The Demise of the Unique Object in Contemporary Art, and a Conservator’s Response
2024 STOUT LECTURE
Thursday, March 21, 2024
7 pm
Calderwood Hall
Part of what complicates the care and preservation of contemporary art is that objects may exist in ways that are variable rather than fixed. Further, these artworks may be subject to changing conditions of medium and fabrication or the challenge of obsolescence. They are also often subject to the influence of fabricators enlisted to produce objects in collaboration with an artist. In light of these and many other factors, works from this period can exist—and be shown or collected over time—in multiple forms. Thus, a conservation approach in this context requires a departure from traditional modes of engagement with an artwork, where the material identity of the work itself can be unstable and there can, in some cases, be no such thing as an “original” object.
About The Speaker
Photo by David Heald, SRGM chief photographer
Francesca Esmay was appointed as the Guggenheim’s Director of Engagement for Conservation and Collections Care in 2021. In this role, she collaborates with colleagues across the museum to envision and develop programming that explores the intersections of art, technology, and science and addresses issues related to the preservation of modern and contemporary art. Prior to this appointment, from 2010-2017, she co-led the Guggenheim’s Panza Collection Initiative, a multi-year study devoted to the technical history of a large repository of Minimal, Post-Minimal, and Conceptual art acquired from collectors Giovanna and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. This long-term collaboration between the disciplines of art conservation and art history comprised a thorough investigation of the terms and conditions that govern the production, ownership, and display of works from this period. Esmay came to the Guggenheim from Dia Art Foundation in New York, where she served from 2006 to 2010 as the organization’s first conservator and initiated a comprehensive program for conservation and collections care. From 2001 to 2006, she worked in a similar capacity as the first conservator at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, overseeing all aspects of collections care for the museum’s permanent installations and temporary exhibitions. With broad experience in the examination and treatment of a wide variety of modern and contemporary artworks, Esmay has pursued numerous conservation research projects and has taught and presented her work internationally to audiences both within and beyond the conservation field.
Tickets
Advanced tickets are required and include Museum admission. Adults $20, seniors $18, students $13, free for members and children 17 and under.
Seating in Calderwood Hall is first come, first served. Seating begins 45 minutes before the event. Late seating is not guaranteed.
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