{"id":15028,"date":"2016-06-15T12:01:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=15028"},"modified":"2016-06-15T12:01:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:01:09","slug":"44th-annual-meeting-paintings-session-16-may-2016-bocour-paints-and-barnett-newman-paintings-context-and-correlations-by-dr-corina-rogge-and-bradford-epley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2016\/06\/15\/44th-annual-meeting-paintings-session-16-may-2016-bocour-paints-and-barnett-newman-paintings-context-and-correlations-by-dr-corina-rogge-and-bradford-epley\/","title":{"rendered":"44th Annual Meeting \u2013 Paintings Session, 16 May 2016, \u201cBocour paints and Barnett Newman paintings: context and correlations,\u201d by Dr. Corina Rogge and Bradford Epley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barnett<\/a>
Installation view of Barnett Newman: The Late Work<\/em>, The Menil Collection, March 27-August 2, 2015. Image found here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBarnett Newman was fairly private about his technique, and until recently, much less was known about his methods and materials than many other artists from the same era. Over the last few years, Dr. Corina Rogge and Bradford Epley have conducted an extensive study of Newman\u2019s technique centered on the 2015 Menil Collection exhibit Barnett Newman: The Late Work<\/em>, which included paintings drawn from the Menil and collections across the United States and Europe. By analyzing each of the paintings brought together for the show along with studio materials and Newman ephemera, the Menil team were able to learn a great deal about Newman\u2019s working method, and Dr. Rogge’s\u00a0presentation on the second day of the PSG sessions explored his loyal use of paints produced by Leonard Bocour.
\n
\"Phillip<\/a>
Phillip Pearlstein, Leonard Bocour<\/em>, 1966. Image found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBocour began producing paint in the early 1930s, opening a storefront in Manhattan which quickly became a hang-out spot for AbEx artists. In 1947, Bocour Artist Colors introduced the solvent-borne acrylic Magna, and in 1963, the water-borne acrylic Aqua-Tec, which was a favorite of Newman\u2019s. In addition to these and other lines, Bocour often produced bespoke colors for his artists, and Newman himself often hand-mixed pigments and other additives into\u00a0Bocour paints, complicating the issue when trying to understand which paints are present on Newman\u2019s various works.
\nDr. Rogge highlighted some of the idiosyncrasies of Bocour\u2019s paints, such as the fact that the names of colors don\u2019t necessarily correspond to the actual colorants in the paint. For instance, she found that Bocour Hand Ground Oil Ultramarine Red was colored with manganese violet pigment, while his Bellini Oil Colors Cobalt Blue was actually ultramarine. Generally, these misleading names aren\u2019t too much of an issue, but in certain colors synthetic organic dyes \u2013 which Bocour referred to as \u201ctoners\u201d \u2013 were added, and this is where things get dicey. His so-called cadmium colors like red and yellow contained a mixture of (not necessarily cadmium-based) inorganic pigments and organic dyes, which causes them to be light-sensitive and susceptible to fading or color shifts. She also found that the paint formulas went through changes in their colorants, binders, and additives over their years of production, and offered this handy tip: the address listed on the tube will indicate the period from which it originates \u2013 Bocour\u00a0tubes initially listed simply \u201cNew York City,\u201d and then, in 1943, there\u2019s the addition of a two-letter postal zone, and the addition of the newly created five-digit zip code in 1963-64.
\n
\"Hans<\/a>
Hans Namuth, Barnett Newman in his studio<\/em>, 1952.\u00a0Image found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe Menil team collaborated with the National Gallery to analyze the historic Bocour materials in their Art Materials Research and Study Center, and with Harvard Art Museum\u2019s Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art to analyze the Newman studio paints in their collection. They also received a timely gift: sculptor Robert Murray, a friend and sometimes studio assistant of Newman\u2019s, was an invited lecturer and guest at the Menil symposium accompanying the exhibition of Newman\u2019s late works. Murray then donated to the Menil paints from Newman\u2019s studio, including many Bocour products. By analyzing the pigment ratios of Newman\u2019s hand-mixed additions to the standard Bocour colors, Dr. Rogge was able to group certain paintings together as having been created at the same time.
\nRogge and Epley\u2019s broad study of Barnett Newman\u2019s work has benefitted from some excellent collaboration and has highlighted the great value of our national study centers for historic artists\u2019 materials. Their study is allowing scholars to understand the chronology and evolution of his late works, many of which were simply found in his studio after his passing. Her presentation emphasized the fact that the apparent aesthetic simplicity of Newman\u2019s canvases belies not only the surprising complexity of his working method but also his fervent commitment to technical excellence and the physical longevity of his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barnett Newman was fairly private about his technique, and until recently, much less was known about his methods and materials than many other artists from the same era. Over the last few years, Dr. Corina Rogge and Bradford Epley have conducted an extensive study of Newman\u2019s technique centered on the 2015 Menil Collection exhibit Barnett … Continue reading “44th Annual Meeting \u2013 Paintings Session, 16 May 2016, \u201cBocour paints and Barnett Newman paintings: context and correlations,\u201d by Dr. Corina Rogge and Bradford Epley”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,34,16],"tags":[45,76,754],"class_list":["post-15028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-paintings","category-specialty-sessions","tag-44th-aic-annual-meeting","tag-aics-44th-annual-meeting","tag-painting-specialty-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}