Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh co-founded Art Access and Research with the aim of furthering the application of science in art history as well as widening access to scientific methods in authenticity studies. His current role is that of Director of Research, leading authentication and academic research projects.
Dr. Eastaugh originally trained as a physicist before studying conservation and art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. His doctoral studies, on the history and analysis of artists’ pigments, were also conducted at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He held posts at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, the Textile Conservation Centre, and was a Fellow at the Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Eastaugh is currently an Honorary Fellow at the University of Oxford. Dr. Eastaugh also jointly established (and now co-leads) the Pigmentum Project, an inter-disciplinarary programme aimed at harnessing both science and art history to further the study of historical pigments. In addition to numerous papers, Dr. Eastaugh has published two volumes under the general title The Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments and Polarised Light Microscopy of Historical Pigments. He is currently working on a definitive book about authenticity in art.
Since 1988 Dr. Eastaugh has been a consultant in the scientific study of paint and paintings. Clients from the UK and worldwide include numerous national museums, galleries and other organisations, all major auction houses as well as many leading dealers, numerous private collectors and conservation studios. Dr. Eastaugh has wide research interests that include the study of historical pigments, mathematical modelling in art history, imaging, and software applications for the scientific art history community.
Peter Paul Biro co-founded Art Access and Research where he currently serves as Director of Forensic Studies. His primary roles are conducting fingerprint examinations for attribution and authenticity studies and leading long term research efforts into forensic contact evidence.
Paul began his career as a conservator before conducting a pioneering study in 1984 to authenticate a painting by J.M.W. Turner using human contact evidence. His matching of the artist’s fingerprints on the canvas to other fingerprints on known Turner paintings was the first successful case of this kind and established him as a primary authority in this area. Since then he has specialized in dealing with challenging authentication studies and developing definitive databases of artists’ fingerprints. He has completed authentication studies for many collections and private clients around the world.
Paul has published articles in peer reviewed journals including Mankind Quarterly, Antiquity and most recently an article entitled ‘Forensics and Microscopy in Authenticating works of Art’ in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, Oxford. He has lectured at Harvard University, the Yale Club, New York and the National Portrait Gallery, London. The feature length documentary ‘Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?’ centred on Paul’s discoveries. Biro has also been interviewed for a BBC documentary, CBS’s 60 Minutes and by Anderson Cooper for his program on CNN AC360°.
In 2007 Paul worked on the Pollock Matters exhibition catalogue (Boston College, 2007) discussing his collection of fingerprints from the Pollock studio. Paul is currently completing his cataloguing of J.M.W. Turner’s fingerprints in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain and preparing a manual on the forensic examination of works of art.
As of January, 2010, technical art historian Dr. Jilleen Nadolny joins the Art Access & Research team in the capacity of Senior Research Associate. She brings with her an extensive experience in the examination, analysis and study of paintings, and a broad knowledge of the technical literature relating to European painting and polychromy, having taught and published in this field over the past 10 years. Dr. Nadolny trained in paintings conservation and art history at the Conservation Center and Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, and conducted doctoral research on medieval painting and gilding techniques at the Courtauld Institute, London. Subsequently, she worked as a free-lance researcher and most recently held the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Conservation at the University of Oslo, Norway, where she taught and published in the fields of technical art history, scientific analysis of cultural historical materials and conservation history & ethics. She is currently serving as assistant coordinator for the ICOM-CC working groups on Paintings and on Art Technical Source Research. Her new posting with AA&R will allow her to draw on the full range of her past experience in conservation and materials studies.