Artistic Provenance Research

Tal Adler

ISBN 10: 3837665534 / ISBN 13: 9783837665536

Published by Transcript Verlag Feb 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - What can art and artists bring to researching the origins and biographies of objects How do they shed new light on - or even unsettle - existing approaches to such questions Proposing the new term - artistic provenance research - the contributors to this innovative book illuminate art's capacity to expand provenance research in critical and provocative ways. Presenting in-depth examination of fascinating historical and contemporary examples, contributors to Artistic Provenance Research investigate knowledge-imagination dynamics, and questions of materiality, experimentation and speculation. They probe relationships between presences and absences, the aesthetic and the ontological, the scientific and the curatorial. The cases address a wide range of pressing issues of contemporary heritage research and practice, including those of colonialism and decolonization, ownership and art-markets, institutionalization, human remains, return and restitution. Through the exploration of selected artistic works in diverse media - including drama, performance, installation, photography and text - this book highlights the transformative potentials of artistic provenance research.

Seller Inventory # 9783837665536

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Artistic Provenance Research
• Publisher: Transcript Verlag Feb 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3837665534
• ISBN 13: 9783837665536
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 240W x 169H x 17D millimeters 240 millimeters width by 169 millimeters height by 17 millimeters depth
• Weight: 410 grams

About this title

Synopsis

What can art and artists bring to researching the origins and biographies of objects? How do they shed new light on – or even unsettle – existing approaches to such questions? Proposing the new term – artistic provenance research – the contributors to this innovative book illuminate art’s capacity to expand provenance research in critical and provocative ways. Presenting in-depth examination of fascinating historical and contemporary examples, contributors to Artistic Provenance Research investigate knowledge-imagination dynamics, and questions of materiality, experimentation and speculation. They probe relationships between presences and absences, the aesthetic and the ontological, the scientific and the curatorial. The cases address a wide range of pressing issues of contemporary heritage research and practice, including those of colonialism and decolonization, ownership and art-markets, institutionalization, human remains, return and restitution. Through the exploration of selected artistic works in diverse media – including drama, performance, installation, photography and text – this book highlights the transformative potentials of artistic provenance research.

About the Authors

Tal Adler is a conceptual artist and researcher at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He specializes in creating collaborative, long-term projects for social transformation, engaging critically with difficult heritages, conflicts and ethical dilemmas.

Sharon Macdonald is Alexander von Humboldt professor of social anthropology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where she directs both the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik and CARMAH (the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage).