Work
At the heart of the work undertaken by the Doerner Institut today is the care of the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, whose collections range from fourteenth-century to contemporary art. A further emphasis of our work is technical research and the analysis of historical painting methods and materials as well as the development of physical and chemical methods for examining art objects. The institute is also responsible for preventive conservation related to the museum buildings. Through its combination of practical restoration, day-to-day conservation treatments and internationally recognised scientific research, the Doerner Institut makes an important contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage.
Information on current and past projects can be found on the website of the Doerner Institut.
History
The Doerner Institut was founded in 1937 in Munich as an independent ‘Reichsinstitut für Maltechnik’ (Reich Institute of Painting Techniques). Its present name comes from the painter and art analyst Max Doerner (1870–1939), professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, who garnered international acclaim for his work The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting, first published in German in 1921. The institute, its laboratory, and its technical research department, which also carried out restoration work, became affiliated with the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in 1946. The conservation and restoration departments of the Doerner Institut and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen were fully merged in 1977.
Publications
The Doerner Institut has published numerous works over the past decades which are part of the standard body of literature on conservation-restoration, the use of technology to analyse artworks, and conservation science.
A complete list of all publications and further information on the institute’s history and projects can be found on the website of the Doerner Institut.
Contact
Doerner Institut
Barer Straße 29
D 80799 München
Sekretariat: Frau Ruth Krauß
T +49 89 23805-155
F +49 89 23805-156
info@doernerinstitut.de