” in the Art Criticism of F. M. Dostoevsky

The article deals with the art reviews of F. M. Dostoevsky. Based on the analysis of the articles “Exhibition at the Academy of Arts for 1860–61” and “About the Exhibition” published in “A Writer’s Diary” for 1873, the aesthetic criteria for Dostoevsky’s assessment of genre, historical, portrait and landscape Russian painting are determined. The author of the article reveals the most important criteria outlined by Dostoevsky: the expression of the author’s ideal that distinguishes a painting from mirror reflection and photography; the artist’s independence from direction, excessive naturalness, theatricality and “excessive showiness”. Particular attention is paid to Dostoevsky’s analysis of paintings by V. N. Jacobi, V. G. Perov, V. E. Makovsky, N. G. Sсhilder, M. P. Klodt, I. E. Repin, A. I. Kuindzhi, N. N. Ge, whose work aroused genuine interest of the writer and prompted reflections on artistic truth in art. The characters of the paintings as presented by Dostoevsky come to life, acquire a “history of feelings”, a psychological appearance and a voice. The work distinguishes between such concepts used by Dostoevsky to analyze contemporary painting for the writer in the light of “realism in the highest sense”, such as “natural truth”, “real truth”, “stage truth”, “artistic truth”, “higher truth”.