Art.sy

Art.sy is a recommendation engine a la Pandora or RDIO, but for the visual arts. Melena Ryzik, in The New York Times:

An extensive free repository of fine-art images and an online art appreciation guide, it is predicated on the idea that audiences comfortable with image-driven Web sites like Tumblr and Pinterest are now primed to spend hours browsing through canvases and sculpture on their monitors and tablets, especially with one-click help.

• [niktemadur]

  Hmmm… something like this and in “Related Artworks” or “Visually Similar”, nothing by Clifford Still…  Ah! “There are no Clyfford Still works on Art.sy yet”.

  OMG, they’ve got one of the Picabia nudes!

  You know, the visual archive seems to be quite extensive, thanks for the tip.

• [David Wattenbarger]

  here is the NY Times link referenced:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/arts/design/artsy-is-mapping-the-world-of-art-on-the-web.html?smid=pl-share

• [wss233]

  Except people are not going to be “browsing through canvases and sculptures on their monitors.” What a weird sentence. They’re going to be looking at reproductions of those things. It’s nice that people will be able to browse reference images, but digital photos can’t replace actually looking at art objects irl, especially when those objects (like a painting) are geared towards close looking in person. Maybe Art.Sy should think about hosting artworks specifically designed to be viewed on the web…

  • [niktemadur]

    While I agree that nothing can replace being in the physical presence of the artwork, there is one very nice advantage to looking at paintings in a monitor:  the image is backlit, which makes the colors come alive in a whole other way.

• [jetson joe]

  It is totally awesome for visual artists, students and anyone interested in the arts. So much lies below the surface upon exploration…large format images of the artwork is truly wonderful. It has an extensive visual collection and growing…and oh so relevant to today’s art world. 
  Highly recommend to visit and stay awhile.  

• [Ian Arnold]

  I’ve been in the beta for this for about 6 months. I’m excited to see they have gone live with it and have found it extremely useful in expanding my knowledge of artists. It has had a very large effect on my personal artwork.

  As for the comment about not being the same as seeing something in person, I agree. But, for someone who can not travel, like myself, it is an incredible resource to see high res images of a lot of artwork that I would never have access to in my local galleries and museums.