Reviving Alexander Calder’s Man-Eater with Pennants: A Technical Examination of the Original Paint Palette

Abstract

Mat-Eater with Pennants, a rarely exhibited sculpture in Alexander Calder’s oeuvre, was commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and installed in 1945. To exhibit the large standing mobile in Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start (2021), the derelict sculpture had to be remediated; this initiated a collaborative investigation with conservation scientists, conservators, curators, and the Calder Foundation into the original paint colors hidden beneath layers of repaint. XRF analysis was carried out to elucidate the paints’ composition, followed by sampling for analysis to assess the paint stratigraphy and binders. Scrapings were analyzed by µ-FTIR and Raman spectroscopies; cross sections were examined with optical microscopy and analyzed with SEM-EDS. Analysis differentiated between the original paints, which contain Prussian blue, parachlor red, chrome yellow, and the many layers of overpaint, which contain titanium white, molybdate orange, a variety of β-Naphthol reds, red lead, and ultramarine. A model for Man-Eater, Mobile with 14 Flags, is also part of the museum’s collection, and was first considered as a point of reference for the original colors. Similar analysis, however, indicates that the maquette was painted after the Man-Eater was first installed, therefore is not representative of the original colors. In addition to investigating an early primary palette for Calder’s outdoor sculptures, this study helped develop the plan for the restoration of the original color scheme of Man-Eater.

Decorative Coatings of the Saint Demetrius Basarabov Reliquary’s Wooden Pedestal

“…To obtain complete information on the materials and techniques used for producing ancient polychrome wooden art pieces with different layers of successively applied decorations, several complementary analytical methods of analysis must be performed. The classical nondestructive methods of investigation are optical microscopy, vibrational spectroscopy techniques, FTIR, and X-ray fluorescence, routinely used for the analysis of organic and inorganic constituent materials of historic and artistic works, combining molecular and elemental analysis [22][23][24][25]. Our approach revealed and emphasized the existence of original gold and silver layer decorations on a wooden relic pedestal recalling the Romanian Brancovan adaptation of Byzantine tradition and two successive copper-zinc alloy metallic coatings.…”

An Introduction and Recent Advances in the Analytical Study of Early Synthetic Dyes and Organic Pigments in Cultural Heritage

“…Both benchtop and portable instrumentation are available, the latter being valuable when pigments must be pinpointed in artworks characterised by wide chromatic areas [112,113]. Raman spectroscopy performs very well for the identification of SOPs in reference and historical atelier material [91,110,114,115], in drawings and paintings of modern artists [33,74,80,92,93,97,106,110,[116][117][118], in plastic design objects [119] and sculptures [120]. The main limitation of the Raman spectroscopy is the background fluorescence signal produced by the organic matrix or support.…”

Colour Analysis: An Introduction to the Power of Studying Pigments and Dyes in Archaeological and Historical Objects

“…In Haddad et al's contribution, Alexander Calder's "Man-Eater with Pennants" is at the centre of an investigation to reveal the original paint colours hidden beneath layers of repainting [10]. In addition to showing an application on a sculpture rather than a two-dimensional object, the article reports on the difficulty of distinguishing original materials and subsequent applications in modern objects, and on the different degradation pathways occurring during outdoor exposure.…”