Acrylic Paint - History

History

Leonard Bocour and Sam Golden between 1946 and 1949 had invented a solution acrylic paint under the brand Magna paint. These were mineral spirit-based paints. Acrylics were first made commercially available in the 1950s. A waterborne acrylic paint called "Aquatec" would soon follow. Otto Rohm invented acrylic resin, which quickly transformed into acrylic paint. In 1953, the year that Rohm and Haas developed the first acrylic emulsions, Jose L. Gutierrez produced Politec Acrylic Artists Colors in Mexico and Permanent Pigments Co of Cincinnati Ohio produced Liquitex colors. These two product lines were the very first acrylic emulsion artists paints. Water-based acrylic paints were subsequently sold as "latex" house paints, although acrylic dispersion uses no latex derived from a rubber tree. Interior "latex" house paints tend to be a combination of binder (sometimes acrylic, vinyl, pva, and others), filler, pigment, and water. Exterior "latex" house paints may also be a "co-polymer" blend, but the very best exterior water-based paints are 100% acrylic, due to elasticity and others, but 100 percent acrylic resins cost double as much as vinyl and PVA (polyvinyl acetate) is even cheaper, so paint companies make many combinations of them to match the market.

Soon after the water-based acrylic binders were introduced as house paints, artists and companies alike began to explore the potential of the new binders. Water-soluble artists' acrylic paints became commercially available in the 1950s, offered by Liquitex, with high-viscosity paints similar to those made today becoming available in the early 1960s. In 1963, Rowney (now part of Daler-Rowney since 1983) was the first manufacturer to introduce an artist’s acrylic color in Europe, under the brand name Cryla.