Warhol's Canvas Preparation: Exploring Historical Alkyd Paints

Our research into the canvas preparation of Andy Warhol's 1965 Colored Campbell's Soup Cans has led us through historical Factory photographs, vintage paint literature, and experiments with modern painting materials.

One particularly interesting lead came from a conservation study of a Warhol painting produced eight years after the Colored Campbell's Soup Cans.

The findings raised new questions about the paints Warhol used and led us to investigate a material that was widely available during the early Factory years: alkyd paint.

Benjamin Moore Alkyd Sani-Flat promotional brochure, February 1963. Mack's Factory research collection.

An Interesting Finding in Tate's Research

In 2009, conservators Bronwyn Ormsby, Elina Kampasakali, Costanza Miliani, and Tom Learner published a study examining the materials of several twentieth-century paintings, including Warhol's Portrait of Brooke Hayward (1973).

Andy Warhol, Portrait of Brooke Hayward, 1973. The painting examined in the 2009 conservation study by Ormsby and colleagues.

The researchers used scientific analysis to examine the different paint layers and their chemical composition.

Their findings identified oil-modified alkyd materials in the priming and silkscreen ink of Warhol's painting. Several colored layers were identified as acrylic emulsion paints.

This was particularly interesting to us because it demonstrated that different paint technologies could be present within the same Warhol artwork.

The findings also provided a useful direction for our own canvas-preparation experiments.

There is an important distinction, however. Portrait of Brooke Hayward was produced in 1973, not 1965. The conservation study does not establish that Warhol used the same materials for the earlier Colored Campbell's Soup Cans.

Historical source: Bronwyn Ormsby and colleagues, An FTIR-Based Exploration of the Effects of Wet Cleaning Treatments on Artists' Acrylic Emulsion Paint Films (2009), page 188.

Read the original conservation study (PDF)

Excerpt from Ormsby et al. (2009), p. 188, identifying oil-modified alkyd materials in Andy Warhol's Portrait of Brooke Hayward (1973).

Searching for Period Alkyd Paints

The conservation findings led us back to the paint manufacturers whose products were available during Warhol's early Factory years.

Our earlier research had already identified a Benjamin Moore Regal Wall Satin container in a 1964 photograph of Warhol working on his Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box sculptures.

While searching for additional Benjamin Moore products from the same period, we located historical literature for another paint: Alkyd Sani-Flat.

A promotional brochure dated February 1963 and a color reference printed in October 1963 established that Benjamin Moore was marketing Alkyd Sani-Flat during the period we're studying.

Finding original manufacturer literature was particularly useful. It gave us contemporary evidence of the product's existence, rather than relying on modern descriptions of paints that may have changed considerably over time.

But identifying a historically available product is different from demonstrating that Warhol used it.

The Tate study doesn't identify Benjamin Moore as the manufacturer of the alkyd material found in Portrait of Brooke Hayward, and we have not established that Alkyd Sani-Flat was used on the 1965 Colored Campbell's Soup Cans.

The historical brochures instead give us another material to consider when researching painting techniques available to the Factory.

Benjamin Moore Alkyd Sani-Flat color chart, October 1963. Mack's Factory research collection.

Bringing the Research into the Workshop

Discovering Benjamin Moore Alkyd Sani-Flat in the 1963 literature gave us another historical material to investigate.

The challenge was finding a suitable alkyd paint for our experiments. Without an appropriate alkyd house paint available, we began looking for a modern alternative that would allow us to examine some of the material's physical characteristics.

We selected KILZ Original, an oil-based alkyd primer, as an experimental comparison.

The objective wasn't to reproduce Benjamin Moore's historical formulation. We wanted to understand how an alkyd-based coating behaves on canvas and linen, particularly its coverage, surface texture, drying characteristics, and flexibility.

Those experiments became the next stage of our canvas-preparation research.

Warhol's Canvas Preparation: Following the Evidence

Alongside our research into historical alkyd paints, we continued examining Factory photographs showing loose canvas being handled during production.

These images have strengthened our working theory that Warhol's canvases arrived commercially pre-primed, although additional painted grounds remain a separate question.

The 1973 conservation findings and original 1963 Benjamin Moore literature have expanded our understanding of the materials available during the Factory years, without establishing their use in the 1965 Colored Campbell's Soup Cans.

Each discovery brings us closer to understanding Warhol's working methods while helping identify what still needs to be tested.

We'll continue documenting the findings as the reconstruction develops.

Related Research

• Andy Warhol's Factory: Exploring Benjamin Moore Regal Wall Satin — The historical paint-can identification and early canvas experiments.

• Testing KILZ Original: Comparing Alkyd Primer — Our modern alkyd material experiments and results.

Explore the Research

RECONSTRUCTING THE FACTORY — Research Journal

Follow RECONSTRUCTING THE FACTORY on Facebook