Twin-chain hydrogels for cleaning artwork

Researchers report an improved hydrogel for safely cleaning artworks. Removing soil from painted surfaces is a major challenge in the preservation of art, partly due to the presence in paint of solvent-sensitive pigments, dyes, and additives that can leach and destroy the art. Moreover, works by painters like Van Gogh and Picasso as well as modern artworks dating to the 1940s and later often contain rough, textured, or clotted surfaces that are difficult to clean using conventional methods. Piero Baglioni and colleagues formulated twin-chain hydrogels made of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by interpenetrating high-molecular-weight PVA with low-molecular-weight PVA, resulting in a pliant gel with a disordered network of large, interconnected pores, akin to a sponge. The twin-chain hydrogels showed greater cleaning efficacy and improved adherence to rough painted surfaces than pure PVA networks. Compared with conventional cleaning aids such as gellan gels and swabs, the hydrogel showed improved cleaning efficacy without pigment loss when tested on soiled glass slides and mock-ups of contemporary paintings. Together with conservators at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the authors used the hydrogel to clean a pair of Jackson Pollock paintings–Two (1943-45) and Eyes in the Heat (1946-47)–from the collection that had been soiled by dirt accumulated over decades. Unlike swabs, which can dislodge pigments, the hydrogel safely removed soil and restored original hues in the paintings, which represent Pollock’s dripping technique and contain highly textured, solvent-sensitive 3D surfaces. According to the authors, the twin-chain hydrogel represents a superior tool for safely cleaning artwork.

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Article #19-11811: “Twin-chain polymer hydrogels based on poly(vinyl alcohol) as new advanced tool for the cleaning of modern and contemporary art,” by Rosangela Mastrangelo et al.

MEDIA CONTACT: Piero Baglioni, University of Florence, ITALY; tel: +39 055-457-3033, +39-348-783-2750; e-mail:

[email protected]