Now, no need to fly to Paris to experience The Louvre’s magic !

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

The Louvre — now at your fingertips!

The world’s most visited museum, France’s The Louvre, has just released an online platform featuring all of the museum’s artworks —  for free! This consists of over 480,000 pieces and showcases historic artworks that people from all over the world typically flock to this sprawling venue to witness. The website has an interactive map allowing room by room explorations and will be updated regularly as the collection expands. Meanwhile, the museum itself is undergoing renovations. CNN has more details.

‘The museum selfie can be art, too!’

A museum is a vibrant space, writes culture critic Kunal Ray, after a recent visit to the Museum of Goa near Saligao, and one decidedly mundane activity seems to unite the otherwise heterogenous mass of visitors — the act of clicking photographs. Not only do people tend to take photos of the art itself, but more often a selfie with the piece — and what could possibly be the reason? An archive? A social statement? An annoucement? A performance. Ray believes rather than sneer at it, this can be viewed as a participative process of engagement with art. He writes a column for Scroll.

Stolen by Nazis, Klimt masterpiece to be returned

For an artwork of such beauty, it has had a chequered past. But now, the French state plans to return a painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt — Rosiers sous les Arbres (Rose Bushes Under the Trees) — to the heirs of the Jewish family that was forced to sell it by the Nazis. And, it is a masterpiece worth well over 75 million pounds. France had bought the work, its only Klimt, in 1980 without realising its history. Behind it is the tragic love story of Eleonore (Nora) Stiasny and Philipp Häusler, who joined the Nazi party — and later, Stiasny was forced to sell this art at a throwaway price by the same party. The Sunday Times chronicles this saga.

Top artists create for a tiny gallery

An extraordinary line-up of British artists, including Damien Hirst, Tacita Dean, Edmund de Waal, Michael Craig-Martin, Maggi Hambling, Grayson Perry, John Akomfrah, Lubaina Himid and Rachel Whiteread, have miniaturised their art for a special showing. The Pallant House Gallery in West Sussex has invited over 30 leading British artists to make tiny works for a doll’s house-size exhibition, Masterpieces in Miniature. The artworks range from the size of a pound coin up to 20cm, but no bigger. The Guardian has the mini-scoop.

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