The “Art” of Plaster – Between Creation and Reproduction — Study and Preservation — NEW DATES

 8, 9, 10 NOVEMBER 2021 | Lisbon | Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa  

REGISTRATIONS 

Deadline for registration:
Authors – October 29, 2021
Remaining participants – November 3, 2021

Make your registration HERE

General public registration (in person or online): €50

University students (extra FBAUL – in person or online): €25 (with proof)

Faculty members, FBAUL students and alumni, CIEBA member authors, CIEBA member students, members of the Scientific and Executive Committees (in person or online): Free (mandatory registration)

PROGRAM 

ABSTRACT BOOK

Presentation and goals

The «Art» of plaster has been valued by our historiography over the last few years. Indeed, it was at the end of the 20^th century that the first in-depth studies on the application of plaster in architectural decoration began to emerge, and a new set of plastering artists became known and valued. However, issues concerning sculptural practice itself have been secondary until very recently, although the use of plaster as a material for artistic production has been a constant over the centuries. Because it is very easy to prepare and very malleable, it has been chosen as a material for both architectural decoration and sculpture, due to its ability to imitate other noble materials and, especially, because it is replicable if using casts.

In the artistic production field, even though they often do not represent the final work, the plaster pieces can show us the artists’ original intentions or the various studies and stages of artwork creation. Their preservation often represents the memory of the creation process itself.

On the other hand, its use for making moulds easily, and later plaster casts or reproductions, has allowed the spread of three-dimensional shapes around the world, making the great works of art available to those who could never see them in their original place. In the 19^th-century Academies, it became practical to exchange patterns of the great museums and collections’ main sculptures, aiming at the creation of sets of models for students’ learning. At the same time, on the architectural decoration field, one witnesses a similar phenomenon, by finding elements copied from important national and foreign monuments.

The growing importance of teaching Industrial Art has also given great importance to learning through the observation and reproduction of the great national and international artistic models, seeking the creation of a new plastic expression, based on artistic tradition.

This teaching method is still common today, pursuing an ancient practice of learning for the future artists and our current students, through drawing, painting, sculpture or even copying, continue learning the basis for their future artistic development.

Although its presence in museums in the 19^th century was not maintained in the following century, which gradually moved away from the idea of the Universal Museum, today, the reproductions of the great masterpieces are themselves valued objects, giving birth to large collections, which must be preserved and which have been occupying prominent places in numerous museums and art galleries in the international context.

The concern for the preservation of these elements is now a vital issue. The maintenance of plaster pieces is essential, as didactic material or as a register of the artistic creation, but also because they become unique testimonies of the state of the pieces in a certain moment, or even of the existence of some works of art that disappeared over the years.

The Conservation and Restoration field has also been developing studies dedicated to these issues, not only about the knowledge of production techniques and their evolution, but also about the type of restoration performed over time. To these aspects was added the importance of the information collected through the examination and analysis methods. With the wealth of information resulting from these studies, increasingly complete and elucidative information is gathered about the state of conservation of the plaster pieces and procedures to be followed for their preservation. 

Thematic Lines
– Historical Memory / Art History
– Artistic Production
– Teaching
– Preservation, Conservation and Restoration
– Another subject

Official languages
Portuguese and English

 
Organizing committee

Alice Nogueira Alves
Ana Mafalda Cardeira
Maria Teresa Sabido
Marina Albuquerque
Marta Costa Frade
Miguel Gomes
Rogério Taveira
Virgínia Glória Nascimento 

Scientific Committee

Fernando António Baptista Pereira (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

Luís Jorge Gongalves (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

José Teixeira (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

Artur Ramos (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

Eduardo Duarte (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

José Viriato (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

Luísa Arruda (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

Cristina Branco (Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa)

Eduarda Araújo (Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa)

Alexandre Mascarenhas (Instituto Federal MInas Gerais – campus Ouro Preto – IFMG-OP)

Eduarda Vieira (Escola da Artes da Universidade Católica do Porto)

Maria João Neto (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa)

Marize Malta (Escola de Belas-Artes da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)

Ana Ritto (Colégio das Artes da Universidade de Coimbra_Ceis20)

Eckart Marchand (The Warburg Institute – University of London)

Tomas Macsotay (University Pompeu Fabra – Barcelona)

Matthew Sullivan (University of York)

Rune Frederiksen (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek – Copenhagen)

Mads Kullberg (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts – Copenhagen)

Alice Thomine-Berrada (École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts – Paris)