After discontinuing my subscription to The Artist’s Magazine for some time, I was thrilled to find my new subscription revealed an entirely new format and content. Every aspect of the latest issue ( September 2008) is well written and worth reading, and every department offers useful information. Many thanks for a satisfying revamp.
Joan Nied Via e-mail
What’s in a name? Michael Skalka says (Ask the Experts, May 2008) that an acrylic dispersion primer can be used as an underlayer for oil colors, but later in the same column he mentions using “acrylic dispersion grounds for painting with oil colors.” Is he using the terms “acrylic dispersion primer” and “acrylic dispersion ground”
interchangeably? In a previous column (Ask the Experts, June 2007), Mr. Skalka implied that acrylic dispersion primer and acrylic gesso are one and the same. I’m confused. Do acrylic dispersion grounds, acrylic dispersion primers and acrylic ges-soes differ from one another? If so, how? And which of the three is the most durable/permanent product for archival purposes when the artist is painting with oil on canvas?
James W. Newman Au Sable Forks, NY
Michael Skalka replies: The preparatory layer for paintings can go by a variety of names that all mean the same thing. I use the term “ground” and “primer” interchangeably. Further, acrylic dispersion primer and acrylic gesso are the same. Technically, the material is an acrylic dispersion, but the term gesso
has become standard for labeling this product. Thus, the only thing that differs about acrylic dispersion grounds, acrylic primers and acrylic gesso are the brand names and each manufacturer’s formulations. They’re all the same type of material, and all perform in a similar way (though some are thin; others, thick). The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Subcommittee on Artist’s Materials is currently working on a standard for manufacturers, in order to provide some quality assurance because acrylic primers vary so greatly in quality and performance. For now, I would recommend going with products that are the most popular and most widely distributed.
The place for political art I think that art as a social/political polemic has many outlets ... thank
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