Preamble
This is the fifty-second post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g. click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I [1]
Permanence in an artists' pigment means that the color will not be altered during the life of the work of art in which it is used, by any condition which it is likely to encounter. Some colors may be altered or destroyed by subjecting them to strong heat or to the action of chemicals, but since works of art are not normally expected to endure such conditions, the term "absolutely permanent" means that a color complies with all of the normal requirements for pigments as previously listed.
Pigments are tested for resistance to fading by subjecting them to concentrated ultraviolet light with laboratory apparatus, whereby the effect of months of exposure to direct sunlight is duplicated in a relatively short time. The action of an ultraviolet lamp is not exerted to the same degree as that of direct sunlight; that is, x number of hours under ultraviolet light cannot be calculated as a reciprocal of y number of hours under direct or diffuse light to obtain a time relationship. But it does supply an accurate indication of relative degree of resistence to fading, as well as to age embrittlement, that is possessed by various materials, and its results conform closely to the tests described in detail in a future blogpost. Industrial pigments are tested by outdoor weathering.
Faded Swatch.
In the past, new discoveries in artificially made pigments were introduced in various ways. Sometimes a valuable color was allowed to remain in obscurity, or as a laboratory curiosity, for many years until circumstances caused or allowed its introduction to the palette. At other times, novelties were immediately introduced, and later discarded when artists found them to be impermanent or otherwise unsatistfactory. When the organic colors appeared during the second half of the nineteenth century, painters and others concerned with permanence of pigments envied the brilliance and variety of these colors, but realized that few of them could be utilized for purposes requiring any degree of permanence. In the early twentieth century, pigments of greatly improved light-resistence began to appear on the market, and were adopted by makers of decorative paints, printing inks, and other industrial products. Because they were so much more light-proof than the earlier colors, some of them, such as Harrison red, were introduced to the artists' palette, but none were sufficiently light-proof to have warranted their adoption; the degree of their improvement over the older coal-tar colors was responsible for the optimism with which they were received. Sometimes new colors, which belong to the same chemical family as a successful older one and which theoretically should share the older color's desirable chartacteristics, fail under actual test.
We now have organic pigments of far greater permanence than those of a few years ago. In the laboratory, some will test three or four times as resistant to exposure like madder lake. Yet we are proceeding very slowly toward their adoption, and today we await the results of very exhaustive tests before including such colors in our permanent palettes because of the earlier premature adoption of improved colors. For example, in the 1950's only three synthetic organic pigments were universally approved for use in artists' permanent paints: alizarin crimson, phthalocyanine blue, and phthalocynanine green.
Phthalocyanine Blue.
Phthalocyanine Green.
Since that time approval has been given to Hansa yellow and a strong recommendation to quinacridone red (yellow shade). The words "coal-tar colors" or "aniline colors" which were formerly used pejoratively, need no longer be used in that way, since so many of the newer pigments are permanent.
Alizarin or madder lake, which is universally accepted as a necessary and permanent color for easel paintings, provided they are kept under the normal conditions of preservation of works of art, might well be adopted as a standard of permanence for such pigments. They would then be required to equal it in all respects when subjected to tests.
Madder Lake.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
This is the fifty-second post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g. click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I [1]
Permanence in an artists' pigment means that the color will not be altered during the life of the work of art in which it is used, by any condition which it is likely to encounter. Some colors may be altered or destroyed by subjecting them to strong heat or to the action of chemicals, but since works of art are not normally expected to endure such conditions, the term "absolutely permanent" means that a color complies with all of the normal requirements for pigments as previously listed.
Pigments are tested for resistance to fading by subjecting them to concentrated ultraviolet light with laboratory apparatus, whereby the effect of months of exposure to direct sunlight is duplicated in a relatively short time. The action of an ultraviolet lamp is not exerted to the same degree as that of direct sunlight; that is, x number of hours under ultraviolet light cannot be calculated as a reciprocal of y number of hours under direct or diffuse light to obtain a time relationship. But it does supply an accurate indication of relative degree of resistence to fading, as well as to age embrittlement, that is possessed by various materials, and its results conform closely to the tests described in detail in a future blogpost. Industrial pigments are tested by outdoor weathering.
In the past, new discoveries in artificially made pigments were introduced in various ways. Sometimes a valuable color was allowed to remain in obscurity, or as a laboratory curiosity, for many years until circumstances caused or allowed its introduction to the palette. At other times, novelties were immediately introduced, and later discarded when artists found them to be impermanent or otherwise unsatistfactory. When the organic colors appeared during the second half of the nineteenth century, painters and others concerned with permanence of pigments envied the brilliance and variety of these colors, but realized that few of them could be utilized for purposes requiring any degree of permanence. In the early twentieth century, pigments of greatly improved light-resistence began to appear on the market, and were adopted by makers of decorative paints, printing inks, and other industrial products. Because they were so much more light-proof than the earlier colors, some of them, such as Harrison red, were introduced to the artists' palette, but none were sufficiently light-proof to have warranted their adoption; the degree of their improvement over the older coal-tar colors was responsible for the optimism with which they were received. Sometimes new colors, which belong to the same chemical family as a successful older one and which theoretically should share the older color's desirable chartacteristics, fail under actual test.
We now have organic pigments of far greater permanence than those of a few years ago. In the laboratory, some will test three or four times as resistant to exposure like madder lake. Yet we are proceeding very slowly toward their adoption, and today we await the results of very exhaustive tests before including such colors in our permanent palettes because of the earlier premature adoption of improved colors. For example, in the 1950's only three synthetic organic pigments were universally approved for use in artists' permanent paints: alizarin crimson, phthalocyanine blue, and phthalocynanine green.
Since that time approval has been given to Hansa yellow and a strong recommendation to quinacridone red (yellow shade). The words "coal-tar colors" or "aniline colors" which were formerly used pejoratively, need no longer be used in that way, since so many of the newer pigments are permanent.
Alizarin or madder lake, which is universally accepted as a necessary and permanent color for easel paintings, provided they are kept under the normal conditions of preservation of works of art, might well be adopted as a standard of permanence for such pigments. They would then be required to equal it in all respects when subjected to tests.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
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