Are acrylics a better choice than oils? It seems like there is a constant discussion on how to prevent paintings done in oil from falling apart. No matter what people do, it appears that oil paintings will crack, delaminate, melt, slide off the canvas, fade, form soaps, get brittle, and otherwise self destruct in a million other ways. But I never, ever, ever hear any dire warnings about acrylic paintings. While oil painters must spend small fortunes on special materials as if they’re talismans of protection, acrylic painters seem carefree and can seemingly do whatever they want with no fear of future liability. Are acrylic paints fundamentally a better choice from the standpoint of longevity, durability, and merchantability?
Hello there,
Yes and no. It’s more complicated. It depends also what kind of stress you expose your painting to. One might fare better against something and the other against another environment.
It is correct to assume it’s easier to do mistakes and have issues with oils than acrylics.
However from a conservation point of view it’s too reductive to put all oil paintings in one bag and all acrylics in another bag.
A cheap acrylic with abuse of styrene will yellow and go brittle too. Resiliency to water for acrylics with abuse of tensioactives can be lower than linoleum films over time. If it’s too cold coalescence might not happen well. Delamination can also occur between an acrylic and a cheap gesso (meaning another acrylic layer). Acrylics can go pretty cheap.
Oils are slowly curing and acrylics are about as done as they are after coalescence, so the ageing phenomenon will be very different. Acrylics won’t continue curing and are likely to change less over time.
Acrylics generally might be breathing more and like humidity a little more. So things can still evolve and move, but differently. They can lose plasticizers and breathe in some pollution.
Obviously we haven’t known acrylics for nearly as long as oils, and there will be as many exceptions to the rule as one could think of, but I would personally have reasonable hope acrylics of high quality are a little better than oil colours for yellowing and keeping flexibility over a long time. That doesn’t mean it’s a phenomenal difference to expect. And no promises on every other aspects.
Cheers,
Bear in mind that acrylics have only been used as artists’ paints since the ~1950s. Many of the issues you mention regarding oil paints tend to be things that manifest over centuries.
Additionally, there actually are some warnings about issues with acrylic paints in the conservation literature. The big one is they are highly sensitive to solvents, making them incredibly difficult to clean without causing permanent damage to the painting. On a longer timeline, it’s likely that acrylics will evolve their own set of conservation challenges that will need to be addressed, though it’s impossible to say at this point what those challenges will be.
