Associate professor of paintings and polychrome sculpture. My work involves preventive conservation, examination, and active treatment of painted wood and canvas. I perform research-based preservation and restoration of the objects, as well as the dissemination of knowledge collected about them.
Research interests
- Medieval painting technique and history of technology:
Analysis and interpretation of the materials that make up the Middle Ages painted sculpture and panel paintings contribute to the understanding of their physical materiality. The results can challenge theories about what they originally looked like, and contribute knowledge about their intended painterly effects and function. This can also lead to a new understanding of their dating and provenance. - Perception of the medieval painterly expression:
I focus on the visual vocabulary of medieval polychromy, and on three-dimensional sculpture especially. - Reconstruction of medieval polychromy:
Based on scientific investigation we have put theory into practice with experimental physical reconstructed copies of medieval polychromy and panel paintings, using the tools and materials that were available to the medieval painter. - Misconceptions of medieval polychromy and its consequence for the value judgments and ill-conceived treatments of these works made in the past, and which still influences how we view these works today.
Cooperation
Assistant co-ordinator ICOM-CC working group for Sculpture, Polychromy and Architectural decoration.
Education
- 2017: PhD in art history, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, UiO: Evoking the Divine: The Visual Vocabulary of Sacred Polychrome Wooden Sculpture in Norway between 1100 and 1350.
- 1992: Diploma in conservation of paintings on wood and canvas. Thesis: Kollandsrud, Kaja. Krusifiks fra Haug kirke Buskerud C nr. 3604: Undersøkelser og behandling, (Varia 27), Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Oslo 1994. For English see Kollandsrud, Kaja. "Vasari's Theory of the Origins of Oil Painting and its Influence on Cleaning Methods: The Ruined Polychromy of the Early Thirteenth Century Crucifix from Haug, Norway." In Sculpture Conservation: Preservation or Interference?, ed. Philip Lindley, Liverpool: Scholar Press, Ashgate, 1997.
