MAGNA: The History of Acrylic Solution Paint Part 2.

Summary: The development of acrylic solution paint is shrouded in mystery.  Magna was a substantial shift in pigment/binder paint systems.  It was used by several well known artists. However, it was short-lived.  Today Magna is a historical footnote used to describe some remarkable achievements exclusive to the use of this type of paint in works of art produced in the middle of the 20th century.  Part 2 explores the history of commercial paints and their distant relationship to art materials as they relate to the use of Magna.

Below are the many bothersome parts that do not seem to represent the expected flow of product development.  The raw material Bocour described does not sound like anything that could be pick up at a local hardware store or paint dealer if you stopped and asked for the latest new medium.  If Lenson is the mystery man behind the new paint that Bocour would develop, the only plausible historical reference of modern cutting-edge materials related to artists comes from a reference that indicates that artists like Lenson who were associated with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) art projects were experimenting with new materials for mural paintings.  The only reference I could find was about WPA artists using a paint called Glyptal.  Glyptal was the name that General Electric coined for the early alkyd paints they produced targeting the commercial market.  Accepting that mural art has logistical and environmental challenges that canvas paintings lack, it is unsurprising that a durable, fast-drying, new alkyd paint would be the subject of investigation for mural artists. 

The proliferation of new media was not uncommon.  Companies were trying to get consumers to embrace new paint systems.  Bear in mind that just after the Second World War, the commercial paint industry was not the “do it yourself” market of today.  For generations, raw paint ingredients were brought to a customer's home, and mixed by skilled craftspeople to make paint specific to a project. Nothing came ready-made in a can that could be applied quickly and easily.  With the introduction of paints like Duco enamels derived from cellulose nitrate, the ease of application and fast drying time put the locus of control into the consumer’s hands.  These paints were a commercial success in the 1920s and 30s for a host of industrial and home applications. Advertisements of the period illustrated happy homeowners “refreshing” automobiles with a new coat of paint.  Following Duco enamels, the development alkyd paints made their appearance.  Glyptal was one of the earliest of these alkyd materials as previously indicated.  Both Duco and Glyptal shared similar handling and drying characteristics. 

If Lenson was the person who brought Bocour and Golden a clear, honey-like sample and asked for it to be made into paint, he would probably not have brought cellulose nitrate or alkyd medium to the attention of the two paint makers.  All he stated was that it was an acrylic so that rules out Glyptal and Duco.  Bocour’s experience certainly would have indicated to him that the medium was not a material that had been on the market for 20 to 30 years.  But again, it seems unlikely that a new acrylic solution medium would be sold as a liquid ready to be mixed into pigment to make paint.  The time in question, around 1947, was the burgeoning age of ready-made paints and not a step backward to crafting paint from scratch.  Ready-to-apply “do it yourself” painting materials for wall and trim in homes blossomed after the end of World War II. 

Looking at the history of paints at the time, the discovery of acrylic materials and their refinement to bring them to practical application, was at the threshold of widespread development.  Rhom and Haas had been experimenting with methyl methacrylate to use as a laminating adhesive between two sheets of glass.  Out of this evolved 100 percent acrylic material called Plexiglas as well as further research into the uses of acrylic polymers.  Since art material historians accept that the material brought to Bocour and Golden was an acrylic, the timeline indicates that the material must have been an n-butyl methacrylate.  Again, how would any artist happen to obtain this material?  I believe the missing link is found in the art materials and conservation research documents.  The American Conservation Institute’s Painting Conservation Catalogue, Chapter V on Polymeric Varnishes, indicates that n-butyl methacrylate was a product sold as Acryloid F-10 (currently called Paraloid F-10) by Rhom and Haas since 1931 and most importantly, it was marketed as a varnish for artists by F.W. Weber in a product called Synvar introduced in 1938.  (The citation for Synvar is from Robert Feller in a 1973-74 Mellon Quarterly Report.)

I believe the connection between the mystery acrylic solution and Synvar is the most plausible explanation for the origin of the material presented to Bocour and Golden.  Synvar was a commercially available product advertised as a new synthetic varnish material.  It had interesting working properties.  It was within easy reach of an artist and was sold as resin dissolved in solvent that was ready to use.  This eliminates the problem of where the artist visiting Bocour and Golden would have obtained a raw acrylic material to show to them. 

Further, in Jan Marontate’s thesis, she describes the confusion experienced by Bocour as he made the first experimental batch of paint using Acryloid F-10 and the difficulty in finding the manufacturer of the raw material.  It could account for why the sample material was confusing as to its origin.  Weber would not have listed the resin trade name or supplier of it in its literature.  It was just advertised as a new synthetic varnish.  A Weber catalog from the 1940s makes no mention of the term “acrylic” when describing Synvar.  The term synthetic would have been interpreted as one of the new modern acrylic materials that were coming to market, finding new applications and replacing old traditional materials.

Bocour and Golden gave the paints the name “Magna” after completing the work they initiated on them starting in 1947.  They must have like the results they achieved in formulating the product line since they named them “great” from the Latin term “magna.”  Magna paints were brought to market, in earnest, by 1953.  While many paints and art materials companies have come and gone during the 20th century, Magna is known today because of several factors.  Magna was adopted by artists who capitalized on the distinctive characteristics of these materials. Thet could attribute that success to the very nature of the acrylic material and could exploit the unique working properties of them. 

Morris Louis’ paintings on raw canvas were spared the problem of oil bleeding, discoloration, and deterioration because of Magna.  Jackson Pollock liked the handling properties of the paints.  Helen Frankenthaler used them for some time as well.  Roy Lichtenstein was a strong supporter of the bright clean color he could achieve using Magna. 

Production of Magna stopped in the 1990s long after Morris Louis and Jackson Pollock were gone.  The only enduring market for these types of solution acrylic paints has been among art conservators.  The easily reversible nature of solution acrylic paints made them popular with those who treated works of art.  Unfortunately, that consumer population was not large enough to continue production of Magna commercially. 

In 1972, Bocour achieved gross sales of around one million dollars for all the types of paints his company produced that year.  The total amount of purchases that contributed to that million from Magna sales was about $5,600.  Any company would have a difficult time justifying the production of this paint line with so little revenue coming from the effort involved. 

It does not appear that a product like Magna will be returning to the marketplace any time soon, especially since artists today are more concerned than they were in the past about the safety of art materials. Personally, I don’t know how anyone could paint with the horrific solvent smell that exudes from Magna solution acrylic paints. Merely removing the cap releases a strong odor of mineral spirits. The literature accompanying Magna should have clearly stated, “use in a well-ventilated area.”  Every time I have opened a tube of Magna, I thought to myself that Bocour selected a solvent that had the strongest, most annoying smell possible.

Magna worked well being poured, dripped or used as a single pigment in one specific area. Most importantly, unlike oil paint that dries by oxidation, Magna behaves like dispersion acrylics and does not oxidize the substrate that receives an application of paint.  Raw canvas will not “rot” when Magna or acrylic dispersion paint is applied to it.

The advertising phrase that introduced Magna to the world stated that it was the “First New Painting Medium in 500 Years.”  This is only technically true if the word “Artist” would have been inserted in front of the word “Painting.”  The research conducted during the first half of the 20th century that created commercial alkyd paints was later developed into an artists’ painting medium and was destined to be adapted for artists only a few years after Magna was marketed.    Had an alkyd varnish or medium been selected by Lenson or the mystery artist “Tony,” Bocour might have been the first to develop alkyd paints for artists or he might have died trying. It appears that alkyds are notoriously difficult to turn into an artist’s paste paint that captures the working properties that artists have grown accustomed to in professional artists’ oil paints. 

So bravo to you Tony or Michael Lenson or whoever you were for inspiring an ambitious team of paint makers to create a paint product that became a tremendous financial failure.  Thankfully, you did not bankrupt or ruin the ambition and drive of these two manufacturing pioneers.  Lenny Bocour went on to continue to make oil paints, watercolors, and caseins and then to switch to the more familiar and popular form of water-dispersed acrylics.  Sam Golden did not appear to be scarred by his encounter with solution acrylics either.  He went on to build a company that created a premium line of acrylic dispersion paints that bears his name. 

The Syntax of Color

(Originally published as GOC Vol 6, No. 2. Edited/expanded in July 2024)

 Keywords: MAGNA Solution Acrylic Paint Leonard Bocour