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Art(h)ür Yves Guignard PhD in Art History

Services · I

Collecting data means knowing and valuing your cultural heritage.

Inventories & collection management

A collection, an artist’s studio or an archive is first of all a body of information – one that has to be found, linked and passed on. By means of a FileMaker system, I am able to design and build intelligent databases for any type of collection.

The maintenance and management of an archive or art collection requires firstly that the original documents or works of art be carefully preserved to prevent deterioration due to the ravages of time or climate.

Secondly, it is essential to access this data easily and at any time. Who is the artist? What is the size of the painting? Is an HD reproduction available? Is there a certificate of authenticity? Answers to all these questions are just a few clicks away thanks to an intelligent and well-maintained database.

A database is made up of records in different categories (works, artists, books, documents), like decks of cards that are linked to one another and easy to navigate. Moreover, in the case of an archive, a search in all the documentary databases helps to weave surprising links between documents.

During the last few years, I have designed and built databases for private collectors – most notably the family of the painter Balthus – in order to browse through historical archives and art collections. Two years as an assistant at the Kunsthaus Zürich taught me how to curate exhibitions and to take care of collections.

The same groundwork underpins my books: for the monograph on Coghuf, I sorted through the artist’s entire correspondence, kept loose in boxes, and recorded more than a thousand of his paintings.

This service further comprises research of the most relevant documents related to a collection, in order to enrich the knowledge of the works, their provenance or their place in the history of art.

For whom

Private collectors & families

To know what you own, find it in a click and pass it on in good order.

  • Work-by-work inventory: artist, title, date, medium, dimensions, signatures and inscriptions
  • Bespoke FileMaker database linking works, artists, books and documents
  • Supporting documents attached to each record: invoices, certificates, correspondence, photographs
  • Photography campaigns and condition reports coordinated with photographers and restorers from my network
  • Collection files prepared for a loan, a publication or handing on to the next generation

Artists’ estates & studio holdings

When a studio, boxes of letters or thousands of sheets are waiting to be put in order.

  • Inventory and numbering of the paintings, drawings and prints in a studio holding
  • Arrangement and description of artists’ archives: letters, sketchbooks, photographs, press cuttings
  • Census of works held by third parties, towards a monograph or a catalogue raisonné
  • A database shared with the family and enriched with every new find

Foundations, institutions & archives

For holdings that must remain legible, today and tomorrow.

  • Migration of existing inventories (spreadsheets, card indexes) into a relational database
  • Documentary research around a holding: links between works, documents and people
  • Data prepared for an exhibition or a publication

Approach

  1. 01

    Survey

    I get to know the collection or holding: what has already been inventoried and what you would like to do with it.

  2. 02

    Structure

    Together we define the record categories and the fields you need; I then build the database in FileMaker.

  3. 03

    Data entry

    Each work and each document receives its record, with dimensions, images and supporting papers.

  4. 04

    Enrichment

    I complete the records with research in archives and the literature: provenance, exhibitions, publications.

  5. 05

    Handover

    You receive a database you can consult and keep alive; I remain available to extend it.

Let’s talk about your collection

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