Dietmar Wohl is a freelance conservator-restorer of fine art and a lecturer at the Institute of Art History at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität. Paul Hoyningen-Huene is a philosopher of science and taught at the Leibniz University of Hanover until 2014, where he held the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy. He currently works at the University of Zurich, where he teaches Philosophy of Economics. Together, they have now published an online publication in which they deal with the challenges of conserving modern art.
Robert Barry, Inert Gas Series: Helium. Sometime during the morning of March 5, 1969, 2 cubic feet of Helium will be released into the atmosphere (Detail), 1969.
From the early 20th century, in addition to the traditional genres of graphic art, painting and sculpture, visual artists also created works of art whose means of expression and structural characteristics had not been used in the visual arts until then. Instead, they are characteristic of the other three main genres of art, literature, music and the performing arts. Because works of fine art thus acquire new, different characteristics, the classical theory of conservation and restoration cannot accurately describe these works and their conservation possibilities. A modified theory of conservation must therefore be formulated for modern art. In the context of the desired scientification of the conservation discipline, with the aim of establishing an established science of conservation and restoration, we present such a theory. It describes and explains the processes in the development of art in the 20th century in terms of the conservation of material artifacts in order to identify the deviating conservation possibilities that are due to the new characteristics of works of fine art. The publication is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between two authors from the conservation discipline and the philosophy of science.
The two authors reported on their research in Restauro 3/2021 and Restauro 4/2021.
New publication:
Dietmar Wohl, Paul Hoyningen-Huene:
A Theory of Conservation for Modern Art
A contribution to the scientification of conservation and restoration
Free download under the following links:
https://miami.uni-muenster.de
https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-28938395580
https://doi.org/10.17879/28938394979
https://uni-hannover.academia.edu/PaulHoyningenHuene