Web-Today for 7-9: Art Links
Web-Today Destinations
Historian. Now, we're not going to argue with an august body of higher
education but we have to look at the diploma hanging on our office wall
from time to time to remind ourselves of this fact. We, like many
college graduates, find ourselves working in a field only tangentially
related to our university studies. Of course all that money we spent on
our degree didn't go to waste. We have a passion for art and enjoy
visiting galleries and museums whenever we can. Here is a selection of
the latest art related links that we've added to our already packed
bookmark file.
The 24-Hour Museum
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/
There's only so much a student can learn from studying art in books.
Reproductions can give you a feel for composition and technique but to
fully understand a work of art you have to stand in front of the actual
object. One of the key elements of any work of art is its physical
relationship to the viewer. We learned that fact when, spending a
summer in the UK, we were able to see first hand many of the works that
we'd been studying in school. England is the home of many of the
world's most renowned museums and galleries and the 24-Hour Museum site
is a gateway to the best of them. You'll find a museum finder, a great
selection of art news items, lots of general art related resources and
a great page for kids called 'My First Museum'.
The Art Museum Network
Here in Portland we're lucky to have a well-respected art museum whose
holdings range from Native American art to renaissance paintings and
pieces by modern artists including Monet, Stella and others. Recently
the Portland Art Museum was remodeled, expanded and fitted with
state-of-the-art environmental controls making it fit for many touring
national shows. The Art Museum Network is a great place to learn about
traveling exhibitions currently making the rounds. The fully searchable
event calendar includes information on hundreds of shows with linkage
to exhibition catalogues, museum info and more. While you're there make
sure and check out the AMICO Image Library where you can browse dozens
of paintings, drawings and sculptures.
fineArt forum resource directory: Museums and Art History
http://www.msstate.edu/Fineart_Online/art-resources/museums.html
Art is a perennial Web-Today topic, not only because your humble editor
has an interest in it but also because there are so many fine arts
sites online. Sorting through all these sites can be an overwhelming
task. The fineArt Forum maintains this excellent directory of museums
and art history pages where you'll find links to resources worldwide.
Each link includes a short description of the page sited saving you the
time of looking at each one. This is a good page for art fans to
bookmark and check frequently.
MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art
You may not know it but there's a crisis in the field of static visual
arts. Since the postmodern era ended nearly twenty years ago there has
been no central movement in painting and sculpture. Don't get us wrong,
there are hundreds of interesting artists doing beautiful work all over
the world and in time a movement is sure to emerge. Until then there's
always the MoMA. New York's Museum of Modern Art started with a gift of
just eight prints and one drawing but has grown to include more than
100,000 paintings, sculptures and objects. The MoMA also houses scores
of films, books and periodicals. MoMA's Web site gives you more than
just a taste of this vast collection. In addition to serving their own
content, MoMA sponsors some wonderful 'Web Projects' such as the
'Contemporary Design from the Netherlands' pages.