The Authentic Art Work: Interpretation, Conservation, Presentation (HISTART5064)

Semester 1

What is an authentic art work? Is what we see precisely as the artist intended it? How do we deal with conceptual art? Should art be preserved for ever or do we need to compromise? Many more questions can be asked, all based on what we understand to be an authentic art work. This is a fascinating and widely discussed area, which everyone working with art works/collections should explore.

In this course students will look at authenticity in art from a variety of viewpoints: philosophical (aesthetics/ethics), technical (historical techniques, conservation practice, and history of conservation), historical (the traces of the ‘history’ of the art work), presentation (its use/position/location in the past compared with its present display etc.), and foremost the artist’s original intent (modern art dilemmas, patina, fakes and forgeries etc.).

Students will work on various small projects in order to come to a good understanding of the concept of ‘authenticity’. In this context they will study one art work each (from any discipline/period including buildings and interiors) in particular. This ‘object-based’ research, will take into account art historical, technical (materials, production process, conservation history, ageing), and economical/social/cultural history aspects concerning the art work, and if applicable philosophical issues, all centred on its authenticity.

Convenor: Dr Erma Hermens

Art in the Making: Modern & Avant-Garde Techniques (HISTART5093)

Semester 2

The aim of this course is to present students with an in-depth and sophisticated understanding of the interrelation of materials, concepts and processes across a historical range of artworks, covering key avant-garde approaches particular to the 20th and 21st centuries. The course will address examples from twentieth-century avant-gardes through post-war art movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Post-Painterly Abstraction, Pop, Conceptual Art, appropriation, through to contemporary art. The course will study key examples ‘from the inside out’: through lectures which will establish theoretical and historical context; through detailed case studies; and, crucially, through hands-on experience of materials – where possible including the reconstruction, remaking or re-enacting of artworks. Such re-making, it should be emphasised, is not conceived in any way as an artistic activity but rather as an educational one. In some instances equivalents rather than replicas would be appropriate, or demonstrations or partial reconstructions rather than completed objects/works.

We will draw on the expertise of Glasgow-based artists through for example the Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Preliminary discussions about collaboration have taken place and various exciting possibilities are being explored. Such collaborations will enable us to enhance the student learning experience and provide an opportunity to see how theoretical issues addressed on the course are dealt with in practice. 

Course lectures will present course material through close analysis of major artistic examples. Seminars will encourage students to develop their own responses to these themes, and also to engage with theoretical and critical perspectives in the form of seminar readings (to be issued as a reader at the start of the course). In addition, a key part of the teaching strategy is the use of a course Moodle, which will provide students with a forum for debate and facilitate group learning.

Convenor: Dr Erma Hermens

Testimonies of Painters' Practice: Documentary and Visual Sources (HISTART5077)

Semester 2

This course presents students with historical documentary and visual testimonies on painters' practice from Early Italian Painting to contemporary practice. A historiographic review of the key primary art technological texts on painting techniques will be the main focus of the course. The developments of the methodology of technological source research, which dates back to the 18th century, and recent new approaches, using reconstructions and scientific analyses, will be discussed. 

The course will cover documentary material ranging from treatises, manuals, books of secrets, industrial archives, ledgers, artists’ correspondence, artists’ biographies, artists’ texts, to visual documentation on the artist’s studio and the artist at work found in prints, paintings, drawings, photography, film, as well as realia (studio tools, camera obscura, lenses etc.).

The interpretation of art technological sources, investigating the vocabulary for painting techniques and materials, the historical/cultural context of the time in which they were written, their author(s), and their function, will be addressed using representative examples. A comparison will be made with the more art theoretical texts of the time in order to support interpretation and contextualisation and arrive at a thorough understanding of the painter’s practice, studio arrangement(s), status. Testimonies on modern materials (post 1900), visual, oral and textual, will be set against the context and concepts of the period.

Convenor: Dr Erma Hermens

Dissertation (HISTART5018P)

Submitted at the end of August

The dissertation, or other substantial piece of work, encourages independent work through deeper study of a particular art historical, or related, problem and encourages the application of acquired research skills. It is expected that MLitt dissertations should make a contribution to some aspect of the subject. The dissertation is 15-20,000 words in length (including footnotes and bibliography) and will be on a topic chosen in consultation with the tutors and the programme director during Semester 1.