• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.371-380
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• 2017

To investigate the pigments used in modern and contemporary oil paintings, thirty-two paintings by Jiho Oh and Bonung Gu were selected. The white pigment found in the ground and painting layers was identified as lead white (hydrocerussite), zinc white (zinc oxide), titanium white (titanium dioxide in anatase or rutile forms), calcite (calcium carbonate), and barite (barium sulfate). Further, this indicated that pigments differ according to the artist and date of the painting's creation. However, both Oh and Gu used zinc white during the modern and contemporary period, while lead white was replaced by titanium white, barite and calcite. Compared with the overseas studies on pigments and oil paints, the change patterns of pigments were the same with them but the periods of the use were partially different. It seems to be due to the fact that South Korea is linked to the historical background of the art material which was imported from Japan instead of Western countries. Therefore, it is inevitable that any change in the white pigments used for domestic oil paintings occurred at a different time from global transitions. If the results of this study are used in the analysis of art works it is suggested that a database recording such aspects as material properties of oil paints, artistic techniques, and chronology would become important for future conservation science and the study of art history.