Side by side: old and new standards in the conservation of modern art. A comparative study on 20 years of modern art conservation practice

Conservation of modern art has in the last 20 years developed from a singular case-by-case approach into a full and independent specialization in conservation with its own strategy, theory, and ethics. The methods applied today are both newly developed and partly a continuation of traditional conservation standards. New is the special focus on the artist and his intent, and on the defining of the various artistic concepts, as these elements and the artist as a stakeholder, play decisive roles in decision-making on optional treatment interventions. Challenging new materials (plastics, light, food, kinetic art, or re-used objects) require ongoing research to formulate specific instructions, and special designed guidelines for conservation, putting a new perspective on collections care. As contemporary art may be produced by the artist, by assistants or industry, and can be made of artists' materials, anything from the hardware store, re-used or reworked objects or intangible elements, the reassessing of definitions on authenticity and originality eventually lead to the reformulation of standard rules on retouching, reversibility and in particular reconstruction. Thus new conservation strategies have been designed for various types of contemporary art, where applicable built from old standards.