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
Reviews
[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
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.
Estudos de conservação e restauro 2 (2010) 178-179
