The devil and the details: the ontology of contemporary art in conservation theory and practice

Abstract

Conservation problems can reveal unsuspected complexities in the ontological make-up of modern and contemporary artworks. Using a problem in the conservation of one of Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawings as my starting point, I argue that Goodman's well-known and often criticized distinction between autographic and allographic art can be fruitfully used to articulate the different options in conservation dilemmas, but only if used in a non-disjunctive way and in the context of a biographical approach to the works under consideration.