May 01 2014
Conservation Talk | Christian Scheidemann
Thurs | 6pm
SI Director Simon Castets in conversation with renowned contemporary art conservator Christian Scheidemann about conservation challenges posed by postwar art. Scheidemann worked on the restoration and installation of Heidi Bucher’s Grande Albergo Brissago (Eingangsportal), 1987, on the occasion of the piece’s first presentation in an institution.
Christian Scheidemann, profiled in the New Yorker as “The Art Doctor,” is the Senior Conservator and President of Contemporary Conservation Ltd. He received his training in the conservation of medieval paintings and polychromed sculptures, as well as in art history, in Bonn, Germany. After further studies in conservation labs in museums (Pinakothek Munich, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Hamburger Kunsthalle), he opened his own practice in Hamburg in 1983. Since then, Christian has worked with some of the most important collections in Europe and specializes in the conservation of works from artists who have been charging non-traditional materials such as petroleum jelly, elephant dung, chewing gum, soap or chocolate with iconographic significance. Christian has lectured and published extensively on the conservation and on the meaning of material and process in contemporary art.
Image: Grande Albergo Brissago (Eingangsportal), 1987. Courtesy Jill and Peter Kraus Collection.