Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Technology

How The Web Is Changing the Museum World

My headline is way too broad — one could write a book, or at least a long white paper, on how the web is changing the museum world. And I’m not talking about museum websites. But here are three disparate ways we’ve seen change in the last few days.

GardnerManet1) Last week, the BBC reported that a crowd-sourcing site it started with the UK’s public collections — called Your Paintings (I reported on that initiative here last year) — led to the discovery of an unknown van Dyke. Previously, the portrait was considered to be a copy; covered in dirt, it was kept in storage at the Bowes Museum in County Durham. An art historian and dealer named Dr. Bendor Grosvenor saw it online, thought differently, and it has now been authenticated by Chris Brown, a van Dyke expert.

2) Earlier today, the FBI announced that it knew who stole 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 23 years ago. According to that press release:

The FBI believes it has determined where the stolen art was transported in the years after the theft and that it knows the identity of the thieves, Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, revealed for the first time in the 23-year investigation. “The FBI believes with a high degree of confidence that in the years after the theft, the art was transported to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region, and some of the art was taken to Philadelphia, where it was offered for sale by those responsible for the theft.”

And then the FBI said it created a special website about the heist, asking the public to help it solve the crime. It has four videos, one about the art (two of the stolen paintings pictured here), and one each from two FBI special agents and the Gardner’s security chief. Other relevant information is also there.

3) I received notice the other day about a new website that calls itself Vastari, “a new platform to revolutionize collecting and curating.” The site, based in London, connects registered collectors and curators, via two search engines: “one database of exhibition proposals for collectors to browse, and a search engine of objects for museums to consider for said exhibition proposals.”

Collectors upload to a secure site pictures of their exhibition-worthy art, which must possess “ a concrete provenance” and is “owned indisputably by you.” This service is free now, but there will be an annual charge.

GardnerRembrandtThe site says:

This way, the collector benefits from targeted contact with cultural institutions, whereas the institution profits from broader curatorial choices in the private sector.

See more about Vastari here. Notice that the site carries logos of the Museums Association and the American Alliance of Museums.

It’s a rather interesting concept. Let’s see where it goes.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the FBI

 

 

 

Why Isn’t The Met’s Chinese Exhibition On Its Website?

It was months ago when I first learned that the Metropolitan Museum of Art* was organizing an exhibition from its permanent collection to send to China. It came to pass in February, when Earth, Sea and Sky: Nature in Western Art — Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in Beijing, at the National Museum of China.

VanGogh-MetBilled as exploring “the grand theme of nature as it has been depicted by painters, sculptors, and decorative artists in Europe, America, and the Near East, from antiquity to the present day,” the show was something I wanted to see. But the Met organized it with foreign audiences in mind, and has no plans to put these 130 works on view — in this form. Of course, they’ve probably all been on view at various times in their respective departments and probably temporary exhibits, too. Still, I wanted to see the sweep, just as Chinese visitors and before that Japanese visitors are seeing the show. The works sent by the Met

are masterful representations of landscape, flora, and fauna rendered in a wide range of media including painting, ceramics, tapestry, silver, stone, and bronze. Highlights include works by such major artists as Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Tiffany, Hopper, and Atget, as well as anonymous masters from the ancient and medieval worlds.

They include the van Gogh Cypresses and the Tiffany vase shown here.

So the other evening, at the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory, when I ran into a Met official and heard a little about installation differences between New York and China (nothing serious, but one difficulty was resolved by placing plinths under big paintings), I asked the normal question for these days:

Can I see any pictures up on the Met’s website?

I was disappointed to hear “no.” Then I was pleasantly pleased to hear that  my co-conversationalist thought my idea was a good one and said, “we should do that.”

TiffanyVase-MetS/he promised to get pictures from Beijing and get them up there so everyone can see part of this landmark installation.

This was the Met’s first large cultural exchange with China, but there will surely be more. And director Tom Campbell, I understand, will soon be leaving for India, to poke around there at museums and to see what cultural exchanges might be arranged there.

All this is a good thing; I just want to see some of it too — even if only in a manifestation on the web.

So: sometimes the simplest things make great website material. Don’t overlook them.

The New York Times covered the exchange on Jan. 31.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum 

*I consult to a foundation that support the Met

What Happened At Google’s Art Hangout?

Well, I didn’t see it myself, yet, but the commenters on the Google + site for its new Art Talks series, which I wrote about here, seemed mostly satisfied.

One man, from Italy wrote: “…this is a very interesting project. We would like to air the next episodes of the Google Art Project live on national TV in Italy, especially the Art Talk with the London National Gallery with Caroline Campbell, Curator of Italian Paintings before 1500. Do you think this could be possible? If so, can I ask you to help me get the proper authorization?”

That’s in line with Italy’s usual interest in visual arts TV, though I don’t think that’s what Google had in mind.

There was apparently some confusion about getting onto the right site, and whether Google provided enough capacity — which is strange because the Google hangouts I’ve seen seem to have endless capacity.

For what it’s worth, the YouTube stream is here: http://youtu.be/UfGk8VNtOmk and the recorded #ArtTalk is available on the Art Project and MoMA YouTube channels.

“Art Talks” Tonight, On Google +

So what are you doing tonight at 8 p.m., EST? Want to hang out, talking about art with someone from the Museum of Modern Art?

Google hopes so. Someone there obviously see value in adding features about art, because the Google Hangout venture of the Google Art Project, scheduled to debut this evening, is the start of a series called “Art Talks.” (That’s the official announcement.)  These regularly scheduled online talks are designed to explore masterpieces, according to an account on Mashable, though the first tranche seems a bit broader than that.

Tower of BabelTonight, see MoMA’s Director of Digital Learning, Deborah Howes, who along with artists and students plan to talk about teaching art online. Post your questions for them here and here’s the link to gain access.

According to the Motley Fool,

Each month on Google Art Project’s Google+ page, partner curators, museum directors, historians, and educators will reveal the hidden stories behind famous art works and artists. The guided visits begin this week on Wednesday, March

Next up, after MoMA, is the National Gallery in London 0n Mar. 20. From there, Caroline Campbell, curator of paintings, and Arnika Schmidt, a curatorial assistant, will discuss depictions of the female nude in its collection. Following that, Art Talks move to Washington, where in April curator Peter Parshall, curator of Old Master prints, will lead a discussion of Bruegel’s “Tower of Babel.”

Various reports say that these hangouts will also involve the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angelese, the Museo Nacional de Arte of Mexico City, and Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art.

Later, Google will post the discussions on the GAP’s YouTube channel.

Go to this page for more information.

 

The Tate Recommends Art For You And Me

Did you click on that link to the Tate in my recent post about Becoming van Gogh in Denver? I did. And I was surprised by two features of the Tate website. Aside from showing me a good reproduction of the drawing I wanted you to see, the museum supplied, beneath the van Gogh, “Other works of art you may be interested in.”

T00468_10Amazon and other commercial sites use this technology (and they don’t always get it right), but this was either the first time I noticed it on a museum website or a relatively new development. I was eager to see what other art the Tate thought I might like. Twenty-two other works, as it turned out.

They ranged in date from 1795 to 1982, versus the 1884 creation of Thatched Roofs. Only two were by van Gogh (The Oise at Auvers and Farms Near Auvers). Other artists included Natalya Goncharova (at right), Joan Gonzales, James Dickson Innes, Sir Ernest Albert Waterlow, Charles Condor and Eric Forbes-Robertson — as well as the naturals like Cezanne, Gauguin, Schuffenecker, and Seurat. The work of six of the artists in the lineup (not all mentioned here) was new to me — which means that the Tate is leading people to discoveries.

If you click on any the pictures, you are referred to another selection of “other works of art you may be interested in.” There’s overlap between the selections, but it’s not complete — perhaps half of the artworks are the same, the rest different. Exploring art this way could be endless, but you can quit at any time.

Or you could ignore the whole offer, and just look at the van Gogh drawing.

This seems like a good feature. The Metropolitan Museum’s website offers “related content” for various artworks in its collection — but the suggested works are by the same artist. MoMA doesn’t have this feature either, nor does the National Gallery of Art in Washington. If others so, please let me know. It should spread.

Whether or not it’s a good thing that the website doesn’t explain why the pictures are related — that van Gogh with this Goncharova — is up to you.

Back at the Tate, website visitors can also “find similar artworks” on their own because below each work in its collection, there are links to artworks by the same artist, by category, decade, style, and subject — in many variations. For Thatched Roofs, for example, there are seasons, trees, places, architecture, towns-scapes, etc. etc. Finally, there’s a link to Context — gifts and bequests. That one seemed too formidable for me to explore right now.

I wonder how people are using this information and this site. Not to worry. The Tate does too. In fact, before exploring any of this, I was presented with one question asking me why I came to the site, so that the Tate could improve it. My choices, abbreviated, were: to plan a visit; to find specific information for research or professional reasons; to find information for personal reasons; for casual browsing; or to book a place at an event/program.

It’s simple: Do I need to say that both feature are good ideas? Go explore.

Photo Credit: Gardening, Natalya Goncharova, 1908, Courtesy of the Tate