If museum-going is a favorite pastime of yours, you’re probably languishing in your inability to fulfill your passion right about now. On the other hand, you might not live close to any major cities with desirable museums, in which case, closures aren’t the only things stopping you from enjoying a quiet stroll through the galleries. If either of these situations are yours, there is a small bit of luck to alleviate your misfortunes: with museum closures preventing visitors from coming into their buildings to view exhibitions, they have taken to the internet to bring the exhibitions to the viewers.
George IV: Art and Spectacle at the Royal Collection Trust
You may or may not be aware that as well as being the UK’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth II is also the owner of one of the largest and most important art collections in the world. The result of centuries of additions by the various rulers of Great Britain, the massive art collection is cared for by the Royal Collection Trust, which is funded through tours of royal residences like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and Clarence House. While these impressive dwellings are closed to the public, the Trust is offering a virtual experience of the exhibition currently housed in the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. George IV: Art and Spectacle celebrates the reign of George IV, whose extravagance led to controversy and a dazzling collection of art. The online exhibition includes detailed images and descriptions of artworks and objects, short films about objects and George IV’s influence in the art and architecture worlds, and a virtual tour of the exhibition space.
Walk Through British Art at The Tate Museum
London’s Tate Galleries offer visitors free access to the best of British art, with displays spanning periods of art from the 16th century to the present day. While the physical museum is currently closed, the Tate’s collection is not completely inaccessible. Online galleries of the Walk Through British Art rooms are available to view, including high resolution images of paintings and information about each piece. Whether you’re interested in early portraiture, continentally-influenced landscapes, or works by the iconoclastic Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, you can view artwork and learn more about it in pages for each period. After you’ve examined the galleries to your heart’s content, check out the Tate’s articles, videos, and artist interviews on their Art and Artists page.
Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins at the J. Paul Getty Museum
Maybe you remember learning about “The Fertile Crescent” and “The Cradle of Civilization” in elementary school; those vague phrases are brought to life in this exhibition developed through a partnership of the Louvre in Paris and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins explores the cultures of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians between 3100 BC and 331 BC, starting with the rise of Mesopotamian culture with the first cities, on through the dominance of its golden era, and on to its wane with the conquest of Alexander the Great. Items include sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and examples of cuneiform writing, the world’s first written language. You can explore the exhibit through pictures, written descriptions, and even an audio tour. After you’ve explored the virtual Mesopotamia exhibition, take a look at the Getty’s other online resources, including more online exhibitions, art books, a podcast, and a YouTube channel.
Courses at the Museum of Modern Art
Even though the MoMA can’t bring people and art together in person right now, they are continuing to educate art lovers and neophytes through modern art courses. The courses, which include topics including “What is Contemporary Art,” “Modern Art & Ideas,” “Seeing Through Photographs,” “Fashion as Design,” and much more are completely free and accessible online. They are made up of videos, articles, and reading quizzes, and are delivered through the online learning site Coursera. A free Coursera account is all that you need to access them. Once you’ve enrolled, you can work through each week’s lessons at your own pace.
See the Collections and Galleries of Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi
Florence’s Uffizi Gallery is perhaps best known for its stunning collection of paintings by the great Renaissance artists, but it also includes paintings spanning the Medieval to Modern periods and ancient Roman sculptures owned by the Medici family. To complete the picture of Italian splendor, the collection is housed in a beautiful Renaissance building dating from the mid-sixteenth century. Though we unfortunately can’t wander the Uffizi ourselves right now, the gallery has provided a virtual walk through their painting-hung halls, as well as closer looks at their artworks, from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Titian’s Venus of Urbino. You can also take a deeper dive into subjects of themed collections of pieces with commentary and read articles from the Magazine.
I hope you enjoy exploring these virtual exhibitions! We’re very fortunate that this time of social distancing is also the age of the internet, and that museums are taking advantage of technology to keep us entertained and engaged, even though we can’t be there in person. While web pages can’t entirely capture the experience of being there in person, they can give us a little something to enjoy until we can go back.
Let me know if you want more art in your life – there are a lot more virtual exhibitions out there that I can tell you about!
