Critical Conservation: trajectories of contemporary thought from the Fogg Art Museum’s Department for Technical Studies in the Field of Fine Arts at Harvard University (1928)
Abstract
Thinking about conservation involves recognizing it as a space of negotiation between art, science, and social and professional ethics. This article examines that point of convergence through the Fogg Art Museum’s Department for Technical Studies in the Field of Fine Arts, founded in 1928 at Harvard University, proposed here as a key space in shaping contemporary thought in conservation. By studying its practices and the work of Charles Eliot Norton, Edward W. Forbes, and George L. Stout, the article analyses the dilemmas between scientific objectivity, aesthetic sensitivity, and the construction of a professional ethics that largely defined conservation practice in the United States, while establishing transatlantic bridges with Europe. The creation of the journal Technical Studies in the Field of Fine Arts (1932–1942) expanded this dialogue, merging the legacy of John Ruskin with new experimental scientific methods. From a critical perspective, the article proposes an interpretation of the institution as a laboratory of thought where the principles of authenticity, reversibility, minimal intervention, and discernibility were addressed, together with the cultural values of artworks. This reassessment invites us to consider conservation as a field of ongoing transformation.
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