Have you seen the Robert Bergman show, a friend enthusiastically asked me about the special exhibition of the photographer’s portraits at DC’s National Gallery of Art. I hadn’t, because I no longer travel to that part of the world as frequently. But that did not stop me from seeing it, as it were. I simply logged on to the museum website, where 13 of his works were on display. In that instant, I realised, I had slowly become an armchair art-viewer. I’d begun to see and read about global art online, instead of directly.
What’s new about this? Just one thing —more and more visuals and discussions are accessible online. If you want to know about the international art world, it isn’t really that difficult any more, and neither as expensive as buying guides is. Like everything else that’s linked to the world wide web, the barrier is knowing how exactly to manoeuvre yourself around online.
I haven’t mastered this as yet, but there are some things I’ve figured out.
Firstly, Google is not the answer. You have to be more specific than that. I depend on some of my favourite museums, to begin with. This includes all the usual suspects — Guggenheim in New York, The Corcoran and so on. Some are brilliant online (you can check out the new Burtynsky show at the Corcoran), and others guarded (the Francis Bacon show at the Met). If nothing else, you at least know about the big shows out there in the world.
Second, private galleries offer more interesting sites. Take an hour to swim around in the Saatchi Gallery — “the world’s interactive art gallery” (www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk) — which offers more than just its own fare. I found a catalogue essay of mine there before I had even set my eyes on the hard copy. That apart, it’s also bursting with reviews, news and all kinds of images.
If you enjoy Chinese contemporary art, then the site of the gallery, Chinese Contemporary (www.chinese-contemporary.com), makes for a good browse, although I miss the fact that they don’t have as much written up as I’d like to know. To follow contemporary Chinese, I also checked out China Square (www.chinasquareny.com) but my problem here is that it’s not as cutting edge as I’d like to see. In fact, that’s a hard one to come by — you can at best read about it, because a lot of really strong art is about creating experiences. How does the scale of work, or a video, or just performance, come alive online? Most honestly, it doesn’t, not even on cool gallery sites such as www.matthewmarks.com. For a simple system of updates, I depend on artknowledgenews.com.
Third, only a few Indian galleries really use their websites effectively. My favourite is Nature Morte (www.naturemorte.com). If I ever miss a show, I at least get a vague sense of it by logging on — they have shows from several seasons ago, all visually available. For me, it’s also a good way to research shifts within an artist’s works. And Chemould Prescott Road is excellent too (www.gallerychemould.com). Simply log in every now and then, and take a look.
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Yet I have a confession to make. I don’t think it’s good enough to see art online, and armchair viewing is only to avoid being ill informed. Every time I log on, I know a lot of what I like will never be online. But at least, from the descriptions and reviews, (https://bsmedia.business-standard.comartforum.com/ is a great one stop shop), I will know what I’m missing.