An Online Museum?

For any art lover who has yet to experience art.sy, I plead you to log on and register for what may be the holy grail of art repositories. The website is an online collection of both current artwork and the masters’. With the ability to follow certain artists you can build your own library of art work – scrolling through the website and building your personal art collection (mine includes Banksy, Van Gogh, Matisse, and Pollack…among 25 other artists!) In addition to having the ability to buy current works, the website also sends daily inspiration to one’s inbox with high-res images and updates on works and artists.

This website marks a trend in the art world, one where digitization is becoming the norm. Inarguably, something is lost when images are transcribed online – no photograph can possibly render the beauty and power that one feels when they are face-to-face with a work of art. Some art feigns would even argue that the putting of images online distorts the works.

Yet, I beg to differ. Often, while sitting in class, I am wishing I could be in Manhattan, strolling through the halls of MoMA or the Met. However, this is an impossibility while stuck here in Ann Arbor. So, the next best thing (I figure!) is having my own online museum to get lost in – to spend hours scrolling through the gorgeous images that I wish I was able to see and surround myself by in person. While an online museum of sorts may not be the artists’ idea way of displaying their work, it is the perfect solution for those who are unable to spend hours losing themselves in a museum. The transportability and transience of an online art museum is, I’d say, pretty invaluable.