Revisiting cleaned acrylic emulsion painting surfaces ten years on: Observations and reflections

Recent opportunities facilitated access to a group of acrylic emulsion (dispersion) paintings originally investigated and aqueous wetcleaned during the Tate AXA Art Modern Paints Project (TAAMPP, 2006–2009). The 2018–19 re-investigation focused on documenting two key areas of interest for the treatment of acrylic paintings: changes in gloss and the potential re-emergence of intrinsic surfactant, in this case, occurring over the ~10-year period postcleaning. The results confirmed negligible gloss change, and that the re-emergence of surfactant was detected only minimally. This suggests that the wet-cleaning treatments carried out over a decade ago have not induced the rapid re-migration of intrinsic surfactant to painting surfaces. Since treatment, the group of paintings have largely been housed in dark, highly controlled storage conditions, where the surfactant behaviour noted partly supports and partly challenges recent research into the mobility of surfactants within these paints, which highlights the need for further research.