Art, Conservation and Authenticities

Focusing on conservation ‘flashpoints’-from paintings and drawings to installations, performance, and historic interiors-the papers examine the complex and contested nature of authenticity in art. Exploring the interplay between material, concept, and context, contributors challenge the singular notion of authenticity, instead advocating for a nuanced understanding of multiple, often conflicting, ‘authenticities’ in contemporary conservation practice.

To identify exactly what constitutes an artwork’s ‘authentic’ state can be problematic and challenging; maintaining or displaying it as such even more so. ‘Authenticity’ is one of the most influential factors that determine a course of action for a work of art in need of conservation. It is also one of the most contested, and currently subject to critical revision, reinvestment, and redirection. The papers presented in this volume focus on a series of conservation ‘flashpoints’ – painted works, drawings, sculpture, installations, new media, performance, interiors and historic houses, cultural objects – and revolve around three key areas considered vital in establishing or vouchsafing an artwork’s ‘authenticity’: material, concept and context. A wide range of approaches, some object-based, some more conceptual and philosophical, demonstrate that although the term authenticity is generally employed in the singular, the values associated with it are multiple, multilayered and often competing. The papers, each in their own way, evaluate the critical potential of the pluralised form, ‘authenticities’, creating a platform for a continuous discussion on this important and fascinating theme. Proceedings from the Art, Conservation and Authenticities: Material, Concept, Context international conference, University of Glasgow, 12-14 September 2007.

Forward

Acknowledgements

Authenticities: keynotes

Authenticity: how to get there?

Christian Scheidemann

Degrees of authenticity in the discourse between the original artist and the viewer

Joyce Hill Stoner

Authenticity and restoration of wall paintings: issues of truth and beauty

Isabelle Brajer

Beyond authenticity

Salvador Muñoz-Viñas

Authenticities: historic case studies

Restoration or de-restoration? Two different concepts of presenting the authentic condition of ancient sculptures in the Collection of Classical Antiquities in 19th-century Berlin

Astrid Fendt

The Child in the Womb in its Natural Situation, a painted lead sculpture made for the anatomist William Hunter: a question of authenticity

Peter Black and William Murray

The picture frame: knowing its place

Gerry Alabone

Concepts of authenticity as related to a 15th-century Florentine cassone panel in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Eowyn Kerr

The authenticity of French furniture: interpretation and preservation issues

Stéphanie Rabourdin-Auffret

Wallpaper reconstructions in historic interiors: balancing the aesthetic with authenticity

Jean-Baptiste Martin

Examining 'authenticity' in two contemporary conservation projects in Scotland: Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Dysart Kirk murals and Daniel Cottier's painted decorative scheme at Cottier's Theatre, Glasgow

Robert Wilmot

The authenticity of heraldic arms on Olycan family portraits by Frans Hals: weighing the object vs. the image in restoration

Sabrina Meloni, Gwen Tauber and Alice Tate-Harte

A reconstruction of Maerten van Heemskerck's De Calvarieberg (1543): accuracy and visual interpretation

Charlotte Caspers and Kate Seymour

A multifaceted approach to the study of Tudor portrait miniatures: a case study of the 'Croker' miniatures

Katherine Coombs, Alan Derbyshire, Nicholas Frayling and Timea Tallian

Issues surrounding the attribution of a Holbein drawing

Victoria Button

Van Gogh's brushstrokes: marks of authenticity?

Ella Hendriks and Shannon Hughes

Authenticities: contemporary case studies

Creamcheese: from disco to museum installation

Tiziana Caianiello

'The voice of things': Koji Kamoji and authenticity in installation art

Monika Jadzinska

Preserving installation art: hypothesis for the future of a medium in evolution

Marina Pugliese and Barbara Ferriani

Duchamp under the hammer: iconoclasm, vandalism and authenticity

Dominic Paterson

Authenticity in practice: an ethnographic study into the preservation of One Candle by Nam June Paik

Vivian van Saaze

Authenticity - a matter of time? Restoring Glauben Sie nicht, dass ich eine Amazone bin by Ulrike Rosenbach

Cornelia Weyer

Moving images, editioned artworks and authenticity

Ariane Noel de Tilly

The artist's role in installation and future display at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow

Polly Smith and Ben Harman

Archivists meet artists: insights into authenticity

John Roeder

Authenticities: further considerations

'Is this real?' Authenticity, conservation and visitor experience

Irit Narkiss

Ontology, worldviews and authenticity

Karel Boullart

Authenticity and science: an ongoing relationship

Spike Bucklow

The 'paradigmatic art experience'? Reproductions and their effect on the experience of the 'authentic' artwork

Rebecca Gordon

• Edited by Erma Hermens
• Edited by Tina Fiske

"Se trata de una publicacion fundamental que demuestra como la perspectiva que sirve para valorar el arte cambia segun la cultura de quienes lo contemplan y lo estudian. Y, por esto mismo, para los conservadores-restauradores resulta una obra basica, llena de sugerentes reflexiones." Estudos de conservacao e restauro 2 (2010) 178-179 "[Art, Conservation and Authenticities] successfully highlights the issues surrounding authenticity in conservation and the struggle conservators face in trying to define authenticity and achieve an 'authentic restoration'...The book makes for a fascinating read, and one that inevitably produces an interesting reaction and debate within the reader." The Picture Restorer 36 (Spring 2010) 42-43
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[Art, Conservation and Authenticities] successfully highlights the issues surrounding authenticity in conservation and the struggle conservators face in trying to define authenticity and achieve an 'authentic restoration'...The book makes for a fascinating read, and one that inevitably produces an interesting reaction and debate within the reader.

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Se trata de una publicación fundamental que demuestra como la perspectiva que sirve para valorar el arte cambia según la cultura de quienes lo contemplan y lo estudian. Y, por esto mismo, para los conservadores-restauradores resulta una obra básica, llena de sugerentes reflexiones.

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