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| Kremer Pigments | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kremer Pigments |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Art materials |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Founder | Berthold and Barbara Kremer |
| Headquarters | Hampton, New Jersey, United States |
| Products | Artist pigments, historical pigments, binders, varnishes, restorers |
Kremer Pigments is a specialist supplier of pigments, raw materials, and conservation supplies for artists, conservators, and scientific laboratories. The company stocks historical pigments, traditional binders, and restoration products used in painting, printmaking, and decorative arts, serving customers from museums, universities, and private studios. Kremer Pigments interacts with a wide network of artists, conservators, scientific institutions, and cultural heritage organizations across Europe and North America.
Kremer Pigments was founded in 1977 by Berthold and Barbara Kremer and grew within the context of late 20th-century movements in conservation-restoration, museum studies, and revived interest in historical materials among practitioners influenced by figures such as Cennino Cennini, Eugène Delacroix, and Wassily Kandinsky. Early operations paralleled developments at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Rijksmuseum where demand for authentic materials rose alongside scholarship from centers such as the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Getty Conservation Institute. The company's catalog expansion reflected research trends promoted at conferences hosted by organizations like the International Council of Museums and the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC), and publications by scholars at the Smithsonian Institution and École du Louvre. Over decades Kremer Pigments engaged with artists of varying schools including associates of Fluxus, Minimalism, and representatives of Contemporary art who sought period-accurate materials documented in archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library.
Kremer supplies a range of historical and modern pigments such as earths referenced in texts alongside work by Giotto, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Rembrandt van Rijn, mineral pigments used by Titian and Giovanni Bellini, and synthesized pigments akin to those described by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and chemists in the tradition of Friedrich Wöhler and Justus von Liebig. Their inventory includes organic lakes, inorganic oxides, natural ultramarine paralleling material from Afghanistan and lapis trade routes noted in records involving Marco Polo and Silk Road commerce, and metals and salts used in recipes studied at the University of Oxford and the University of Heidelberg. Binders and varnishes reflect formulations referenced by treatises associated with Leonardo da Vinci and manuals preserved in collections at the Morgan Library & Museum and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Additives and solvents correspond to analytical protocols employed at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Fraunhofer Society.
Manufacturing practices follow laboratory-grade procedures similar to those used at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and quality control protocols adopted by corporate partners such as suppliers to the Smithsonian Institution labs. Materials are sourced from mineral deposits and chemical manufacturers with provenance documentation akin to standards upheld by the European Chemicals Agency and testing regimes paralleling methods at the Rijksmuseum Conservation Department and the Getty Conservation Institute. Particle size distribution, refractive index, and pigment purity are characterized using instrumentation found at facilities like the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and university analytical centers at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Kremer materials are used in conservation projects at institutions including the Louvre Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Hermitage Museum, supporting interventions informed by research from teams at the Getty Conservation Institute, Tate Modern Conservation Department, and the National Gallery, London. Their products supply analytical studies employing techniques developed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Advanced Photon Source, and the Diamond Light Source, and underpin spectral work conducted by researchers at Max Planck Institutes, University College London, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Artists and conservators use these materials for reconstructions, mock-ups, and pedagogical demonstrations in programs run by the Yale Center for British Art, Courtauld Institute, and the Royal College of Art.
The company has collaborated with museums, universities, and individual practitioners on pigment research, sample replication, and bespoke commissions for restoration projects associated with institutions like the Prado Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art. Academic collaborations have involved departments at Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and partnerships with conservation workshops connected to the Church of England cathedrals and the Vatican Museums. Kremer’s work has been referenced in exhibition projects mounted at venues such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and regional galleries supported by the Arts Council England.
Operating from facilities in Hampton, New Jersey and European offices, Kremer distributes to retail customers, institutional buyers, and international conservators through catalogs paralleling trade publications like those of Schmincke and Winsor & Newton. Their client base includes artists represented by galleries such as Gagosian Gallery, White Cube, and Pace Gallery, academic departments at Princeton University and Yale University, and conservation departments at national museums in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Logistics and export align with customs frameworks involving agencies like U.S. Customs and Border Protection and European Union trade regulations.
Legal considerations around hazardous pigments—such as lead, mercury, and arsenic compounds—engage regulatory regimes including the European Chemicals Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and intersect with legislation like the RoHS Directive and directives administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Environmental sourcing and sustainability concerns relate to mining practices in regions noted in reports by United Nations Environment Programme and supply-chain scrutiny advocated by organizations like Greenpeace and Human Rights Watch. Conservation ethics debates referencing policy documents from the International Council on Monuments and Sites and standards set by the American Institute for Conservation inform the company’s material stewardship and advisory role.
Category:Art materials companies Category:Companies established in 1977