LACMA website now offers downloadable images

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has retooled their online collection to include nearly 20,000 high-resolution images of artworks it “believes to be in the public domain”.  Those images known to be otherwise protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights must be requested. For more information on using of LACMA’s digital images, consult the museum’s Terms of Use.

NYT Review of The Artful Recluse

Previously at The Santa Barbara Museum of Art and currently at the Asia Society and Museum in New York, The Artful Recluse showcases almost 60 paintings from an era of unrivaled historical drama and artistic achievement in China that spans from the late Ming (ca. 1600–1644) and the early Qing dynasties (1644–ca.1700). The show, co-curated by Peter Sturman, Professor of History of Art and Architecture at UCSB, and Susan Tai, Elizabeth Atkins Curator of Asian Art at SBMA, was recently reviewed in the New York Times.

LACMA offers to absorb MOCA

The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has put in an offer to take over both branches of the financially-struggling Museum of Contemporary Art. The offer letter, from LACMA Director Michael Govan and the two board co-chairs, was dated February 24 and in response to MOCA’s initial request for a merger of the institutions.

Read Michael Govan’s response to the LA Times article here and the final decision of the MOCA Board here.

Delacroix painting vandalized

Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People (1830) has been defaced by a 28-year-old woman who wrote “AE911″ across a roughly foot-long section along the bottom. The painting has been in the Louvre-Lens since the satellite museum opened December. The tag refers to the 9/11 conspiracy website Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

via Reuters

US Holocaust Museum’s digital collection

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s digital collection — so far, that’s 217,630 records — is available to search online. There are some useful searching tips on the online collection homepage or try browsing within the three set “facets”: record type (e.g., oral history, photograph, document), language, or special collection. Other special features include links to over 3,800 streamable oral history testimonies (roughly 7,600 total hours), downloadable finding aids to over 8,200 archival collections, and over 4,500 films. There is also a link at the bottom of every record, should you need it, to ask a reference question. For more information on searching the collections, click here.

A digital collection highlighting Schinkel’s creativity

The Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz now hosts an online catalogue of their significant collection of drawings, watercolors, gouaches and prints by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841). The project, Das Erbe Schinkels (Schinkel’s Legacy) contains almost 6,500 entries. Users can search either in English or German, including Iconclass and bibliography keywords. The project, developed in part with the exhibition Karl Friedrich Schinkel. History and Poetry (7 September 2012 – 6 January 2013 at Kupferstichkabinett im Kulturforum, Berlin), also aims to fit works within both a timeline of Schinkel’s artistic techniques and preferred materials as well as the broader issue of long-term user access.

Rijksmuseum launches its collection digitally in Rijksstudio

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam now offers RijksStudio, a vast and ground-breaking online presentation of 125,000 works in its collection. The site, which is a “prelude” to the physical museum’s reopening April 13, 2013, contains high resolution images with which users “can do whatever they like”: create your own printed creations or collect and share image sets. If you’re bored merely searching or browsing the collection, try the Master Matcher, which creates sets based on selected criteria groups like cities, character types and colors. All these projects can be created only when you register for your own “studio.”

Courtauld hosts Gothic Ivories Project

The Courtauld Institute of Art has launched the Gothic Ivories Project, an online database of over 2800 images of ivory sculptures made in Western Europe between ca. 1200-ca. 1530 (with some neo-Gothic pieces as well). Search specifics, browse works by keyword, location and type, or visit the informational pages for site tips and tools. Additionally, when you become a registered user you can create private or public image folders of your favorite works. Many objects have multiple views and extensive entries.

More good news in digital art history publications: MetPublications

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made nearly 650 titles published from 1964 to the present available online, which “offers unparalleled in-depth access to the Museum’s renowned print and online publications, covering art, art history, archaeology, conservation, and collecting.” This will be is a huge boost for researchers, who can browse sections dedicated to the most recent, favorite, notable titles, or by themes and departments, as well as search particular titles or by keywords. Current in-print titles may be previewed and fully searched online (with links to purchase the books), while 368 of their publications are now freely available in digital form, where they may be read and searched online or downloaded as a PDF.  Many of their earlier catalogues that were extremely hard to find in print are now in complete electronic form. Explore their holdings here at MetPublications.

Prado’s entire Goya collection now available online

The Museo Nacional del Prado has launched a new website dedicated to beautiful digital images of their entire collection of works and documents by and about Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes. Goya en el Prado (available only in Spanish) is divided by medium, then subject, and entries for a few paintings offer supplemental technical examination images. The site also includes biographical and bibliographical information, including a digital library of 35 full-text copies of reference material.

via artdaily