Contemporary art has employed almost every single synthetic material created by man. Nonetheless, the appeal of oil paint is still present at most public and private collections. Oil paint manufacture has evolved over time along with its formulation and conservation concerns. A reported problem is the formation of exudates on contemporary oil paintings. This work aims to characterize exudates from the Brazilian oil painting “Três pessoas” (1999), by Marina Saleme. Characterization was carried out by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Results indicate that exudates are formed by the oxidation of linseed oil and formation of dicarboxylic acids. This process is aided by the formation of zinc stearate in the paint film.
