Coatings· 2026Q2· Review
Street Art as Collective Memory—Materiality and Deterioration Factors
- 0citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Street art, integral to urban identity and cultural expression, faces significant degradation from outdoor environmental exposure, prompting research into paint composition, degradation processes, and protective coatings.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Street art is a significant element of urban identity and cultural expression.
- Outdoor environmental conditions cause severe degradation of street art, especially chromatic alteration of pigments.
- Research focuses on characterizing street art paint composition and degradation processes.
- Multi-analytical approaches, including non-destructive and micro-destructive techniques, are employed.
- Advances in protective coatings are being developed for mural conservation.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Street art has expanded across many cities around the world and is now an integral part of everyday life. These painted surfaces have been embraced by citizens as objects associated with neighborhood identity, expressions of political messages, and representations of iconic sport and music figures, among other forms of cultural expression. However, these artworks are prone to severe degradation due to exposure to outdoor environmental conditions, which negatively affects their preservation. Therefore, considerable efforts have been devoted to investigating the composition of street art paints and their degradation processes upon outdoor exposure. This review presents an updated overview of the main advances in the characterization of street art materials in commercial paints and outdoor mural paintings, focusing on the multi-analytical approaches that employ non-destructive and micro-destructive techniques. It also examines the effects of environmental conditions, particularly on the chromatic alteration of synthetic organic pigments, as well as recent advances in the development of protective coatings for outdoor mural paintings. Finally, this review aims to contribute to the advancement of research on street art materials and to promote the conservation of this cultural heritage.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Coatings, 2026 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Urban Studies
Urban StudiesSocial Sciences