"Like Fall (1963), another Riley painting which Tate cleaned last year as part of the same project, Hesitate -a canvas of grey spots on a white background that gives the illusion of a wave rippling across it-had been flagged for conservation work for some time. Until now, cleaning was limited to dust removal because of concerns about the impact of traditional "swab rolling" on the black-and-white house paints favoured by Riley during the early to mid-1960s."
"Unglazed, unframed and unvarnished, Riley's matt house paints are especially vulnerable to soiling, which causes yellowing and greying, but the surfaces are highly sensitive to pressure. Swab rolling would risk burnishing the surface, leaving a matt paint surface with a gloss."
"For Tate, Greenart offered a unique opportunity to research the mid-20th century polyvinyl acetate house paints used by Riley and others including Sidney Nolan, Kenneth Noland and Nelson Kenny. "We've spent a lot of time on acrylics and modern oil paints, but not so much on polyvinyl acetate. It's quite heavily represented in our painting and sculpture collection", says Tate's principal conservation scientist, Bronwyn Ormsby."
Bridget Riley's Op art masterpiece Hesitate, created in 1964, received its first conservation cleaning at London's Tate Britain using innovative hydrogel technology developed by the Greenart international research programme. The painting, featuring grey spots on white background creating a wave illusion, had previously only undergone dust removal due to concerns about traditional cleaning methods damaging Riley's distinctive black-and-white house paints. The hydrogels were developed by the Centre for Colloid and Surface Science in Florence. Riley's unglazed, unvarnished matt house paints are particularly vulnerable to soiling and yellowing, yet extremely sensitive to pressure. Traditional swab rolling risked burnishing the surface and creating unwanted gloss effects. This project provided Tate with valuable research opportunities regarding mid-20th century polyvinyl acetate paints used by Riley and other artists.
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