Treatment and public access to René Bertholo’s Archival Collection
This archival collection, donated to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 2023, includes over 6,300 documents, such as agendas, stamps, posters, correspondence, sketches, drawings, photographs, and films produced and collected by René Bertholo throughout his artistic career.
The set of documents includes: sketchbooks by his father, the painter Augusto Bertholo (1910-1974); a set of documentation related to the visual artist Lourdes Castro, including their exchanged correspondence and various photographs; several issues of the art magazine KWY (1958-1964), produced by the artist group composed of António Costa Pinheiro, Christo, Gonçalo Duarte, Lourdes Castro, Jan Voss, João Vieira, José Escada, and René Bertholo; dozens of studies for programmable electrical circuit designs, used to create his small-scale models (small electrical objects); documentation related to the production of Makina (1973-2005), a synthesiser he developed from scratch, which served as a platform for the sound art he created; part of the artist’s personal library, including more than 1,600 exhibition catalogues, monographs, magazines on electronics, and a small collection of artist books, including a single copy by Argentine conceptual artist Alberto Greco (1931-1965) – El descubrimiento de América.
[Sketchbooks] / Augusto Bertholo, [1958 -1972]
[Photographs and other family documents, 1920-1971]
El descubrimiento de América / por Albertito Greco, 1962
Conservation actions for the archival collection included mechanical cleaning with white erasers, brushes, and blow pens for all items, as well as packaging them in suitable materials for their preservation.
A small set of 80 photographic proofs in poor condition, with damage caused by contact with water, required restoration work because there was a risk of partial or total loss of the image. This set was cleaned with the support of Nanorestore Gel® Peggy 5 hydrogel and consolidated with gelatin applied through an ultrasonic nebuliser. These actions ensured the preservation of the images and the stability of the photographic prints.
The collection has been described and can now be searched through the catalogue and the originals consulted in the reserved area of the library’s reading room.
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