Art conservationists have a new tool at their disposal thanks to the University of Akron. The school’s college of polymer science has redeveloped an adhesive that reinforces the canvas under aging paintings.
Dubbed BEVA 371 Akron, it is a more sustainable version of an adhesive developed in 1972 by Austrian-American conservator Gustav Berger. Two key ingredients in the original “Berger’s Ethylene Vinyl Acetate” (BEVA 371) formula have since been discontinued, altering its melting point. In 2021, the Getty Foundation awarded a research grant to New York University, which partnered with UA to develop a solution.
“It was an experience where I really came out with appreciating the whole aspect of what goes on behind the scenes,” said Ali Dhinojwala, chair of Akron’s polymer program. “When you look at an old painting and the kind of effort they have to spend on keeping it intact, not just for a short time - we're talking about hundreds of years.”
The head of paintings conservation at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Dean Yoder, was part of the team that tested the new adhesive, which he said is crucial to the process of “lining.”
“We're not taking the paint off of the canvas,” he said. “We're basically just putting a secondary layer of canvas behind the original canvas.”
Yoder said canvasses can shrink or degrade over time due to environmental factors such as moisture or mold. When that happens a painting can’t support itself.
Before the 1970s, conservators spent centuries experimenting with different ways to reinforce the aging materials. Yoder said that a glue made from the bladders of sturgeons was popular in Russia, while Italy used a pasta-based substance. Wax-based lining was effective but could penetrate the paint layer.
“It would then darken paint,” he said. “So, a painting by Cézanne, for example, who didn't use a varnish and had exposed areas of ground that were left intentionally blank as part of the painting - the wax could come through and darken that ground layer."
BEVA 371 avoided those problems. The new Akron variant uses a modern, sustainable rosin tackifier instead of Laropal K-80 and Cellolyn 21E, which are discontinued. The project was presented at this year’s American Institute of Conservation conference in Minneapolis.
Dhinojwala said their research also resulted in a second, pellet-like formulation that’s lighter to ship and can be dissolved in the studio. The UA team is also developing a third, fibrous formulation.
“Having that ‘Akron’ name on there is really, really wonderful for us,” he said. “Conservators, in any part of the world, opening this bottle of material … and they wonder, ‘Where is Akron?’ And that really is exciting for us, that they'll know the place also where it actually was reformulated.”
