Art Authority Blog
A sign of the Times
As you may have heard, Art Authority was featured in an article on “Applied Reading” in the New York Times Book Review last Sunday. The article begins by pointing out how “electronic textbooks” are “more effective” as learning tools than traditional paper-based solutions:
“Who wants merely… to squint at a tiny printed reproduction of a still life by Pieter Claesz — an artist who was sharing pictures of food centuries before Instagram was invented — instead of popping open a full-screen version to better study the composition?”
The article serves as a perfect example of its own point. In the print (“treeware”) version of the Times, the article includes, quite literally, “a tiny printed reproduction of a still life by Pieter Claesz” (as shown in Art Authority for iPad).
There is a fundamental defect in the printed version of the paper however, which prevents you from “popping open a full-screen version to better study the composition.” You can however do this in the online version of the article (and as part of this post as well). And of course you do it even better in the app itself.
The fact that an electronic version of a Book Review article is fundamentally better than a print version of the same article is certainly a sign of the Times. As we think is Art Authority. Thank you New York Times for making your (and our) point so well!
Paintings stolen from the Gardner Museum, Real Size
Earlier this year, the FBI put together a Web site to ask for help recovering paintings stolen 23 years earlier from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. A big piece of the Web site is a slide show of those works.
But, as is almost always the case, it’s very hard to get a feel for the size of works of art when shown online. For instance the fact that the stolen Rembrandt self-portrait is little bigger than your thumb.
With Art Authority for iPad’s new “Art Real Size” feature, now you can easily get that important feel.
We’ve also put together a video similar to the FBI’s, showing how the works appear in Art Authority for iPad.
The main reason we designed and implemented Art Real Size is to help people better understand and connect with works of art by better understanding the real size of those works. In this case, perhaps Art Real Size will also contribute in some small way to the works’ recovery and re-introduction into the art world, so people can once again see them real size for real. Here’s hoping anyway.
Changes in Art Authority for iPad 4.8
Art Authority for iPad 4.8 is a major new release of our #1 classic art viewing app. It adds the groundbreaking “Art Real Size” feature, along with some changes in the way you get around. For long-time Art Authority for iPad users, we thought we’d list the getting-around changes you might want to be aware of. When we went to add the cool “Art Real Size”, we realized that the way people got around within the various “shows” could use some improvement, particularly when viewing framed art (which is where you get to “Art Real Size” as well as “Art Like This”). So we replaced the gear button in that view with a pull-down menu, and made a few other changes as well. Here’s a list:
- The gear button is replaced with a pull-down menu, which is used to get to the thumbnail grid, “Art Like This” and the new “Art Real Size”
- A single tap on the framed work of art also gets you to “Art Real Size”. Another single tap will get you back.
- Double-tap, or pinch-zoom, on the framed work takes you to the full-screen view (even if viewing “Art Real Size”)
- In addition to flicking, you can now go to the previous or next work of art by tapping the very left or very right of the screen (as you do in the iBooks app)
- If you want to go to the first work in a show, tap above the filmstrip and then tap the first image in the filmstrip.
- You can of course push the pull-down menu up out of the way when you’re not using it.
An additional nice new feature in Art Authority for iPad 4.8 is that you can now flick from room to room. So for instance, flick left to go from the main room to the Early room. Then from Early to Renaissance. Etc. Check the Art Authority for iPad Users Guide for all the details of getting around Art Authority for iPad.
Size Matters
Today we’re introducing a new feature in Art Authority for iPad. We think it’s a meaningful and groundbreaking one. It’s called “Art Real Size.”
Traditionally, when works of art are reproduced in books, posters, Web sites and yes, even apps, they’re usually displayed as large as possible. Art Authority, as well as some other sites and apps, have supplemented this type of display with, for instance, a grid of small images (thumbnails) that includes similar works by the same artist or from the same period. Art Authority for iPad also displays the works framed and hanging on the walls of its professionally designed rooms, one of its most popular features.
Until now however, all these different ways of displaying the art overlooked one key fact: different works of art have different sizes. We all showed each work of art at essentially the same size as all the other works. Art Authority for iPad’s 65,000 paintings and sculptures all showed up at about 7 by 5 inches on an iPad in “full-screen view”, 5 x 4 when hanging on a wall, and less than an inch square when in a thumbnail grid. We just haven’t been showing you the whole picture!
It’s true we, and many other sites, have a caption, which might say a work is 182.9 x 243.9 cm, or 9 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. But that really doesn’t mean anything to most people looking at the image, does it? “Art Real Size” gives real meaning to the real size of a work of art.
So how does Art Real Size accomplish its magic? It would be quite a feat to display most works of art real size on a 7 x 5 inch iPad screen (where is that holographic technology from Star Wars when you really need it?). But by adapting an old trick to a new device, we can do almost as well. In this case a picture is probably worth even more than a thousand words, so here are some examples:
We’ve also created a video, worth a thousand pictures.
See how well it works! You now “get” the whole picture. The people viewing the art provide the context needed for our brain to immediately understand the real size of the works. You can see what you’ve been missing! If you had gone to the Louvre and looked at the Mona Lisa, and then walked down the hall to The Raft of the Medusa, you couldn’t have missed this HUGE difference. But if you hadn’t, with just about any other presentation, you wouldn’t have had a clue. That’s what Art Real Size is all about.
And that’s what Art Authority is all about. Making a difference. As the #1 classic art app out there, we’ve been doing that for five years now. Art Real Size is just our latest and greatest.
Art Real Size is available in Art Authority for iPad 4.8, in the App Store today. And it’s on sale for half-price to celebrate! Updates from previous versions are of course free. Check it out, and see how size matters.
Must-See Works of Art at the Louvre, Real Size
Last year, the Huffington post ran an article and slide show celebrating the Louvre’s 219th anniversary. We thought for its 220th (August 10, 2013) we’d take advantage of Art Authority for iPad’s new “Art Real Size” feature to show you what that article, and almost all representation of art to date, are missing.
We’ve also posted a similar video.