Department of Art History

Professor Lynn Rother

In her talk, Lynn Rother examines the potential of provenance research for uncovering the uncanny double that exists alongside the history of countless artworks. Traditionally a tool of the art market, provenance has primarily been used to establish the "pedigree" of an object through the illustriousness of select previous owners. However, the details of ownership and especially its unbroken chain may also shed new light on the selectiveness of art historical practice which tends to privilege the moments of creation and, occasionally, destruction of artworks over comprehensive object histories. Through examples of such extensive histories, she traces a more complete picture of these objects while also emphasizing that their real history takes place not in ideal moments but in imperfect and oftentimes uncanny spaces of time. Provenance research and its in-depth investigation of ownership thus may become a radical approach to cultural heritage and to cultural memory alike.

Lynn Rother is the Lichtenberg-Professor for Provenance Studies and the Director of the Provenance Lab at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. Prior to this appointment, she held research positions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2015–19) and at the Berlin State Museums (2008–14), working on 20th-century provenance and digital initiatives. A former Fellow of The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles (2014–15) and of the German Historical Institute in Moscow (2011), she has a Master’s degree in art history, economics, and law from the University of Leipzig (2008) and a Ph.D. in art history from the Technical University of Berlin, advised by Bénédicte Savoy (2015)