Heinz Althöfer

Heinz Althöfer (born October 19, 1925 in Niederaden ; † May 18, 2018 ) was a German restorer and art historian . In 1976 he taught in Dusseldorf , supported by the company Henkel , the Restoration Center of the City of Dusseldorf one which he presided as director until the 1,992th Althöfer was the author and editor of publications on art, for example on the abstract art style of Informel as well as on conservation and restoration .

Life

School time and first professional steps

Althöfer grew up in Dortmund, where he attended elementary school. In 1940/41 he came to Baden-Baden as part of the Kinderland deportation , attended school there until he graduated from high school and received his position order. As a soldier, Althöfer was deployed in a Bavarian-Württemberg pioneer battalion in the Rastatt barracks, later in Karlsruhe-Knielingen , and then in the Ardennes offensive on the western front . On March 20, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the United States and Canada and taken to a camp in Rennes . After an interim storage facility in Normandy , he was released in late 1945 and worked as his father was mine official, in Dortmund underground as mining zealous on the Gneisenau Colliery . In between, Althöfer was a dealer in silk linings for men's suits and a Bible interpreter at the YMCA , the Young Mens's Christian Association, of which John Raleigh Mott was president at the time . In addition, he wrote articles about conferences for the Westfälische Zeitschrift and Ruhr Nachrichten and later as an editor about opera and art exhibitions, among other things .

Study and training

In Bonn, Althöfer studied psychology , four semesters in economics with a major in art history with Heinrich Lützeler and philosophy with Erich Rothacker . He then went to Basel to study with Karl Jaspers and spent two more semesters in Vienna before coming to Munich, where he continued to study philosophy and psychology and did his doctorate with Hans Sedlmayr on the subject of The Biedermeier Garden . Althöfer then went to the Doerner Institute as a restoration volunteer , where Christian Wolters, painting restorer and art historian, introduced him to the practices of restoration. Three years later he received a grant from the German Research Foundation, which took him to the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome to study with Cesare Brandi . From Rome Althöfer went to Brussels to the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique and from there to Paris to the Louvre . In addition, his scholarship led him to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and to the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples . During this time he got to know the various methods of retouching and how to differentiate between them. Althöfer completed his habilitation in Düsseldorf on the subject of connoisseurship and science by Max J. Friedländer , published from 1987 to 1988 in the Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49.

Restoration Center Düsseldorf

Between 1961 and 1976 Althöfer restorer was Kunstmuseum in Dusseldorf before in 1976 with the support of Gabriele Henkel , then wife of industrialist Konrad Henkel , the Restoration Center Dusseldorf / donation Henkel founded and built. The center, which was given its premises in the north wing of the Kunstpalast , was allowed to use the in-house laboratories of the Henkel company . Initially, it was planned to include the University of Düsseldorf , but in the end the institute remained municipal and the center took over the conservation of the art collection of North Rhine-Westphalia - thanks in part to Werner Schmalenbach's efforts .

Research and Teaching

Althöfer held teaching positions at various universities and research centers such as the ICCROM and gave lectures and seminars at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . His aim was to conduct research on the technology of contemporary art, and as a result, he divided contemporary art into three areas with regard to the tasks of restoration: Firstly, “Objects that are viewed and treated in the broadest sense like works of traditional art can ", secondly" objects that create new technical problems and for which new materials and techniques have to be tested and used "and thirdly" objects for which the question of restoration must first be examined 'ideologically'. "

Together with the Henkel company, Althöfer carried out intensive scientific examinations with his students and volunteers in the restoration center, especially on the basis of X-rays . In the publication La radiologia per il restauro delle opere d'arte modern e contemporanee , published in 1997, Althöfer described some things about this subject of investigation based on the lectures he gave in Siena .

Heinz Althöfer lived in Düsseldorf- Grafenberg .

Publications (selection)

• Forgery and research , Folkwang Museum , Essen, October 1976 to January 1977, sculpture gallery; State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage , Berlin, January to March 1977, Essen / Berlin 1976.
• Connoisseurship and science . In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 48–49, 1987–88, pp. 485–496.
• Collect and preserve art. Advice and information on the care and preservation of privately owned art . Nordstern, o. O. 1992.
• La Radiologia per il restauro delle opere d'arte modern e contemporanee. Nardini editore, Florence 1997, ISBN 8-84044-044-5 .
• Informal . Series of publications by the Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (Harenberg Edition, Dortmund). Edited and with contributions by Heinz Althöfer:
  • Vol. 1 (1999): The beginning after the end , ISBN 3-611-00825-7 .
  • Vol. 2 (2002): Encounter and Change , ISBN 3-611-01062-6 .
  • Vol. 3 (2003): Die Plastik. Gestus und Raum 2003, ISBN 3-611-01156-8 .
  • Vol. 4: (2004) Material und Technik , ISBN 3-925998-44-6 .

literature

• Katrin Janis: Restoration Ethics: In the Context of Science and Practice . Meidenbauer, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89975-513-8 ( online )
• Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Property , Issue 1/2011,

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinz Althöfer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Restoration center of the state capital Düsseldorf / donation from Henkel

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary notice.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Rheinische Post , May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018  
2. ↑ Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Assets , Issue 1/2011, p. 68.
3. ↑ Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Property , Issue 1/2011, p. 69.
4. ↑ Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Property , Issue 1/2011, p. 70
5. ↑ Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Property , Issue 1/2011, p. 73.
6. ↑ Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Property , Issue 1/2011, - p. 71 f.
7. ^ Heinz Althöfer: Restoration , uni-wuppertal.de, accessed on January 10, 2012.
8. ↑ Heinz Althöfer. Interview with Bettina Schwabe and Cornelia Weyer , in: Association of Restorers eV (Ed.): Contributions to the Preservation of Art and Cultural Assets , Issue 1/2011, p. 75