On a museum timescale, acrylic paints are still new. Acrylic paints were invented in the late 1940s, and the first wave of acrylic paintings in museum collections is now between 50 and 60 years old.

With the first acrylic paintings —the medium made famous by artists like Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Robert Motherwell, and David Hockney —pushing 60 years of age, scientists specializing in art ...