IRECONA

What happens when a painting no longer appears as it once did? When its colors fade, its surface alters, and its very essence shifts—do we see the same work, or something fundamentally different?

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Modern painting is inseparable from its (specific) materials, yet those materials are anything but stable. The rise of synthetic pigments and experimental paint media in the second half of the 20th century granted artists unprecedented chromatic and surface effects, fundamentally shaping movements like Color Field painting. These works were designed to be immersive, luminous, and expansive—more than just painted surfaces, they were visual experiences. Yet today, their very essence is at risk. Over time, once-radiant hues have dulled, delicate modulations have flattened, and the perceptual depth these paintings once offered has been obscured by material degradation.

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But does a work of art remain the same when its visual presence changes? If art history has long assumed the stability of its objects, IRECONA—short for Interdisciplinary Reconstruction of Art (funded by the FWO)—argues for a different approach: one that sees artworks as entities unfolding in time, shaped as much by their aging materials as by the histories written about them. By retracing these lost images, IRECONA seeks to uncover how material transformation not only alters paintings themselves but also the way they are interpreted and historicized.

Discrepancies between past and present accounts reveal the extent to which we might be looking at something profoundly different than what the artist once intended.

 

At the same time, IRECONA explores new digital conservation strategies, investigating how Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) can help visualize lost or altered visual effects without compromising the physical integrity of the artworks. These technologies offer a way to navigate between past and present, between what remains and what has disappeared, allowing us to engage with the artwork’s transformation rather than simply mourning its loss.

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By bringing together art history, material science, and digital conservation, IRECONA aims not just to preserve, but to retrace and reimagine the ways in which we experience modern painting over time. In doing so, it challenges us to rethink the very nature of art itself—not as something fixed, but as something that exists in a constant state of becoming.