I am a technical art historian with a specialisation in modern and contemporary painting practice and teach the MA Special Option in History of Art "Painters at Work: Material Reinventions of a Medium, 1945 to Now" and on the BA HIstory of Art and MA Conservation of Easel Paintings programmes.

I hold a BA in art history from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich (1994), a Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings from The Courtauld (1997) and a PhD in art technology from Technische Universität München (2004). Before joining The Courtauld, I worked as a researcher, paintings conservator and curator: I was a Senior Research Specialist at the Getty, Los Angeles (2015-17) and a paintings conservator at Tate (2013-14), the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2003-05), The Menil Collection, Houston (1998-2000), and at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (1997-98). My curatorial and research experiences include collection management for private collectors in Europe, as well as appointments/grants as a Getty Conservation Guest Scholar (2021), Caroline Villers Research Fellow in Technical Art History at The Courtauld (2012-13), Associate Curator at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2011-12), Assistant Fine Arts Director at the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome (2009-10), and Postdoc Research Fellow at Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome (2005-7).

My publications explore the relationship between an artist’s subject, materials, and methods, for which I often interview artists. I am the author of monographs on Palermo and Lucio Fontana, the co-editor and author of books on US-American sculpture and drawing from the 1960s as well as Latin American art, and have written essays on the painting practices of a variety of contemporary European, US- and South American artists. A new book project for Getty Publications examines the role of tools in contemporary painting.