Are Acrylics Permanent?

 

Are Acrylics Permanent?

Here is a controversial question that has come up recently, again.  Several people have told me over the last couple of months they had heard that acrylics are not as permanent as oils, that they begin to fall apart within 100 years, the colors fade, that expensive paintings done with them aren’t being insured anymore, that some galleries in Europe won’t accept acrylic paintings, and so on.  “Is this true” they want to know, “Should I switch to oils?”  I can’t speak for insurance companies and European galleries but I can address the issue of permanence.  Accelerated aging tests done on acrylic paints show that the paint film remains flexible and in tact almost indefinitely.  Furthermore, because of the simple drying process of acrylics compared to oils there is little chance of acrylics cracking, flaking or wrinkling due to their improper application (acrylics dry by evaporation of water and all the colors dry at the same rate while in oil paints the different pigments react with the oil to create variable drying rates and degrees of flexibility and resilience of the paint film).

The question of the permanence of acrylics has been raised several times since acrylic polymer resins were first used to make artist paints back in the late 1950’s.  The last time it was stirred up was in the early 90’s when a number of articles appeared in major newspapers (The London Times, The New York Observer, The Toronto Star, and the Globe & Mail) about the deteriorated condition of some modern paintings and museum artifacts.  But the way these articles were written created confusion due to misinformation, and there were some faulty conclusions and assumptions.  For example, conservationists are saying modern paintings are falling apart, acrylics are a modern paint, therefore, acrylics are falling apart.  In fact, most of the paintings that are mentioned in the articles were done in oils!  Another erroneous assumption comes from reports of the deterioration of modern plastic resins used to make industrial and commercial products.  Cultural artifacts in museums, including astronaut space suits, are not holding up well.  Moreover, commercial resins and adhesives are often used by artists in their paintings and sculptures and the articles do not differentiate between these and materials designed specifically for artists.  Indeed, the paintings of many well-known artists like Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, and other Abstract Expressionist, including a large majority of the subsequent generation of artists, are rapidly falling apart.  There have even been a number of court cases in recent years because buyers have paid large sums of money for paintings that have deteriorated in a short time.  Painters like Jackson Pollack often used materials and methods not originally intended for art:  Food products; found objects; household or commercial paints, glues and solvents.  Permanence was not a concern in the creative process.  That it became a concern for collectors, museums, and conservationists says something about the art market and the artist’s role within that system; but that is another issue altogether.

So, back to the rumors.  I passed the question of the questionable permanence of acrylic paints on to a few experts in the field, including a conservationist at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, and another at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  They all said the same thing, they know of no new information or research suggesting that acrylics are not permanent.  When they are used according to manufacturers recommendations there is no reason to doubt their longevity.  There is a greater concern for the permanence of oil paintings, especially if they are painted in thick layers, or thinned too much with solvents, or painted on cotton canvas.  Many oil paintings no more than a couple of decades old are already badly deteriorated because most modern painters are not aware of, and do not follow the rules of permanence for painting in oils.  I would be very interested to know more about the original source of these rumors about acrylics.  If you have any thoughts or further information on the subject, please let me know.