THE ARTISTICAL FUNCTION OF THE CONSERVATOR’S WORK

To throw the light on some doubtful problems connected with the work of a conservator acting as an artist was the author’s intention in preparing of his article. For his considerations were taken into account both the art of the past and that modern seen from the point of view of their social function with regard to actual cultural requirements and basing on elements of the art and artistic production theory. Going on an assumption that the monuments of art affected by the action of time and under influence of local conditions are subjected to constant changes and destruction it may be generally stated that the scope of conservation in equal measures consists in protection and preservation of both the documentary and artistic values present in the works but also in the aesthetical and artistical preparation and arranging of the objects subjected to conservation for utilitarian purposes. As has already many times been emphasized in his theoretical publications and practically applied solutions by the late Professor J. E. Dutkiewicz the conservation so meant may, and in several cases should display an artistically active and creatively orientated attitude. As an obligatory rule in conservation should be accepted the striving to get the most precisely defined truth about the work of art — comprising the historical, material, content, and artistic truth in the object by itse lf representing an authentic record of the time, style, place and ideology. In his efforts aimed at the practical defining the precise truth about the work the conservator as an executor should possess a good deal of manual abilities and also be conscious in his choice of technological methods and possibilities of historical and style argumentation. As the manual abilities of a conservator are to be understood both the skill and artistry able to subordinate his activities to the final, purely artistic result. The problem, however, does not merely consist in the active apprehension of conservation as an one of artistic disciplines. A considerable number of works of art has come up to our days in fragmentary forms. In the proper elaboration, arrangement and organisation on a wall, within an interior, in a sculpture or picture of authentic elements are to be sought the possibilities and in some cases even the artistic and utilitarian sense of the conservator’s action. Since the conditionings of an existence are not only contemporary but also historical ones, in his search for authenticity in works which frequently enough is not linked with a single author or even the single historical period he must form these works purposefully, by his creative will, at the same time furnishing them with a documentary force and binding them with the context of the local artistic realities. A purposeful arrangement of an ancient work of art in a neighbourhood of modern elements or with a linkage to the new social, ideological, educational or utilitarian functions frequently results in a quite unexpected, artistically modern expression. And also in this respect it may be considered as the creative act from the other artistic disciplines differing only by its kind and „taste” of engagement. The conservator’s ex e cu tion in Poland, repudiating the formerly observed rules of the style purity, the ignoring of the cultural context of the work, the belief that the work of art represents a pure product of an artistic concept as such deserving the extension of its life, is rising nowadays to the level of an authentic artistical discpline with its strictly determined and unique, own peculiarities. As the expression of such approach to this profession may be considered the fact that those w illing to act as conservators are being trained mainly at the Academies of Fine Arts and within the final period of their studies specialising in their respective lines of the future activities. At the end of his article the author makes an attempt to determine the terms — fine arts and beautiful arts, relating them to the specialised section of the Union of Polish Artists which, according to its statuary outlines, is being understood as a kind of professional community. Within this community there is a place for different artistical orientations, including the s.c. applied art, to which the conservation is closely related being today lastingly connected with the programme of building the culture of the nation who has suffered such immense losses in her history