Modern Paints used in Street Art: Discovering their composition and alteration by FT-IR and µ-Raman spectroscopy

Paints used in street art are complex materials, often made for indoor conditions and subjected to hardly predictable degradatio n [1]. This study outlines chemical composition and long term behavior of paints used for the realization of three outdoor murals in Lazio. 22 sam ples have been collected from artworks by Alice Pasquini (Fig. 1), Alexey Luka (Fig. 2) and SEPE & Chazme (Fig. 3). Their stratigraphy has been studied by optical microscope, while FT IR spectroscopy has been used to identify binders[2, 3] . For characterization of pigments used in all diff erent stratigraphy layers of samples µ Raman spectroscopy analysis has been carried out [3]. This information is useful for artists as well as for conservators that must face numerous issues related to the preservation of this modern and labile kind of artistic expression [4], very fashionable nowadays but often made without care of materials duration. Conserva tio n issues have been also deepened by interviews with artists. Their answers underlined a great difference between street art made illegally as a protest and mural works which today are often commissioned by institutions and festivals. While the first kind of art generally refuse co nse rvation itself and art conventions in general, the second one, often made to upgrade periphery quarters and crumbling buildings, needs to be rec ogn ize as official commissioned art and to be saved from disappearing as a community heritage, if the author agrees, particularly with a conscio us choice of furnished materials.