Channel your inner art historian with the Lëtzebuerger Konschtlexikon! Designed for scholarly research and leisurely exploration alike, this new online dictionary seamlessly links the lives of artists with the people, events and organisations that shaped their careers, offering innovative and varied perspectives on Luxembourg art history with full academic referencing.
Within the Konschtlexikon’s virtual pages, you’ll find meticulously crafted artist biographies, a number of advanced search options and interactive maps that help you trace an artist’s journey and identify pivotal moments in their career. Explore our comprehensive guide to Luxembourg’s visual arts, brushstroke by brushstroke.
Writing art history: in-depth artist biographies
Covering
the 19th century to the present day, our exclusive biographies dive
deep into the lives of local artists and present fresh perspectives on
Luxembourg art history. Discover the forces that shaped an artist’s path
with detailed entries that include information on related events,
awards and associations with influential figures and groups, in addition
to close-up images of the artist’s signature. Bibliographic references
are always clearly indicated, as is the quality of the source, allowing
you to decide if further research is needed or not.
Constantly updated with new entries and insights, the Konschtlexikon features 15 fully researched biographies at present: Roger Bertemes, Pierre Blanc, Robert Brandy, Berthe Brincour, Claus Cito, Feipel & Bechameil, Tina Gillen, Albert Hames, Berthe Lutgen, Gast Michels, Marc-Henri Reckinger, Yola Reding, Michel Stoffel, Jos Sünnen and Su-Mei Tse. Try looking one of them up today!
Looking for answers: a powerful search engine
Want to go beyond the lives of individuals? Uncover trends in Luxembourg art history by using the advanced search, where you can browse by role, discipline, artistic movement, occupation and gender. Fine-tune your search with the date filter, which shows you a graph with relevant data recorded in our database so far, or delve into solo shows and artist residencies by sorting your search query by person, group, event or award.
We’re constantly working on extending our database to give you the most complete picture of Luxembourg’s visual arts sector. To date, the Konschtlexikon includes 6106 entries, 3204 people, 992 groups (artists’ collectives, artistic groups, institutions, organisations), 1837 exhibitions, 73 awards (prizes, grants, residencies, honorary orders) and a total of 26,512 connections between different entries.
Seeing the bigger picture: an interactive map
Get a sense of an artist’s trajectory with interactive maps that show where they lived, worked and ultimately left their mark on the world. This feature offers a range of filter options for different biographical data, giving fascinating insights into how and where different artists forged a path for themselves. The map on the homepage also allows you to identify parallels between different artists, for example, the cities they studied in or where they were born.
Mapping the artistic landscape in new and innovative ways by harnessing the power of interconnected data, the Konschtlexikon opens up Luxembourg art history to the public and offers new ways of engaging with the country’s visual arts, past and present. Discover the tool for yourself on konschtlexikon.lu
Text: Katja Taylor - Images: MNAHA/Éric Chenal
Source: MuseoMag N°IV 2023
The Lëtzebuerger Konschtlexikon is brought to you by the Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv, a dedicated research centre for visual arts created within to Luxembourg’s Musée national d’archéologie, d’histoire et d’art (MNAHA) in December 2021. Focused on preserving, studying and promoting Luxembourg’s history of visual arts, its primary objective is to facilitate archival work, scholarly research and to disseminate knowledge about Luxembourg’s art history.