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Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

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Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#41
post #8

This is quite an amazing collection, and great for archiving purposes. But, (I can't help myself), I am conflicted about the digitization of museums/artists/artworks. Seeing a work of art, let alone one of the greats, is something that should be experienced in person. Reducing it to pixels for instant digestion is a sub-optimal way to experience it. Granted, this is amazing to research and exposure, and for distribut…

I kind of disagree - many paintings are actually better experienced on print or online than in real life. Just take your example of Mona Lisa - you will get a better impression of the art from a good reproduction than from watching it behind glass surrounded by hordes of tourists at the Louvre. It is a relatively small painting and you can't even get close! Many classic paintings are awkwardly placed with bad lightin…

I don't disagree but don't fully agree... Paintings can't be experienced in print the same as in close proximity to the original. You're right that in most cases for renown art you'd better of just just studying a good reproduction rather than have to wait in line and not being able to have some intimacy with it, a quiet study , some rflection... The setting is equally important in how you experience the work. You have to admit though that it's not the same thing, the layers of pigments them at different densities and with different strokes cannot be reproduced identically, not even close(maybe one day with 3d printers). Of course, this all depends on the artwork. Some get their point across at low res too..

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#42

This is quite an amazing collection, and great for archiving purposes. But, (I can't help myself), I am conflicted about the digitization of museums/artists/artworks. Seeing a work of art, let alone one of the greats, is something that should be experienced in person. Reducing it to pixels for instant digestion is a sub-optimal way to experience it. Granted, this is amazing to research and exposure, and for distribut…

There is the aspect that if you want to study the artist (rather than individual works), then having access to such huge body of their work is immensely useful and can provide great context for individual works. This is something that would be very difficult to achieve without these sorts digitization efforts.

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#43
I wonder how they are colormanaging these? I sure hope only the web versions are (presumably) sRGB, and they have wide-gamut versions for other uses, especially for their prints. I imagine they do, they are professionals after-all, and the collection and digitization overall seems pretty well done.

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#44

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone here have experience buying reproduction prints of public domain works online? I've been meaning to get a print of a Pieter Claesz piece, but with so many different websites and options I've succumb to analysis paralysis. Any tips?

I've ordered from art.com in the past and they seem to have some of the artist's works that you're looking for.

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#45

As nice as this is, it would have been even better if they’d used an understandable CC licence instead of the custom non-commercial sub-A4 one they’ve decided on. There are at least a couple of museums now that have licenced their entire digital artworks as CC0[1][2], and I’ve been talking to Munchmuseet in Oslo recently who are planning to licence their entire new digitised collection[3] as CC4 (free use with attrib…

As it so happens, I'm building a side project centered around cataloging art. I'm curious - what is "Hathi"?

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#46

As nice as this is, it would have been even better if they’d used an understandable CC licence instead of the custom non-commercial sub-A4 one they’ve decided on. There are at least a couple of museums now that have licenced their entire digital artworks as CC0[1][2], and I’ve been talking to Munchmuseet in Oslo recently who are planning to licence their entire new digitised collection[3] as CC4 (free use with attrib…

As it so happens, I'm building a side project centered around cataloging art. I'm curious - what is "Hathi"?

Oh sorry, should have linked: https://hathitrust.org . It’s a super-comprehensive set of book and magazine scans. Think Google Books, but with actual content and a proper advanced search.

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#47

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone here have experience buying reproduction prints of public domain works online? I've been meaning to get a print of a Pieter Claesz piece, but with so many different websites and options I've succumb to analysis paralysis. Any tips?

There is nothing like the real thing. I tried a high-quality print of a work where the foreground was cutouts glued to the background, thinking that the lack of detail would the difference unnoticeable, but it still lacked everything that made the original special. That's the problem with prints of artwork: The first 99% is a nice picture, it's the last 1% that is the genius. Lots of people can play the notes John Coltrane played, but they are missing that 1% (a different take, I suppose, on 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration).

You can find places that make sell actual oil paintings that reproduce originals - i.e., they hire an artist to reproduce the original. It's not a scam; I don't think they put the original signature on. I haven't tried one and, as you might surmise, I'm not optimistic. Maybe I'll try something technically simple, such as a Miro. It's the only way I'll ever get to see a Miro in my living room.

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#48
What I like about his artworks is the rough texture of his oil painting. I mean, these paintings are not just 2D pictures and their 3D aspects (e.g. texture and depth of the paint) tell much more. I hope digitization technology would be improved.

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#49

Oh, but I long for visiting this and other museums in VR. Real soon now, I guess.

Street View has 2,362 museums (including this one) which you can look at with a vive, oculus or daydream. Or do you want 3D scans?

https://artsandculture.google.com/theme/igKSKBBnEBSGKg

https://artsandculture.google.com/search/streetview?project=...

https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/van-gogh-museum

https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/palace-of-versaill... look at the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_of_Mirrors

There's a Daydream app for looking at paintings scanned by Google https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr..... You'll need the $100 headset and a Pixel or some other compatible phone.

Google's collection is large but nowhere near exhaustive. I think some paintings are over 100,000 pixels across. In my opinion virtual reality doesn't add much. It's blurry. If you have a good monitor the website is better

https://artsandculture.google.com/favorite/group/fAKyrWQ7SlX...

Wikimedia Commons has hundreds of scans for some artists

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_by_art...

Re: Nearly 1,000 Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh Digitized and Put Online

#50

This is quite an amazing collection, and great for archiving purposes. But, (I can't help myself), I am conflicted about the digitization of museums/artists/artworks. Seeing a work of art, let alone one of the greats, is something that should be experienced in person. Reducing it to pixels for instant digestion is a sub-optimal way to experience it. Granted, this is amazing to research and exposure, and for distribut…

I agree, no amount of flat mega-pixels is going to map a real feeling of the physical art. But the art also gets popular and that means queues, selfies, noise, pushy crowd, security, glass. I dream one day there will be decent technology to experience the art remotely and alone with all senses, kind of VR where you will be able to see all dimensions, brush shades, surface roughness, reflections, touch and feel the material, in the surrounding and companion of your choice.
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