New app reveals hidden landscapes in Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings | Science

WASHINGTON DC.-Have you ever wondered if a lost masterpiece was hidden beneath the surface of a new work? Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a simple to use application, presented here today at the annual meeting of AAAS (which publishes Science) that can zoom in on the smallest details of a painting and represent them in 3D, transforming the brushstrokes into canyons and cliffs. The resulting landscapes, which can easily be mistaken for satellite imagery of the Earth's rugged terrain, could help conservationists and historians preserve endangered parts and reveal what lies behind below.

Take, for example, the little creepy-like bubbles that cover the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, the mid-twentieth-century artist made famous by her representations of flowers and the southwestern United States. At first, art advocates thought that these tiny projections, reproduced above his painting Pedernal 1941were grains of sand encrusted in the painting. But they quickly recognized that they resulted from chemical reactions between certain components of the painting. The researchers explain that the stains (which can develop and, over time, lead to flaking of the underlying paint) result from reactions between the lead and zinc ions and the fatty acids used as binders in the paint .

Monitoring the growth of these bubbles in works of art of all kinds can help environmental advocates find the best way to diagnose problems, prevent or slow down damage, and even restore works. d & # 39; s. The researchers suggest that the 3D images generated by the application could also have other uses. Subtle differences in the thickness of paint on a canvas, for example, could betray the existence of older paintings – perhaps even lost or unknown masterpieces – beneath the surface layers most recent. Art restorers in some museums are already using a beta version of the team's application. a finalized version will be made public later this year.