Another week, another packed schedule of walking from the bedroom to the living room…and not much of anywhere else. We get you. And with museums and galleries closed, everyone is having to adjust to new ways to get their art fix. So, we’ve corralled another group of online exhibitions and tools to see more art right from the comfort of your own living room.
Andy Warhol and Aubrey Beardsley at Tate Modern
The god of Pop art himself had barely got his 15 minutes of fame when the Tate Galleries were forced to close with the onset of the pandemic. In early April, Tate Modern released a curator narrated tour of the exhibition. The seven-minute long tour takes you through a collection of works by Warhol – some well-known and some more obscure. Curators Gregor Muir and Fiontán Moran talk through their intent behind the exhibition: to look at Warhol’s story of immigration, his LGBTQI identity, as well as Warhol’s ongoing relationship with death and religion.
Continue your visit to the Tate Modern with a peruse of the long-anticipated Aubrey Beardsley exhibition. Also led by Tate curators, this time Caroline Corbeau-Parsons and Alice Insley, the video tour highlights Beardsley’s “scandalous,” though short career and life. His illustrations, almost exclusively in black and white, were uncharacteristic for their Victorian time frame. Beardsley created thousands of drawings for series and publications of everything from erotic scenes of debauchery to depictions of fairy tales. The exhibition brings you closer to the artist who only lived 25 short years to better understand his inspiration and interests.
Have a little Rembrandt
If Old Masters are what you’re yearning for, there’s an entire website devoted to works by the Dutch artist. Called Rembrandt in Southern California, the website brings you just that: all the Rembrandts in Southern California’s institutions. The website is a collaborative project by the Hammer Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum, LA County Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Timken Museum of Art, that’s become a go-to site for high def images of some of Rembrandt’s works. The site brings together paintings and drawings by the artist, showing you his process and giving you a more in-depth understanding of and appreciation for his work.
Fancy a trip to Spain?
Don’t we all? Whether you’re in sunny Madrid, yourself, or thousands of miles away, you can take a virtual walk by many of the Prado’s famed masterpieces. The museum has an impressive online timeline that puts much of the museum’s collection in chronological order. Clicking through, you’re introduced to artworks by Goya, Velázquez, Bosch, and Rogier van der Weyden. From the timeline – which give unique context to the museum’s collection – you can read more about the paintings before you, see which paintings are hung together in the Prado’s galleries, and become more acquainted with one of the richest collections in the world.
Michelangelo and a tribute to Palmyra at the Getty
After running at the Cleveland Museum of Art between September 2019 and early January 2020, “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master,” an extensive survey of drawings by Michelangelo, was set to exhibit at the Getty Museum in California. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic brought that to a screeching halt, but, the Getty has now introduced the exhibition in an online version. Check out the exhibition overview to read more about the exhibition, which includes 50 drawings that were once part of the Queen of Sweden’s collection, or cycle through the online audio guide to learn more about the Italian artist’s methods and works.
The Getty has also brought another exhibition to your home: “The Legacy of Ancient Palmyra.” Palmyra was a three-mile stretch in the Tadmurean desert that was the a “meeting place” for various civilizations during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Over the coming centuries, the city fell into ruin and its picturesque decaying structures became a place of inspiration for explorers and artists. Through drawings, etchings, and photographs from the late 1700s onwards, the exhibition looks at its start as a place of pilgrimage as well as its history and its ongoing phases of disrepair. Highlighting the photography of Louis Vignes and drawings by 18th century architect Louis-François Cassas, the exhibition brings the past to your home.
