Scientists define a rare blue dye in the iconic Jackson Bullock plate-but it is now outside the border

Jackson Polook The famous American painter, who was famous for the abstract expressive, including “punctuation, blush” and “comprehensive” style of paint (which seems to appear). Now we finally know the chemical origin of the blue color that I sprayed on my icon No. 1A, 1948.

The researchers investigated the vibrant pigment via Laser spectral analysisThe technique that scientists use to investigate the material at the atomic level. With this approach, they revealed that it is blue manganese, which is now stalled turquoise tincture. They explain their work in a Ticket Posted on Monday in PNAS, which represents the first confirmed use of a dye.

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“No. 1A, 1948 By Jackson Bullock is an ideal example of the technique of drawing from the work where the ropes are of colors, drops of black, and groups of white that gathered in the dynamic with layers that define his style, “researchers wrote in the paper,” while the previous work has identified red and yellow dyes that form part of its basic painting, the blue color in the painting is unprecedented. “

Dyes are chemicals. For example, the Mengenis sulfate for barium (VI), Abed Haddad, another author of the study and an assistant science for memorization in Moma, for Gizmodo in an e -mail. He was find out In 1907 and the first patent in 1935. The pigment artists were used repeatedly until they were disposed of in the nineties due to environmental and health concerns.

Hui, on the other hand, is the color that we see, continued mourning. Various dyes can be mixed together to create a color similar to those in the stalled blue manganese, which is why the color is still available in stores. For example, a mixture of blue pigment and yellow dye creates a green color – not a green dye.

Color chemistry

Haddad and his colleagues investigated chemistry that allows the color of the unique pigment. Manganese blue molecules consist of “manganese Ion (Fleiled atom) surrounded by four oxide ions, he told Edward Solomon, another author of the study and chemist from Stanford University, Gismino in an email, “The blue color is derived from the light from the transmission to purple from the mechanism.

But what, along with a specialized curiosity, is the goal of determining the precise chemical compound of the dye?

In the context of preservation, “this knowledge can be decisive to develop effective display strategies, because many dyes are sensitive to environmental factors such as intense light, ultraviolet radiation and moisture fluctuations,” Maddad explained. “Moreover, the identification of pigment can help identify the appropriate treatment options, because some chemical conditions may negatively interact with specific dyes.”

In this spirit, a note for all artists: It is unfortunate that the future conservation specialists, and leave a record of the dyes that you use in your paintings.