Virtual galleries are making art accessible

Among other things, I write on art. And the thing I like the most about it is the bountiful opportunity it presents to me to surround myself with art of all kinds — the famous and the lesser-known, the expressionist and the post-modern, the masters and the contemporaries — irrespective of time and geography, presenting itself in a manner immemorial. But with a truant virus on the loose, the world right now is not conducive to art exhibitions, openings or fairs and has resulted in cancellations and closures all over the world. It started with an email from Art Basel’s Hong Kong chapter in my inbox and that seemed to have opened the floodgates of cancellations. But as I write this from my study-table at home, it’s a piece of art by a dear friend, propped next to my computer screen that offers me the hope of overcoming this lockdown and seeing her again soon because what is the world without hope? And what is the world without art? Contrary to everything else limited by lockdowns, art can never be cancelled. ‘Lover’, ‘maker’, ‘supporter’ — whatever suffix you would want to add to ‘art’, have resulted in a bunch of people coming together to throw open museums and galleries for people temporarily restricted by lockdowns to access art from their screens.

Immerse yourself in Renaissance masterpieces from Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, including works by Titian, Veronese, and Holbein at the National Gallery in London or the six online exhibits at Brazil’s Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP), opportunities to divert your mind from Covid-19 are galore. While every museum mostly has its own website supporting a gallery tour, Google’s Arts & Culture section is what I would recommend for a seamless experience on a limited bandwidth. Here’s listing a few online exhibits that you can check out:

Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil

The museum does not only offer online exhibits and two museum tours but also a digital gallery of what’s already available there. Take your pick between art from Italy (from Rafael to Titian), Brazil (up to 1900) and France (Delacroix to Cezanne). But my favourite was the collection of an extraordinary set of 102 drawings by the inmates of Sao Paulo’s Hospital Psiquiatrico do Juquery, which is a psychiatric hospital — and as the donor of these drawings had told the museum at the time of donation, these artworks are best viewed as art and not in relation to their therapeutic origin.

Musei Vaticani, Vatican City

This is a cumulative website to make any art enthusiast’s dream come true with abundant 360-degree views and tours of all the museums there. From the Pio Clementino and Chiaramonti museums to the Sistine and Niccoline chapels, do not forget to look up to take in the beauty of the frescoes and what is considered to be the cornerstone for Renaissance art.

The National Gallery, London

While the official website of this Trafalgar Square museum does not have any online exhibitions at the moment, it has a virtual tour that one can opt for, which will allow you to view its 2,300 publicly owned paintings, watercolours, drawings, apart from art originating between the 13th century to the mid-20th century in Europe and the seven exhibition spaces dedicated to Renaissance art. We definitely recommend the Google Arts & Culture app for easier navigation in this museum.

Louvre, Paris

Apart from an exhibition titled The Advent of the Artist featuring artworks by Delacroix, Rembrandt and Tintoretto and another exhibition displaying Egyptian antiquities from the time of the Pharaohs; the museum also offers online tours of its space, starting with its Moat that was a built in 1190 to its Galerie d’Apollon, which has been recently restored.

The Metropolitan Museum, New York City

The largest museum in America has a robust website with not just its collections available online but also an all-encompassing online presence that is constantly striving to keep art lovers updated. Unbox 400 years of British design with the Met’s British Galleries displaying decorative art, tracing the culture across the pond from America; learn and unlearn art to discover, perhaps, why a banana became the most talked about piece of art while taking a look at contemporary artist Gerhard Richter’s collection of portraits to landscapes to abstractions; or download the audio files to get an online tour that can be as close to reality as possible. Personally, I loved the exhibition titled The NewOnes, will free us by Wangechi Mutu.

Art Basel, Hong Kong

While arguably the biggest art fair in this continent got scrapped, their Online Viewing Rooms (OVR) hosted around 2,000 works of art from 31 regions of the world, with reportedly over 90 per cent of exhibitors from the cancelled art fair deciding to participate, including Experimenter from Calcutta. The display featured a mix of Modern, post-war and contemporary artworks spanning mixed media and forms and has Indian artists such as Atul and Anju Dodiya, Shilpa Gupta, Praneet Soi and Ayesha Sultana’s works.

Art Dubai

Art Dubai is hosting an online edition with over 500 works and videos by performance artists, thereby giving art lovers an opportunity to enjoy art from afar. Calcutta’s Experimenter has an online catalogue at Art Dubai where they’re presenting Remnants as Traces, featuring works by Adip Dutta, Biraaj Dodiya, Bani Abidi and Samson Young, among others.