Pia Gottschaller is a technical art historian with a specialisation in Latin American, US-American and European postwar painting practice. She studied at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, The Courtauld and Technische Universität Munich, and she combines her art historical and materiality-based education in both research and teaching. Pia joined The Courtauld in 2017-18, where she teaches across art history, conservation and curatorial programmes. Her MA Special Option in the History of Art, “Painters at Work: Material Innovations of a Medium, 1945 to Now,” ran for the first time in 2022-23. She is on research leave in 2024-25 to finish a book on the use of unusual tools in global contemporary painting practice (under contract with Getty Publications).
Pia came to The Courtauld with twenty years of transdisciplinary work experience in museums and research institutions. Her first appointments were as paintings conservator at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (1997-98), the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2003-05) and later at Tate, London (2013-14). She carried out her most extensive conservation project, on the Rothko Chapel paintings, as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at The Menil Collection in Houston between 1998 and 2000.
Her focus then shifted to research and curating: In addition to positions as Assistant Fine Arts Director at the German Academy Villa Massimo, Rome (2009-10), and Associate Curator at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2011-12), she was a Senior Research Specialist at The Getty (2015-17). In collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, she led a multi-year, transnational and interdisciplinary technical study of Latin American Concrete and Neoconcrete art that also resulted in a co-curated exhibition at the Getty Center.
Pia’s research has been supported by a Getty Conservation Guest Scholarship (2021), a Caroline Villers Research Fellowship at The Courtauld (2012-13), and a Postdoc Research Fellowship at Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte in Rome (2005-7). Her publications often appear in more than one language and aim to promote a greater understanding of the complexity of artistic processes and material culture worldwide.
Pia is Editorial Board Member of Woman’s Art Journal and belongs to The Courtauld’s Centre for American Art, the Sculptural Processes Group, as well as the working group AG Materialität(en). With Professor Jo Applin she co-hosts the yearly Artist’s Talk.
PhD Supervision
Alex Bispham, ‘Alternative Visions: A Material Investigation into Queerness and Spirituality in 20th-21st Century Art’
Maia Tacey, ‘Materials in transformation: A processual methodology for the analysis of modern and contemporary paintings’ (working title)
Research interests
- Modern and contemporary painting practice
- Modern and contemporary sculpture
- The relationship between science, industry, and art
- Concepts of creativity
- Materiality in historical perspective
- Migration studies
- Material culture
Publications
Books
- Purity Is a Myth: The Materiality of Concrete Art from Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, eds. Z. Gilbert, P. Gottschaller, T. Learner, A. Perchuk (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2021)
- Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, eds. P. Gottschaller, A. Le Blanc, Z. Gilbert, T. Learner, A. Perchuk (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2017)
- Lucio Fontana: The Artist’s Materials (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2012)
- Der Raum der Linie. Amerikanische Zeichnungen und Skulpturen ab 1960, eds. M. Semff, C. Thierolf, A. Klar, P. Gottschaller, B. Heid (Munich: Pinakothek der Moderne, 2011)
- The Act of Creating Space: Lucio Fontana (Munich: TUM, 2008)
- Palermo: Inside His Images (Munich: TUM, 2004)
Book Chapters
- ‘Invisible Entanglements’ in Moyna Flannigan: Space Shuffle, eds. J. Connarty and S. Carey (Edinburgh: Artists’ Collective Gallery, 2024), 5-9
- ‘Ruins on Faux Fur: Materiality in Pino Pascali, 1964-68’ in Pino Pascali, ed. M. Godfrey (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2024) 220-231 (English), 308-312 (Italian)
- ‘Painting, Fast and Slow’ in Painting, Fast and Slow. Malerei auf Papier der Sammlung Michalke (Munich: Metropol Kunstraum, 2024), 4-14 (German/English)
- ‘Eleonore Koch and the Brazilian Egg Tempera Revival’ in Eleonore Koch, ed. F. Pitta (São Paulo: Almeida e Dale Galeria de Arte, 2024) [in print, English/Portuguese]
- ‘Peter Joseph: Balancing The World on Two Nails’ in Peter Joseph, ed. A. Bacon (London and New York: Lisson Gallery, 2024) [in print]
- ‘Materiality and Migration in Latin American Modernism: Caracas to Buenos Aires, 1944-50’ in Between Point Zero and the Iron Curtain: International Cooperation in Art, ed. E. Forgacs (Leiden: Brill, 2024) [in print]
- ‘Arturo Herrera,’ ‘Nyugen E. Smith’ and ‘Moyna Flannigan’ in Vitamin C+ Collage in Contemporary Art, ed. R. Morrill (London: Phaidon Press, 2023), 82-83; 104-107; 250-253
- ‘Tess Jaray in conversation with Pia Gottschaller’ in Tess Jaray. For Your Eyes Only (London: Karsten Schubert Gallery, 2023), 1-9
- ‘Aspekte von Zeitlichkeit und Vergänglichkeit im Werk von Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Liz Deschenes, Cy Twombly und Christian Bonnefoi’ in Patina. Spuren der Vergangenheit in der Kunst der Gegenwart, eds. I. Glanzer and A. Matyssek (Munich: Edition Metzel, 2023), 47-65
- ‘Crusader, Eden and Madame Renee’ in Beat Zoderer. The London Soap Opera (London: Bartha Contemporary, 2022), 4-8
- ‘Your Trash is My Treasure’ in Out Of Order. The Collages of Louise Nevelson, ed. Y. Etgar (Milan: Fondazione Marconi and Mousse Publishing, 2022), 37-53
- ‘Art to Life, Industry to Art’ in Geraldo de Barros – Imaginário, Construção e Memória, eds. L. Mammi and M. Favre (São Paulo: Instituto Itaú Cultural, 2022), 238-239 (Portuguese), 388-389 (English)
- ‘Sacilotto’s ABC São Paulo,” in Sacilotto, eds. D. Mattar and G. Pérez-Barreiro (São Paulo and London: Almeida e Dale Galeria de Arte, Cosac Naify and Cecilia Brunson Projects, 2021), 29-43 (English/Portuguese)
- ‘Hermelindo Fiaminghi’s Quadrature of the Circle between 1954 and 1959: From Concrete Enamel to Giotto’s Tempera,’ P. Gottschaller, T. Learner, J. Mazurek, in Purity Is a Myth: The Materiality of Concrete Art from Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, eds. Z. Gilbert et al. (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2021),105-123
- ‘Energy, Legibility, Purity: Color in Argentine Concrete Art,’ I. Alonso, P. Gottschaller, C. C. Marsh, A. Perchuk, L. Lee, in Purity Is a Myth: The Materiality of Concrete Art from Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, eds. Z. Gilbert at al. (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2021), 125-146
- ‘The Migration of Concretist Thought between Latin America and Europe: Max Bill, Kázmér Fejér, Tomás Maldonado and Georges Vantongerloo’ in Migrants: Art, Artists, Materials and Ideas Crossing Borders, eds. L. Wrapson et al. (London: Archetype Publications and Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, 2019), 44-58
- ‘Looking through the Glass, and What Fontana Found There’ in Lucio Fontana: On The Threshold, ed. I. Candela (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019), 67-73 (English/Spanish/Basque)
- ‘Making Concrete Art’ in: Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, eds. P. Gottschaller et al. (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2017), 24-59
- ‘Dig, slash and stitch: contemporary artists and their substrates,” in Bright Light, Living the Substrate, ed. D. Dibosa (London: ual: University of the Arts London Camberwell, 2014), 43-51
- ‘And Then Again. A conversation between Pia Gottschaller and Dan Sturgis in his studio’ (London: Noshowspace, 2014), unpag.
- ‘Strange Things Can Happen—David Reed in conversation with Pia Gottschaller’ in Heart of Glass. David Reed—Gemälde und Zeichnungen 1967-2012, eds. S. Berg and C. Schreier (Cologne: Snoeck, 2012), 60-68 (English), 89-112 (German)
- ‘Tabula Rasa 1967’ in Der Raum der Linie. Amerikanische Zeichnungen und Skulpturen ab 1960, eds. M. Semff et al. (Munich: Pinakothek der Moderne, 2011), 29-35
- ‘Gespräch mit dem Künstler Peter Soriano’ in: Der Raum der Linie. Amerikanische Zeichnungen und Skulpturen ab 1960, eds. M. Semff et al. (Munich: Pinakothek der Moderne, 2011), 14-18
- ‘Gespräch mit dem Sammler’ in: Der Raum der Linie. Amerikanische Zeichnungen und Skulpturen ab 1960, eds. M. Semff et al. (Munich: Pinakothek der Moderne, 2011), 42-45
- ‘Il mito del Vinavil’ in Il confine evanescente. Arte Italiana 1960-2010, eds. G. Guercio and A. Mattirolo (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2010), 309-341
- ‘The Rothko Chapel: Towards the Infinite’ in: Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil, eds. J. Helfenstein and L. Schipsi (Houston and New Haven: The Menil Collection/Yale University Press, 2010), 139-147
- ‘The Diversity of One’ in Palermo. To the People of New York City, eds. L. Cooke and K. Kelly (New York and Düsseldorf: Dia Art Foundation and Richter Verlag, 2009), 132-143 (English/German)
- ‘”Vagaries and Uncertainties” in Rothko’s painting process’ in Rothko/Giotto, eds. S. Weppelmann and G. Wolf (Munich: Hirmer, 2009),153-168 (English/German)
- ‘New York Conversations about Blinky’ in Palermo, eds. S. Küper et al. (Cologne: DuMont, 2007), 131-147 (English/German)
Articles
- ‘Jay DeFeo’s Dialectics of Painting,’ P. Gottschaller and J. Mazurek, Getty Research Journal, 18 (2023), 107-132
- ‘Elizabeth Neel,’ Burlington Contemporary (May 2022)
- ‘Painting as Technology: Toolpaths and Pathways in Cheyney Thompson’s Work,’ Journal of Contemporary Painting, 7: 1&2 (2021), 115-161
- ‘From Ruler to Tape: Stops and Starts in the History of Painted Abstraction,’ Getty Research Journal, 10 (2018), 149-166
- ‘Linking Neuroscience and a Psychophysical Test on Line Perception to the Use of Self-adhesive Tape in Contemporary Painting,’ El Anuario del Instituto de Investigaciones sobre Patrimonio Cultural, 4: 4 (2017), 34-58
- ‘Recent Trends and Developments in the Conservation of Contemporary Art,’ Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, 2 (2012), 352-362
- ‘The evolution of Lucio Fontana’s painting materials,’ P. Gottschaller, N. Khandekar, L. Lee, D. Kirby, Studies in Conservation, 57: 2 (2012), 76-91
- ‘The Re-Restoration of Donald Judd’s ‘Untitled, 1965’, N. Khandekar, E. Nagy, J. Miller, P. Gottschaller, C. Mancusi-Ungaro, Modern Paints Uncovered (London and Los Angeles: Tate and Getty Conservation Institute, 2007), 157-164
- ‘Palermo at Work,’ Modern Art, New Museums (London: Institute of Conservation (IIC), 2004), 174-178
- ‘The Rothko Chapel: Reflectance, Reflection and Restoration,’ C. Mancusi-Ungaro, P. Gottschaller, Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, 2 (2002), 215-224
- ‘Max Beckmann’s Painting Process,’ Pre-prints of the 24th Annual AGPIC Conference, University of Ontario (1998), 57-74
- ‘Max Beckmann’s Painting Materials and Technique,’ Harvard University Art Museums Review, VII: 2 (1998), 8-10
