Name

Angela Matyssek

Title of research project / research interests

Theories and Practices of the Original in Contemporary Art

Affiliation

Philipps-Universität Marburg, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

Estimated date of completion

2013/14

Previous education and/or work experience

PhD, Art History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 2006; Assistant Curator at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart 2006?2008; since 2008 Lecturer at the Art History Department, Philipps-Universität Marburg; member of the International Research Group on the Material Life of Things at the Courtauld Institute, London 2010–11; member of the board of the German Photographic Society (DGPh) 2010?

Abstract

My project will rethink the history and concept of the “original” in art history. There is much at stake in this discussion: While Post-modern art criticism has long questioned the possibility of an original, this debate has not informed actual material museum practice, preservation or valuation. My project will innovatively link theory and history of art with a close examination of the practices of curation, historiography, and conservation that continue to inform our understandings of art and authorship. The focus on conservation/restoration—a subject not taken into view by art history to date—is crucial because the understanding of what is still granted the status of original and authentic is repeatedly reshaped in these processes. Considering four object biographies placed in a widespread historic framework, this project will work out fundamental principles of heritage formation and their changing theories, logics, and practices. A major academic goal is to analyse which methodological consequences these carry for the history of art, if art historians acknowledge that artworks are not stable entities, but objects in transition or “works in progress”. It is the project’s objective to contribute to such a new dynamic conception of the artwork.

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