Editor Michael Andrew Corzo (ed), Los Angeles: Getty Conservation
Institute, 1999, 192 pages, ISBN 0 89236 528 5
"[...] The Getty Conservation Institute's conference 'Mortality Immortality? The Legacy of 20th-Century Art' was exceptional in its scope, both in the diversity of those who participated in the dialogue and in the
range of issues explored. The meeting brought together professionals - as speakers and audience - with different philosophies and from many disciplines. Preservation issues surrounding contemporary art were discussed and debated by artists, architects, museum directors, curators, conservators, art historians, art educators, students, dealers, collectors, archivists, philosophers, lawyers, scientists, and
technicians. [...] The conference fostered discussion on a variety of questions:
How do we decide what will define our cultural heritage and what should be preserved for posterity?
Who should make these decisions?
How should the objects or events be conserved?
What constitutes preservation?
Should there be careful documentation or stabilization or restoration of an art object?
Who is ulimately responsible for a work of art's preservation?
These issues and others are represented here in essays by thirty-six distinguished individuals. The compilation of their writings provides a unique resource of ideas and philosophies on the legacy of
twentieth-century art."
(Citation from the Foreword by Barry Munitz)
Table of content
Part 1 Is Contemporary Art Only for Contemporary Times?
Arthur C. Danto: Looking at the future - looking at the present as past
R.B. Kitaj: Look at my picture!
James Coddington: The case against amnesia
Thomas F. Reese: Andy Goldsworthy's new ruins
Robert Storr: Immortalité Provisoire
Roy A. Perry: Present and future - caring for contemporary art at the Tate Gallery
Ann Temkin: Strange fruit
Part 2 Present and Future Perceptions
Helen Escobedo: Work as process or work as poduct - a conceptual dilemma
Jürgen Harten: For example - examining Pollock
Thomas K. Dreier: Copyright aspects of the preservation of nonpermanent works of modern art
David Grattan and R. Scott Williams: From 91 to 42 - questions of conservation for modern materials
Joyce J. Scott: Immortality / Mortality
Part 3 The Challenge of Materials
Peter Galassi:Conserving photography and preserving the vitality of our culture
Bill Viola: Permanent impermanence
John G. Hanhardt: The media arts and the museum - reflections on a history, 1963-1973
Cliff Einstein: Preserving now
David A. Scott, Vladimir Kucera, and Bo Rendahl: Infinite columns and finite solutions
Part 4 The Ecosystem
Tony Cragg: Projectiles
Agnes Grund: The art ecosystem - art as it exists within a private collection
Erich Gantzert-Castrillo: The archive of techniques and working materials used by contemporary artists
Debra Hess Norris: The survival of contemporary art - the role of the conservation professional in this delicate ecosystem
Paul Schimmel: Intentionality and performance-based art
Sheila Hicks: Linen longevity
Part 5 Who is Responsible?
Judy Chicago: Hope springs eternal: one artist's struggle for immortality
Francis V. O'Connor: Notes on the preservation of American murals
Thomas M. Messer: Art museum criteria
Keith Morrison: Preserving whose mortality or immortality?
Donald Young: A dealer's responsibility
Ysbrand Hummelen: The conservation of contemporary art - new methods and strategies?
Laurel Reuter: A life in its own times
Read more about the conference in Getty's Newsletter, volume 13, Number 2,
Summer 1998 (also available online): Getty Conservation