Art Collections Research Articles

The Earth's Remembrance

This conversation brings together Mapuche Weichafe and writer Moira Ivana Millán and Haitian art collector Houngan Jean-Daniel Lafontant. They reflect on the histories of colonialism and anticolonial resistance and discuss the workings of memory, embodiment, and territory, churches, museums, western science and forms of cultural, epistemic, and spiritual extractivism. Millán and Lafontant offer critiques of colonial violence and ongoing environmental destruction, which work together, they argue, to constitute a campaign of terracide that is still being waged on a planetary scale. They conclude by affirming collective struggles against this campaign and calling for a language beyond anthropocentrism.

Making history, one stitch at a time: A conversation with Trish Butterworth

Trish Butterworth was part of the Opera Australia wardrobe department for over forty years. She joined the company in the 1970s and worked under the direction of William Paterson who set the benchmark for top-quality workmanship at an exciting time in the Australian Opera’s history. In 2019, Opera Australia donated 30 costumes worn by Dame Joan Sutherland to the Australian Performing Arts Collection. It was largely thanks to Trish that these costumes had survived amidst the busy environment of a working wardrobe over many decades. Carving out snippets of time under the pressure of meeting tight deadlines, Trish had quietly ensured Sutherland’s costumes were kept safe in a dedicated room at the heart of the company’s headquarters in Sydney. This conversation document focuses on the strong connection Trish formed with Paterson to realize the vision of designers such as Kristian Fredrikson, Michael Stennett and Desmond Digby during the 1970s and 1980s when Sutherland was performing regularly with the company. It also highlights the bond between maker and costume, reflecting on how the costumes were made and why Trish dedicated so many precious hours to preserving what Sutherland considered to be ‘some of the most beautiful costumes I have ever seen’.

Information-seeking Strategies Used and Challenges Encountered by Art and Design Students in Uganda When Seeking Information

Access to relevant information is crucial for Art and Design students to meet their information needs and achieve their educational goals. This paper explores the information-seeking strategies used by Art and Design students in diplomaawarding institutions in Uganda, and the challenges they encounter when seeking information to meet their information needs. This is part of a doctoral study that investigated the information-seeking behaviour of Art and Design students in diploma-awarding institutions in Uganda. The study population comprised Art and Design students in the four Art and Design institutions, library heads in the same institutions, and directors at the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). Data was collected using questionnaire, interview and observation methods. Data was collected from February to August 2022. The study revealed that Art and Design students use various information-seeking strategies to locate and access information. Browsing online images, photographing activities in the environment, recording videos of activities in the environment, and consulting Art and Design librarians were the most used. The least used strategies included browsing art and design collections on library shelves, using keywords, and using Boolean operators. The study found that Art and Design students encountered varied challenges when seeking information. The key challenges were lack of Internet at the institutions, inadequate and outdated information materials in the library, slow Internet, high cost of Internet data, and lack or inadequate knowledge to evaluate the quality of information on the Internet. The key recommendations included the need for Art and Design institutions to invest heavily in ICT infrastructure, including Internet connectivity, and also to develop information literacy courses for the students; the need for the NCHE prioritise monitoring of the study institutions to ensure compliance with library standards; and the need for the Government of Uganda zero-rate the Internet in the study institutions.

THE US “METABIRKINS” CASE IN THE LIGHT OF EU IP AND CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW

In early 2023 a United States (US) court ruled that a crypto art collection named “Metabirkins”, depictingthe famous “Birkin” bag of Hermès, infringedtrademark rights. This ruling conferred Hermès the power to ban the commercial exploitation of Metabirkins by their designer, through a permanent injunction order. By the time that order was issued, however, several Metabirkins had already been sold to third parties. Taking this case as a point of reference, thispaper examinescrypto art transactions from the perspective of EU intellectual property (IP) and consumer protection law. First, it clarifies the conditions under which the purchasers and licensees of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) fall under the consumer concept. Then, it examines whether the critical facts would constitute a trademark infringement in the EU, and what would have been the impact of such an infringement on the rightful use of the NFTs by their right-holders. Finally, the paper discussesDirective 2019/770 in protectingconsumersand itsapplicability in the blockchain ecosystem.

Stitchers of Instagram

Stitchers of Instagram

The Development and Significance of Art Collectives in Malaysian Contemporary Art

Spanning over 90 years, the trajectory of art development in Malaysia encompasses the engagement of both early pioneers and emerging artists. Beginning in 2000, the emergence of art collectives has wielded substantial influence on the nation's contemporary art scene, establishing a platform for sharing ideas, goals, and collaborative ventures among artists. With a focus on challenging artistic norms, addressing societal concerns, and contributing to Malaysia's cultural mosaic, these collectives hold a clear purpose. The triumph of an art collective hinges on vital components like fostering community, mutual respect, a shared vision, and an effective organisational framework. The core objective of this study is to meticulously chronicle the establishment timeline of art collectives from 2000 to 2020, illuminating their membership and successful undertakings. Employing a methodology that combines various publication sources and insightful interviews, the research has identified more than 40 art collectives engaging in collaborative art pursuits. This collective endeavour seamlessly enriches the local contemporary art panorama, leaving an indelible mark on the industry's advancement.

The art of rivalry

Abstract In the years just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the American banker and philanthropist Jules S. Bache (1861–1944) built a collection of European paintings and decorative art which, in the 1930s, was located at a crossroads in collecting practices and museum growth in the United States. His offer of the collection as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, made in 1936 on condition that it be separately named and housed, was at first rejected. He next opened his home to the public as a museum, burnishing his holdings with frequent exhibitions and publicity. In 1943 the Second World War forced Bache’s museum to close but brought the collection on loan to the Met, which had put its own masterworks into protective storage. Acquisition of Bache’s collection was now ‘imperative’, and the parties agreed on terms. At his death he contributed fifty-eight paintings together with items of sculpture, Georgian silver, enamel work, porcelain, tapestry, and furniture. Their transfer to the Met illustrates the competitive forces – personal, financial, institutional and geopolitical – that brought private collections to public museums in the USA before and during the years of global war.

The Influence of Dominant Groups on Chinas Art Collectors and Contemporary Art Curatorial Practices

With the rapid development of Chinas economy, contemporary Chinese art has also achieved unprecedented breakthroughs. With the expansion of globalization and as a socialist country with the unique nature of Chinese characteristics, how do the curatorial practices of Chinese contemporary art develop in a complex social environment? This research explores the influence of dominant groups on Chinas art collectors and contemporary art curatorial practice based on the Frankfurt Schools critical theory. Furthermore, the research expands this theory to a broader context of China. The curatorial practices of Chinese contemporary art are deeply controlled by monopoly capital, which influences the aesthetic preferences of the public through the monopoly of popular culture. It borrows the hands of wealthy collectors to manipulate the art market. Political parties set boundaries for artistic creation through strict censorship. On the positive hand, censorship promotes the inheritance of traditional culture. By understanding that there is an invisible hand behind human cultural and artistic activities, to warn that the self-consciousness people believe is usually the result of being influenced by others language and behavior.

Johan Niklas Byström and the so-called Venus of Stockholm. New research on a presumably lost sculpture

The inventory books of the Skulpturensammlung (Sculpture Collection) in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections, SKD) mention a plaster cast of a Venus sculpture, moulded from the marble so-called Venus of Stockholm. In the first half of the 19th century this statue—always considered an ancient artwork—had been owned by the Swedish sculptor Johan Niklas Byström, before it was sold to an English art collector. From that time on, the sculpture has been considered lost and it has remained unregarded by research. By contextualizing the Dresden plaster cast with other ancient Venus sculptures and textual sources, this article aims to show that the Venus of Stockholm was most likely an elaborate and mirror-reversed imitation made in its entirety in the 17th or 18th century. As such, the Venus of Stockholm was exceptional, because post-antique mirror-reversed copies of ancient sculptures are very rare. In addition, the article compares the Venus of Stockholm to statues sculpted by Byström, in order to highlight its impact on his oeuvre.

Analysis on the Development Value of Curatorial Commerce

The rapid changes in the development of contemporary society drive exhibitions to create more diversified ideas and ways to cope with the needs of different audiences. In the field of curation, the diversification of ideology and artistic resources is also presented. Commercial curation is a mode of production significance in the field of curation, which leads to the constant elimination of the boundary between art and business. More and more exhibitions are connected with commercial activities. For the modern society with increasingly vigorous material and cultural demands, curation plays an essential role in the transmission of culture and spirit. The space presenting 'artistic works' and 'artistic activities' combined with the drive of the capital market and commercial curatorial exhibition has enough prospects for development. Curatorial commerce integrates aesthetics into people's life, which combines characteristics of The Times and science and technology. However, it the success of curatorial commercialization needs the curators' correct planning to improve the art collection's universality and not let the curators deviate from the focus and become overly commercialized. At the same time, this requires calling on the world to respect human intellectual property rights.

Artistic Style Recognition: Combining Deep and Shallow Neural Networks for Painting Classification

This study’s main goal is to create a useful software application for finding and classifying fine art photos in museums and art galleries. There is an increasing need for tools to swiftly analyze and arrange art collections based on their artistic styles as a result of the digitization of art collections. To increase the accuracy of the style categorization, the suggested technique involves two parts. The input image is split into five sub-patches in the first stage. A DCNN that has been particularly trained for this task is then used to classify each patch individually. A decision-making module using a shallow neural network is part of the second phase. Probability vectors acquired from the first-phase classifier are used to train this network. The results from each of the five patches are combined in this phase to deduce the final style classification for the input image. One key advantage of this approach is employing probability vectors rather than images, and the second phase is trained separately from the first. This helps compensate for any potential errors made during the first phase, improving accuracy in the final classification. To evaluate the proposed method, six various already-trained CNN models, namely AlexNet, VGG-16, VGG-19, GoogLeNet, ResNet-50, and InceptionV3, were employed as the first-phase classifiers. The second-phase classifier was implemented as a shallow neural network. By using four representative art datasets, experimental trials were conducted using the Australian Native Art dataset, the WikiArt dataset, ILSVRC, and Pandora 18k. The findings showed that the recommended strategy greatly surpassed existing methods in terms of style categorization accuracy and precision. Overall, the study assists in creating efficient software systems for analyzing and categorizing fine art images, making them more accessible to the general public through digital platforms. Using pre-trained models, we were able to attain an accuracy of 90.7. Our model performed better with a higher accuracy of 96.5 as a result of fine-tuning and transfer learning.

Materializing France in exile: Henri, duc d’Aumale, the Orléans family and the transnational politics of collecting c. 1848–80

Abstract Between the 1848 Revolution and the Franco–Prussian War, the fallen Orléans dynasty lived in the western suburbs of London. Deprived of the throne, Louis-Philippe and his sons struggled to uphold their dignity and credentials as a ruling house. In this time of limbo, cultural pursuits—whether art collecting, exhibitions, literature—were a crucial means of integration into the elite tiers of British society. Material culture remained a central means by which the family affirmed and preserved their dual patriotic and dynastic credentials. Focusing on the collecting activities of the duc d’Aumale in London, this article explores how the experiences and opportunities of British exile profoundly shaped how the Orléans positioned themselves as custodians of French history and national identity. An act of cultural resistance against French governments that had banished and ‘denationalized’ them, art collecting offers a valuable window onto the family’s patriotic self-image and evolving political ambitions.

In a few moments, another art collection and another study on collections...

A história da história da arte alinha-se a diferentes modelos de colecionismo: devotados à celebração de um passado autorizado, delineados pela necessidade pedagógica, pela preservação urgente de uma cultura ameaçada ou por estratégias políticas e econômicas especificas, como modo de bem transmitir um gosto, uma posição ideológica ou a excelência e a tradição dos mestres e suas instituições. O presente dossiê buscou acolher pesquisas recentes que pensam o artístico, seu juízo de valor e histórias em suas conexões e interações por meio de coleções e acervos. Os questionamentos que marcam os atuais debates sobre as interações entre a produção e a circulação cultural contemporâneas operam como marcos referenciais para discutir os processos relativos ao colecionamento e ao colecionismo da arte nos últimos dois séculos: coleções feitas, desfeitas, refeitas e coleções que ainda estão por vir.

Crisis and Collectives Shaping Art Events

Art events like biennials and large-scale exhibitions typically strive to address urgent, timely issues; curatorial approaches respond to various crises from the environment and war to Indigenous rights – notwithstanding the way existing exhibition structures often reproduce exploitative relations or other forms of everyday precarity. In our analysis of crisis, we eschew the concept of crisis as a disruptive event with a clear end for a framing of crisis as a condition. Especially for art events on the ‘periphery’, working under conditions of crisis is hardly new. We investigate the collective practices of three artist collectives, ruangrupa (Indonesia), Womanifesto (Thailand), and Atis Rezistans/Ghetto Biennale (Haiti). In practices like sharing resources, centring non-productivity and giving attention to nourishment and health, these collectives are reshaping art events from events that matter in terms of their pursuits of relevance towards events that care.

The Russian Tradition of Publishing Illuminated Bibles

The article is devoted to the tradition of publishing engraved biblical albums in Russia (17th — early 20th centuries), made by Russian engravers after the prototypes of European engravings or after author’s drawings by graduates of the Russian Academy of Arts. Illustrated collections on the subjects of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament based on drawings by Russian artists — A.E. Egorov, A.A. Agin, M.N. Koshelevskaya, V.S. Kryukov, V.D. Fartusov — are considered. The source material for the work were copies from large collections of graphic art: the isofond of the Russian State Library, the Museum of Christian Art “Church-Archaeological Study” of the Moscow Theological Academy and the Sergiev Posad State Historical and Art Museum-Reserve, which are first introduced by the author into the scientific turnover.At present, Western European illustrated Bibles are widely studied by specialists in various fields of scientific knowledge as a large-scale phenomenon of book culture. The ways of penetration and distribution of foreign editions in the Moscow state are studied; the search, accounting and description of copies in domestic library collections are carried out; marginalia on the pages of albums and captions to images are investigated; techniques, biographies of masters, stylistics of works and methods of copying foreign samples in Russian artistic practice are studied. At the same time, the tradition of publishing Russian illuminated Bibles, created by analogy with foreign ones, remains poorly studied.Pre-revolutionary catalogues of Russian illustrated editions contain descriptions of Bible albums of the first half of the 19th century, while the vast array of illustrated printed matter of the second half of the century has not yet been systematised and catalogued.The purpose of this study is to partially fill this lacuna, to restore the chronology of the appearance of the first domestic folio Bibles, and to present an overview of lithographed editions of pictures of the Sacred History of the Old and New Testament of the second half of the 19th century.

The Impact of Uli Sigg and CCAA on Chinese Contemporary Art International Development

This paper provides an overview of the development of contemporary Chinese art, highlighting important milestones such as the 798 Art Zone and the 85 New Wave Movement and examining the impact of globalization on the Chinese art scene. Next, the paper explores the personal background and collection philosophy of Uli Sigg, a prominent art collector who has played a significant role in the development of contemporary Chinese art. Siggs involvement in the establishment of the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA) and his role in connecting foreign capital with Chinese artists are discussed. Additionally, the paper examines the influence of Sigg on the international development of contemporary Chinese art through initiatives such as the M+ Museum and the Sigg Prize. The paper points out that Sigg has made an important contribution to the international recognition and exchange of Chinese contemporary art through exhibitions. Finally, the paper concludes by comparing Siggs contributions with those of other contemporary Chinese art collectors. It is noted that Siggs contribution is not only in art collecting but more importantly, in his cross-border thinking and global vision, which has had a profound impact on the development of Chinese contemporary art.

Vulnerability Assessment of Art Collections: The National Archaeological Museum “Gaio Cilnio Mecenate” in Arezzo (Italy)

Artworks play a fundamental role in the cultural and economic assets of communities, enhancing their identity and helping with social integration. Despite their importance, they are not always adequately protected against degradation, which can be induced by aging, atmospheric and human-induced occurrences, and catastrophic events. Earthquakes certainly represent one of the main risks for art objects; however, traffic, construction works, and shipment can also represent a threat to art goods. Therefore, the assessment of the vulnerability of art collections to dynamic excitations plays a crucial role in their conservation, and it has been collecting increasing attention from researchers, academics, and museum managers. This work focuses on the vulnerability of the art collections exhibited at the “Gaio Cilnio Mecenate” museum in Arezzo. Namely, it aims to assess the effective dynamic loading experienced by the artworks, which is a function of the dynamic propagation played by the foundation soil, the building, and the displayers used for the exhibition. In this study, the dynamic properties of some of the displayers used for exhibiting the art collections are investigated by performing an experimental survey. The analysis of the experimental data led to the assessment of the proper frequencies of the displayers, which were compared to those of the building and the foundation soil of the museum.

Häuser am Hardangerfjord als Orte deutsch-norwegischer Kulturkontakte: Bertha Rohlsen, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff und Bess Mensendieck in Lofthus

Abstract Due to its impressive nature and culture, the Hardanger region was a well-known and popular destination for Germans at the beginning of the 20th century. In the small village of Lofthus, art collector Bertha Rohlsen and gymnastics pioneer Bess Mensendieck even moved into their own summer homes. The expressionist painter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was also a guest there and created images of the North that broke with traditional ways of seeing. This article examines the cultural contacts between people and landscape as well as the different kinds of cultural transfers that were made possible by the experience of space.

WHAT DO THE POTOCKIS NEED AN ART COLLECTIONFOR, NAMELY ON THE ART COLLECTING IN THEPOTOCKI FAMILY EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEUM OFKING JOHN III’S PALACE AT WILANÓW

It is the assumptions, goals, and effects of the newpermanent display mounted at the Museum of King John III’sPalace at Wilanów titled Art Collecting in the Potocki Familythat are the topic of the present paper. The Exhibition presentsa less known fragment of the Wilanów Palace’s history whenit was owned by the Potockis: Aleksandra née Lubomirski andStanisław Kostka, their son Aleksander, and grandson Augustand his spouse Aleksandra née Potocki. The three generationsof the Pilawa-coat-of-arms family wrote a new, albeit extremelyimportant chapter in the history of the former royaland magnate residence, placing in it the Museum of Art andthe Memorial Site of the history of the Polish nation for almosta hundred years The Potockis amassed artistic collections andnational mementoes, and introduced changes to the layout ofthe private spaces of the residence in order to adjust them toserving museum purposes. In harmony with the Potockis’ idea,the systematically growing collection turned into a treasureopened to the general public. It is the first entry in the WilanówGuest Book: 5 August 1805 that is regarded to have been thelaunch of the Museum’s public operation.In its narrative and layout the new display refers to thePotockis’ Museum. The interiors of the garden gallery on thePalace’s first floor have been transformed according to ico-nographic records from the 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> century. In the southern gallery we remind of the Library once functioninghere, in the northern one, in turn, we recall Warsaw’s importantcultural event from 1856: Exhibition of Antiquities.As a result of the introduced changes new display spaceshave been created: the Historical Cabinet, Print Cabinet, andthe Iconographic Cabinet. The first is dedicated to nationalmementoes, whereas the latter two are cosy display roomsof objects on paper.

Pukllay pampa: Andean-inspired time-spaces for learning and unlearning

This article stems from a panel presentation at the 2022 Curriculum and Pedagogy Conference in State College, PA. Drawing on our shared experiences as curators of the Kawsay Ukhunchay Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Art and Cultural Artifacts Research Collection at The Ohio State University, in this article we explore decolonial pedagogies and alternative methods informed by Andean and Amazonian Indigenous epistemologies. The pedagogical approaches emergent in the alternative learning/unlearning space of the collection illustrate ways by which engaging with Indigenous perspectives and practices fosters critical questioning of Western categories and organizing principles and serves as a basis for cultivating openness to alternative worldviews and meaning making. We pair this conceptual stance with applicable, transferrable skill sets for “thinking otherwise” as pathways for day-to-day practices, applied alternative pedagogies, and cross-curricular methods amplification that begin to pave the way for decolonial approaches.