Google and Seventeen International Museums Unveil the Art Project

Today Google unveiled the Art Project, a unique collaboration with some of the world's most acclaimed museums. This initiative enables the public to explore more than a thousand masterpieces with just a click of a mouse. Over the last eighteen months, Google has worked with seventeen art museums, including The Frick Collection and three other US institutions (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, in New York and, the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, in Washington D.C.), to create an online resource where visitors can explore museums from around the world, discover and view works of art at very powerful zoom levels, and even create and share their own virtual collections of masterpieces. The results of this global partnership can be explored at googleartproject.com.

Four hundred and eighty-six artists are represented in the project, with the Frick contributing works from its Permanent Collection by Bellini, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Ingres, and Renoir, and others. Comments Anne L. Poulet, Director of The Frick Collection, "We are delighted to be among the international group of museums participating in this groundbreaking collaboration with Google. The Art Project represents an exciting synthesis of art and technology, which will enhance the ways one can access and experience masterworks in great public collections while providing individuals and educators with new tools for sharing their impressions and discoveries."

Key Features of the Project
Virtual museum tour: This feature allows the Art Project site visitors to virtually navigate through the galleries of a museum using Street View "indoor" technology. Additionally, the user can learn more about artworks of interest and view them at closer range than is possible during a museum visit by using a mouse to dive deeper into the high-resolution images provided. The information panel next to the image allows visitors to find additional examples by the artist and watch related videos created exclusively for the Art Project by curators of each participating museum.

Super high-resolution feature artworks: Each of the seventeen museums selected one artwork to be photographed in extraordinary detail using super high-resolution or "gigapixel" photo-capturing technology. Each such image contains up to 14 billion pixels, enabling the viewer to study details of the brushwork and patina beyond that possible with the naked eye. For this groundbreaking element of the Art Project, the Frick selected its iconic St. Francis in the Desert, by Giovanni Bellini. In heretofore unimaginable detail, visitors can explore this remarkable late Renaissance panel painting, observing in sharp focus not only the central figure, but the brushstrokes used to depict nearby animals, plants, and objects such as the skull and sandals. For a masterpiece so finely painted and rich in meaning, it is an exciting new opportunity. In addition, the Frick and other museums provided high-resolution images of other holdings, creating with Google an image library that totals more than one thousand zoomable works of art. Site visitors may now discover details never before seen in favorites such as Rembrandt's Self-Portrait of 1658 and Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl, both at the Frick.

Curate your own collection: The "Create an Artwork Collection" feature allows users to save specific views of any of more than one thousand artworks and to build their own personalized collections for viewing online. Comments can be added to each painting's page, and the resulting annotated selection can then be shared with friends, family members, colleagues, and others. Indeed, it's an ideal tool for museum educators, teachers, students, and anyone interested in the arts that may benefit from collaborative projects and dialogues.

List of Participating Museums

Altes Nationalgalerie, Berlin - Germany
The Freer Gallery of Art Smithsonian, Washington D.C. - USA
The Frick Collection, NYC - USA
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin - Germany
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC - USA
MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC - USA
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid - Spain
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid - Spain
Museum Kampa, Prague - Czech Republic
National Gallery, London - UK
Palace of Versailles - France
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - The Netherlands
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg - Russia
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow - Russia
Tate Britain, London - UK
Uffizi, Florence - Italy
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - The Netherlands

Art Project by the Numbers
11 cities, 9 countries
17 museums
17 "gigapixel" pictures
385 gallery rooms
486 artists
1,062 high-resolution artwork images
More than 6,000 Street View "panoramas"