Looking for inspiration from some of the greatest artists in history? Now you can view their art and collections from some of the top museums in the world.
Google this week unveiled the Google Art Project a “…unique collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art museums to enable people to discover and view more than a thousand artworks online in extraordinary detail.” The top three aspects that excited us about it are:
- Explore museums with Street View technology (from Google Maps): virtually move around the museum’s galleries, selecting works of art that interest you, navigate though interactive floor plans and learn more about the museum and you explore.
- Artwork View: discover featured artworks at high resolution and use the custom viewer to zoom into paintings. Expanding the info panel allows you to read more about an artwork, find more works by that artist and watch related YouTube videos. The Google engineers that created the Art Project call this “brushstroke-level detail” and it certainly is that!
- Create your own collection: the ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ feature allows you to save specific views of any of the 1000+ artworks and build your own personalized collection. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family. This is also a great way to share collections with colleagues and clients.
Here is a short overview of the Project from the Google Art Project YouTube Channel and gives you the essence of this exciting, free art showcase online: