Picasso’s Masterpieces Made With House Paint

 

 

Observatory

Picasso’s Masterpieces Made With House Paint

DOUGLAS QUENQUA February 23, 2013 

Scientists using a high-energy X-ray instrument say they have solved the long-running debate over what kind of paint Picasso used in his masterpieces.It was common house paint, said Volker Rose, a physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory who led the study, published in Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing.

 

“We were looking into pigments taken from Picasso’s white paint, which from a material perspective is zinc oxide, and we were able to study the impurities that are there,” Dr. Rose said.
The scientists also bought samples of decades-old house paint on eBay. After comparing those samples with Picasso’s paint, they determined that the two shared the same chemical makeup.
The instrument was a hard X-ray nanoprobe, developed by the Department of Energy to give scientists a close-up view of the chemical elements in physical materials. Its intended use is to improve the production of high-performance materials and energies. Using the nanoprobe, the researchers could view particles of paint that were just 30 nanometers wide. (A typical sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick.)
In his regular work, Dr. Volker uses the nanoprobe to study zinc oxide, a key ingredient in batteries, energy-saving windows and liquid-crystal displays for computers and television. Because zinc oxide exists in white paint as well, it made a valuable clue for the physicist to learn about Picasso’s paint.
Some art historians have long held that Picasso was among the first major artists to switch from traditional artists’ paint to house paint, which is more affordable and creates a glossy image without brush strokes.

畢加索傳世名畫系建築塗料所作

DOUGLAS QUENQUA 報道 2013年02月23日

Chris Gash

科學家稱，他們使用一種高能X射線儀解決了一個長期爭執不下的問題：畢加索的傳世名畫中採用的是哪種顏料？
美國阿貢國家實驗室(Argonne National Laboratory)的物理學家沃爾克·羅斯(Volker Rose)的答案是：普通建築塗料。他主持的相關研究發表在期刊《應用物理學A卷：材料科學與工藝》(Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing)上。

羅斯博士說，“我們研究了畢加索採用的白色顏料粉末。從材料學角度看，就是氧化鋅。而且我們也研究了其中含有的雜質。”
科學家們還從eBay上購買了幾十年前生產的建築塗料樣品。他們把這些樣品與畢加索的顏料進行對比，判定兩者的化學組分相同。
科學家採用的儀器是一台硬X射線納米探測儀。這種儀器由美國能源部(Department of Energy)研發，以使科學家能細緻地觀察物理材料的化學成分，從而促進高性能材料及能源的生產。使用這種納米探測儀，研究者可以觀察粒徑僅為30納米 的顏料顆粒。（一張普通的紙的厚度是10萬納米。）
羅斯博士在日常工作中使用這種儀器研究氧化鋅。氧化鋅是電池、節能窗及電腦和電視液晶顯示器的關鍵原料。它也存在於白色顏料中，因而為羅斯博士了解畢加索的顏料提供了寶貴線索。
長期以來，一些藝術史學家認為，畢加索是從傳統顏料轉向建築塗料的首批重要藝術家之一。建築塗料更平價，作畫光滑流暢，毫無畫筆的痕迹。

翻譯：梁英