VACANCY: Postdoc in (Technical) Art History (0.8 -1.0 FTE)

The research programme Dynamics of the Durable: A History of Durability in the Visual and Decorative Arts (DURARE) at University Utrecht is currently looking for a Postdoc to join their team.

DURARE is funded by the European Research Council, by way of a Starting Grant awarded to principal investigator Dr Marjolijn Bol. You will be based at Utrecht University and as such will also be part of the Department of History and Art History, section Art History. DURARE will undertake the first comprehensive study of the impact of the artisan and patron’s ambitions to craft, own and theorize durable objects on the long-term development of the visual and decorative arts in the West. To understand the history of durability in art, this research programme investigates how artisans explored ways to make art objects durable and what determined the desire of patrons to order and own durable art objects.

The Postdoc will work specifically on the project Materials Aging and the Science of Permanent Arts, 1750-1950. Under the influence of the industrial revolution, the problem of durability in art became especially pressing for artists and their patrons in the period between the late eighteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century. This project will investigate how scientists began to study the aging properties of paints and coating materials to help contemporary artists and restorers understand the relative permanency of the materials produced by the industry.

Visit this page for a more detailed description and further info or contact the principal investigator Dr. Marjolijn Bol via m.a.h.bol@uu.nl