ICONCLASS and Contemporary Art

[Sirkka Valanto]

Dear colleagues,

The Finnish National Gallery plans to start using the ICONCLASS
classification in the FNG=92s collection=92s management and documentation
system. However, in discussions lots of questions have arisen particularl=
y
about its suitability as concerns modern and contemporary art.

I have been asked to inquire about experiences elsewhere. So I hereby
turn to colleagues asking for help. I am interested in experiences in gene=
ral,
but especially I would like to have answers to the following questions,
which have been posed to me:

1) How can Fluxus art be classified according to ICONCLASS?

2) How can ICONCLASS be used when it comes to contemporary
art? Has this kind of indexing proved to be useful for art historical
research? What are the main purposes in which the ICONCLASS
classification has been applied? (For the research of contemporary art,
collecting theme exhibitions, searching subject matters for a specific
purpose, etc)?

3) In which way has been solved the problem of works of art which
lie between figurative and non-figurative art? Has anyone tried to
classify them by using the ICONCLASS?

4) How many codes (notations/textual correlates) is usually used for
one art work on an average?

Looking forward to your kind answers,
sincerely

Sirkka Valanto

.

Sirkka Valanto
Senior adviser
Finnish National Gallery
Kaivokatu 2, 00100 Helsinki Finland
tel. 358-0-1733 6244, fax 358-0-1733 6248
email: sval...@fng.fi

[Peter van Mensch]

At 12:54 PM 6/10/96 EET, Sirkka Valanto wrote:

>The Finnish National Gallery plans to start using the ICONCLASS

>classification in the FNG's collection's management and documentation
>system. However, in discussions lots of questions have arisen particularly

>about its suitability as concerns modern and contemporary art.
>I have been asked to inquire about experiences elsewhere. So I hereby
>turn to colleagues asking for help.

Did you contact the ICONCLASS people?

ICONCLASS Research and Development Group
Department of Computers and Humanities
University of Utrecht
Achter de Dom 22-24
35JP Utrecht
(the Netherlands)

e-mail: ICON...@let.ruu.nl

Peter van Mensch

[Karsten Borgmann]

Sirkka Valanto <SVAL...@FNG.FI> wrote:

>Dear colleagues,

>The Finnish National Gallery plans to start using the ICONCLASS

>classification in the FNG=92s collection=92s management and documentation
>system. However, in discussions lots of questions have arisen particularl=

>y
>about its suitability as concerns modern and contemporary art.

>I have been asked to inquire about experiences elsewhere. So I hereby

>turn to colleagues asking for help. I am interested in experiences >in gene=
>ral,

Dear Mr. Alanto,

I am not an art-historian and I don´t know anything about ICONCLASS in
particular. All I know is, that this is a *very* scholarly system,
developed for art-historical issues. Although it is widespread in museum
work, it seems to represent the scholarly orientation of many museum
responsibles. I know examples out of the official museum business here
in Berlin, where the publication of newly aquired materials was delayed
because of the effort and expenses it takes to integrate the material
into ICONCLASS first. On the other hand this strong system prescribes
views on the collected items which cannot be easily changed afterwards.
ICONCLASS seems to me a strategy of collection management opposed to the
questions of "open standards", which where discussed in the Getty Art
History Information Program (AHIP)and elsewhere see:

http://www.ahip.getty.edu/ahip/Text_ahip2.html

If you can still decide if or not to use this particular system, you
should think twice. Perhaps it´s an historical trap.

I would appreciate further discussion on this topic, perhaps my
impression is basically wrong.

Best Regards
Karsten Borgmann M.A. - Dept. of History, Humboldt-Univ.- Berlin
email: kbor...@rz.hu-berlin.de
http://hppool0.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0249kdx/kabo.html