A constant and unpredictable challenge

In the Fall 2016 issue of “Distillations” (a publication of the Chemical Heritage Foundation), Roksana Filipowska writes about Richard Hamilton’s use of consumer synthetic materials in the art works he created during the later 1950s and the failings of those materials within a few years of the works’ creation. Over the decades, these works have undergone more and more sophisticated conservation treatments. But, as Filipowska reminds us, “Despite the gains made in art conservation, the variety of plastics incorporated into artwork over the past 50 years makes caring for contemporary art a constant and unpredictable challenge.”