A MULTY-ANALYTICAL APPROACH FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF WALL PAINTING MATERIALS ON CONTEMPORARY BUILDINGS

In this work, samples from Keith Haring's wall painting of Necker Children Hospital in Paris were studied by means of a multi-analytical protocol based on the complementarity of different techniques. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), powder X-ray diffraction (XRDP), Electron microscope (SEM-EDS) and Infrared and Raman spectroscopies (?-FT-IR and ?-Raman) measurements were performed to characterize the materials and to define the technique used to produce this contemporary work. The mural painting suffered from severe detachments of materials and several fragments were found on the floor beneath the mural painting. Some of them, representative of the whole palette and stratigraphic sequence, were collected and studied. The erratic conditions and the dimension of the fragments allowed to perform several measurements, in order to solve questions related to the materials characterization. By comparing the data of the techniques applied, this research allows an accurate insight into Keith Haring's technique. The palette results to be composed of organic pigments according to those previously used by the artist to paint other murals, such as Naphtol red, phthalocyanine blue and green and Hansa yellow.