A comment, from MarkCC in Austin, on The New York Times website, following Roberta Smith’s review of van Gogh Up Close at the Philadelphia Art Museum:
Fabulous! Where’s the app? I probably won’t make it to Philly to see the exhibition but if it was an app it would be the next best thing. I could see the paintings on my flat screen, I could zoom in on them almost as close as I want. I’d even be willing to pay an “admission” price.
You see a lot of uninformed and sometimes stupid comments on the web, following many articles and reviews, and this occasion was no exception. Take a look at the comments for yourself.
But MarkCC — from more than 1,400 miles away, afterall — has a point. PaulCommetX also chimed in with this:
How sad it is that painting and sculpture are still in the dark ages when it comes to the internet. We should be able to “rent” art on iTunes or Amazon – the works displayed on large HD flat screens in great detail. It’s ironic that we can enjoy music in the most technologically advanced way but the visual arts are closed to us except for mousy little pictures that do no justice to the original works.
I looked on the Philadelphia Museum website to see what is available. There’s a good range of programs, and a place for discussion of the exhibit, but that’s about it.
I’m going to get to Philadelphia to see this exhibit, but I wish Mark CC could access the catalogue, or something, with an app. I went to Amazon to see if the catalogue is available on Kindle — nope. How about the Barnes and Noble Nook? Nope.
I know museums are stretched, but here’s a case where reaching out to the public via technology could really have been worth it.
There are images of 9 of the 45 paintings in the show on the Times in a sidebar to the review called Multimedia.
I’m curious, what was wrong with the review?
@ BobG. I don’t understand your question — who said anything was wrong with the review?
You say “You see a lot of uninformed and sometimes stupid comments on the web, and this review was no exception” and I took that to be a comment on Roberta Smith’s review. If it’s not, then I’m even more confused!
@BobG — no, not about Roberta’s review, about the comments made after her review! I will fix that to clarify. Her review was great.
Ahh! Sorry. I totally misread it. My fault.
By the way, did you notice that there’s advance ticketing for the show that costs $28.50 and there are only 45 paintings in the show? Seems a bit steep to me. (And if you add in the cost of the trip to Philadelphia from NY . . . )
I did notice. It’s very expensive to transport and insure works by van Gogh.
Certainly the catalogue should be available on the museum web-site. But clearly an app would be ideal for all those that do not understand, and who cannot appreciate, the difference between a flat screen image of the painting and the painting itself.
Let them ‘rent’ the image, then perhaps all the most popular images will become as banal as the appropriated music used in television advertisements.
Long live instant coffee, artificial sweeteners and all the ‘can’t believe it’s not real’ products…
The deluge is already upon us !
VanGogh’s paintings in any other medium but in person is a pale shadow of the original work. To date, there is no application or technical medium that captures the immediacy and other sensory experiences of a painting. When I saw my first VanGogh in a museum, it took my breath away. Prints are a very far cry from the original. I’m putting the gauntlet down to all techies come up with an app that captures all the senses, not just a few!