Chemistry and art history are two disciplines that few people naturally associate. However, many artists have felt the need to understand the nature and properties of the colors they used, prepared, or had prepared in their studios. Heritage science has the ability to link concepts and practices from physics and chemistry, the humanities, literature history, and philosophy to explore the artist’s creative gesture in the studio. By focusing on certain aspects of his work, such as the expertise of artworks, pigment analysis, restoration, and understanding the relationships between technological and artistic innovations, Philippe Walter presents his vision of interdisciplinary work in the field of heritage science.
Wednesday, November 6
3:00 PM-6:00 PM : Maison Neuve conference room (Iméra)
Physico-Chemistry in Artistic Creation : Doctoral seminar and training (Doctoral College ADUM) centered around the work of Philippe Walter, hosted by Gabriella Crocco (Iméra), Florence Boulc’h, and Olivier Morizot (IRES, AMU).
This session of the Inter-disciplines seminar and doctoral training cycle will focus on Philippe Walter’s inaugural lecture at the Collège de France (“On the Artist’s Palette”). It explores the principles and methods underlying heritage science practices. From the shift known as the material turn in historical sciences, we will analyze certain techniques and instruments used in the scientific analysis of pigments. Our objective is to understand these principles and methods in heritage science to critically assess the material turn in historical sciences through the physico-chemical approach to artworks.
Thursday, November 7
3:00 PM-5:00 PM : Maison des Astronomes (Iméra)
Philippe Walter’s Public Lecture: Learning to Observe the Materials of Art
In this first Grand Conference of the Inter-disciplines cycle, Philippe Walter, a chemist, will address the concepts and techniques used in the expertise of art attribution, restoration, and the relationship between technological and artistic creativity throughout art history. Physico-chemical analyses of artworks reveal the complexity of the techniques employed by painters to create their works. Walter will present how these data, interpreted through texts, the reconstruction of formulation methods, and the study of the physical properties of pictorial materials, contribute to the development of a new material approach to artistic creation.
Philippe Walter is a chemist specializing in the study of cultural heritage materials. Born in 1967 in Saint-Cloud, he studied physics and material science through the inter-university master’s program in physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Saint-Cloud-Lyon (1986-1990). He later joined the Research Laboratory of the Museums of France and the Geochemistry Laboratory at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, where he completed his PhD in Earth Sciences in 1993. He was recruited by the CNRS under the Chemistry Institute and served as a research fellow and later as a research director at the Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France until 2011. From 2008 to 2011, he led the CNRS team and, in early 2012, established the Laboratory of Molecular and Structural Archaeology (LAMS) at Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris 6), a new joint research unit with the CNRS.
Philippe Walter, On the Artist’s Palette: Physico-Chemistry in Artistic Creation, please click here.
