Art, Science and the Practice of Art History

HAA 103 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

How was a particular work of art made, and why does it look the way it does now? To what extent do the availability of materials and development of material technology influence artistic choice and innovation? How can science help us understand the making and alteration of artworks and cultural artifacts? The course will explore these and other questions of materiality through a combination of hands-on experimentation with artists’ materials and techniques, close looking at objects in the Harvard Art Museums' collections, and conversations with art conservators, museum scientists, curators and other experts.  The course aims to equip the class with the kinds of scientific tools and historical evidence that are useful in the material study of artworks and inquiry into artistic practices and techniques. It invites students to consider the objects in our care as having complex stories and the implications of alterations that occur in objects over time. In so doing it ponders questions of materiality and how they affect the way we understand, interpret, preserve and present works of art.

The course is co-led by the museums’ research curator for conservation and technical studies programs and one of the museums’ scientists. It will involve a team of instructors drawn primarily from the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (SCC) and curatorial departments, who will model the interdisciplinary collaboration required for such work. The class will meet twice a week in the Harvard Art Museums alternating between the Materials Lab, Art Study Center and SCC.