Art and Science

At the intersection of art and science, analytical chemists have problems to solve.

John Winter is one of three permanent researchers at the Smithsonian Institutes Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Galleries in Washington, D.C. We have our separate fields of research just as any scientist does, he says. With 25 years of experience, his specialty is East Asian paintings. Winter is also in charge of examining pieces under consideration for acquisition by the galleries for things like disguised repairs and added decorations, which are far more common than out-and-out forgery.

In his work, he uses analytical chemistry techniques for identification of materials, including X-ray fluorescence and diffraction, IR, UV-Vis, GC-MS, HPLC, and scanning electron microscopy.

To be a good candidate in this field, you cant afford to be too specialized, Winter says. Originally a natural products chemist, he has forayed into botanical multivariate statistical analysis.

Charles Tumosa echoes those ideas. With a doctorate in physical chemistry, he worked on 4,000 homicides during his 18-year tenure running the crime lab for the Philadelphia Police Department before switching gears to set up the analytical laboratory at the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research & Education (SCMRE) in Suitland, Md. The mandate was to help to preserve the collection. I always joked that it was a place where we watched paint dry, he quips. But no one has ever done a linear study on how paint ages, and that is one example of what we were doing.

Tumosa enjoyed working at the Smithsonian Institution for 12 years. What we learned we learned the hard way, and that knowledge is not in books, its not on the Web.

On Sept. 16, however, he lost his job. Positions were abolished for six of the seven research scientists who worked on independent projects at SCMRE. We were probably one of the last places to do materials science in the arts, he says.

It is curious that the National Academy of Sciences thought very highly of our research when they reviewed it and wanted the work expanded rather than curtailed or eliminated, Tumosa says. Its a very unsettled time at the Smithsonian, and I think we are a little bit of the collateral damage that occurred.

Winter calls the cut an anomaly to the field as a whole. Recent infusions of money from private foundations provided for new permanent positions at museums in Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City.

Tumosa sees temporary hires as the newest trend and is looking into teaching. People at various universities and colleges who are in science departments get involved as well, either as a sideline or as their main area of research.