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What are Cy Twombly's sculptures made of? This article presents an overview of a non-destructive examination conducted on three sculptures by American artist Cy Twombly (1928–2011) as part of an art-technological research project at the Doerner Institut in Munich. The artworks are part of the collection of the Brandhorst Museum and belong to Twombly's series of so-called 'Original Sculptures': assemblages of individual found objects, which the artist covered and modified with layers of plaster and white paint. To develop a long-term preservation strategy, the research focused on understanding the materials and construction methods used in Twombly's sculptures. In collaboration with the Chair of Non-Destructive Testing at the Technical University of Munich, the artworks were inspected using X-ray radiography and computed tomography. The results showed that Cy Twombly used various everyday objects made from wood, plastics, metal, and paper/cardboard to build the assemblages. Unexpectedly, the examinations revealed that the individual parts are solely held together by the coating of plaster and paint, lacking additional mechanical connections. The overall structure thus proved to be very fragile and highly sensitive to physical stresses, whether due to handling, transport, or strains in the microstructure caused by climatic fluctuations. Since little was known about Cy Twombly´s choice of materials and manufacturing details, the results offer valuable insights into the overall artistic process and decision-making of one of the most influential artists of the 20th/twenty-first centuries. Conservators can use the art-technological findings to monitor the sculptures 'condition and develop or adapt long-term preservation strategies, including aspects such as ambient climatic conditions and handling storage and transport specifications. In addition, the knowledge generated can be used for further research on the specific materials and transferred to other artworks by Cy Twombly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of the connection between the value of an image and the value of the materials that were used to make it is limited, especially for stained-glass windows. However, such information can bring-to-light how artistic and economic questions were intertwined and how the final artwork depended on the ranking of the materials. With this paper, we aim to illustrate the benefit of combining art historical research with scientific analysis to retrieve the selection of the quality of the materials of stained-glass windows. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the link between the materials and the iconography in order to recover artistic choices and highlight a possible hidden symbolism for a set of window panels, used as a first case-study. Glass quality is investigated according to the following parameters: (1) the glass composition, (2) the glass forming technique, (3) the transparency and hue of the colourless glass, and (4) the rarity and complexity of the colouring technology. The results of our research indicate that the four-studied panels were originally assembled from two different glass compositional groups, K-rich glass and Ca-rich glass, and that specific attention was paid to select only high-quality materials and production techniques for the representation of the characters with higher positions in the religious hierarchy. A very interesting aspect concerns the way the bishop was rendered in one of the panels, because it seems that he actually upgraded his own prestige by requesting the use of specific materials and more attentiveness to his rendering in the panel. By this research, we proposed a first case-study with a non-destructive tool to bring a discussion on the use of different glass qualities in stained glass window. We hope to further encourage such studies on window panels across Western Europe to verify if similar observations can be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liu Kang (1911–2004) was renowned Singapore artist trained in Shanghai and Paris, and known for his contributions to the Nanyang style—an art movement practised by migrant Chinese painters in Singapore between the late 1940s to the 1960s. The style depicts aspects of the tropical way of life, synthetising the artistic traditions of the School of Paris and Chinese ink painting with remarkable stylistic innovations. The aim of this study was to characterise Liu Kang's painting materials and technique by way of ten paintings from a significant period in his oeuvre, 1950–1958, during which his Nanyang style emerged. The selected artworks are from the National Gallery Singapore. A broad range of analytical techniques was employed to study the painting supports and paint layers. The results indicate the prevailing use of commercially prepared linen canvases with double-layered oil-based ground. Single- and triple-layered structures of the ground, as well as semi-absorbent ground, were used sporadically. The identified group of pigments partially overlaps with those already known from Liu Kang's earlier practice and also incorporates some noteworthy peculiarities like manganese, cerulean and phthalocyanine blues, phthalocyanine green, zinc yellow, and naphthol red AS-D. Some of these newly identified pigments made a distinctive appearance in the individual artworks, but ultimately Liu Kang was not convinced about increasing their role in his painting practice of the 1950s as presented in this research. This study highlights the significance of drawing and photography as integral elements of his artistic process. It also delves into the artist's different painting approaches and discusses their evolution, which culminated in the stylistic innovation that became Liu Kang's signature for decades to come. The obtained data may assist art historians and conservators in authenticity and attribution studies, evaluating the condition of artworks and designing conservation strategies. Moreover, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge about twentieth-century artists' materials, which are characterised by the complex mixtures of inorganic and organic compounds. It also provides information about the availability of art materials in Singapore in the 1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]