Conservators turn to iPads to follow the formation of oil paintings’ ‘art acne’
Researchers have developed at app to address a chemistry problem plaguing the art world
Unsightly ‘art acne’ afflicting paintings by Georgie O’Keeffe is now being tracked by an iPad app. Its creators hope that the app will help find new ways to restore these paintings and others – these minute bumps are thought to affect around 70% of the world’s oil paintings. Marc Walton, who co-directs the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts at Northwestern University in Massachusetts, discussed the effort at an annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement in Science on 16 February in Washington, DC.