Web of Art

At the helm of affairs is London-based Amit Sood,who is head of googleartproject.com. Sood always found art absorbing and was fascinated by the e-world. “This has now worked out to create this art project,” says Sood. The project,which was initiated about two years ago,evolved when Sood started documenting his visits to museums online.

“But it took off,only when others at Google joined me. Together with our museum partners around the world,we decided to create an exhaustive resource for art lovers. It is our way to bridge the gap between those who want to visit these places but can’t,” says Sood.

There are various iconic works,like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Chris Ofili’s No Woman,No Cry,apart from French artist Paul Cezanne’s post-impressionist works. From the ceilings of Versailles to ancient Egyptian temples,a collection of James Whistler’s stylised butterfly paintings and Rembrandt’s works all over the globe,the tour will give you all.

“About 486 artists from around the world have been included. Done on high-resolution,the site enables one to study details of the brushwork and patina in detail,” says Sood. He also talks about the fine details that become clear online.

He points to a tiny Latin couplet,which appears in German Northern Renaissance style artist Hans Holbein Younger’s The Merchant Georg Gisze. It can be read by just increasing the size of the webpage. One can easily spot the people hidden behind the tree in Alexander Ivanov’s The Apparition of Christ to the People.

On the website,the info panel allows people to read about an artwork,find more works by that artist and watch related YouTube videos. As for their ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ feature,it allows users to save specific views of any 1,000 plus artwork and build their own personalised collection. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared.

“It’s our first step towards making

art more accessible and we hope to add more museums and works of art in time. India for now is high on our agenda,” says Sood,who,having moved out of

India in 1997,hopes the expansion

plans will see him reviving ties with

the country.