Pia Gottschaller

Dr. Pia Gottschaller is a Reader in Technical Art History at The Courtauld Institute of Art, specializing in postwar and contemporary painting practices with a focus on Latin America, the US, and Europe. She holds academic affiliations with The Courtauld’s Department of Conservation and the Centre for the Art of the Americas. Her interdisciplinary career spans over 20 years in museums, conservation, and research, including roles at Harvard Art Museums, Tate, and The Menil Collection. She currently teaches across art history, conservation, and curatorial programs, including her MA Special Option Painters in the Studio, 1945 to Now.

Education: Studied at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, The Courtauld Institute, and Technische Universität Munich, combining art history and material studies.

Research Interests: Technical analysis of artistic materials, migration of artistic ideas, and intersections of science/industry with art. Key themes include material innovation in postwar painting, transnational art exchanges, and the role of materiality in artistic processes.

Publications: Over 60 works including books like Unruly Tools (2026), Lucio Fontana: The Artist’s Materials (2012), and numerous essays on artists like Fontana, Palermo, and contemporary practitioners. Recent trends focus on global contemporary painting techniques and material culture.

Awards: Honored with Getty Conservation Scholarship (2021), Caroline Villers Fellowship (2012-13), and Postdoc Fellowship at Bibliotheca Hertziana (2005-7). Serves on editorial boards of Woman’s Art Journal and collaborates with groups like the Sculptural Processes Group.

Advising & Grants: Supervises PhD students in modern art studies and leads multi-year research projects on Latin American concrete art. Current research includes a Getty-funded book on unconventional tools in global contemporary painting.

Labs/Teams: Active in The Courtauld Centre for the Art of the Americas, AG Materialität(en), and the Art | Material | Ecology working group. Co-hosts Artist’s Talk series with Prof. Jo Applin.