If you have even a casual interest in art, The National Gallery in London is one of the most spectacular places in the world to visit. It ‘s a magnificent building right in the center of London, that houses ‘one of the greatest collections of Western European painting in the world ‘.
Now there ‘s an iPhone app that lets you get a taste for this wonderful museum and the works displayed in it. It ‘s called Love Art: National Gallery, London “ and it is a great introduction to the gallery, and also a useful pocket companion if you ‘re planning to tour it. It offers video and audio with insight into the artists, the works, and the gallery itself, as well as image galleries and zoomable high-resolution images.
Here ‘s a quick slice from the App Store description for the app:
Explore the brushstrokes and hear the stories behind masterpieces by Leonardo, Renoir, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh, along with lesser known paintings and hidden gems. Listen to commentary and insight from famous artists, writers and experts who will take you on an incredible journey into art.
Love Art: National Gallery is “ fittingly “ a beautifully rendered application. The Welcome video is very well done, though it is very short on introduction and explanation and is much more of a stylized glimpse at the gallery
The images that have audio attached to them are excellent for learning more about individual works and techniques used on them
Navigation through the app is not as good as it could be, in my view. There are 3 nav buttons at the bottom of its main screen: Items, Insight, and Info. Items is the core of the program “ with sections divided by artist. Insight is a section full of slide shows with audio commentary, divided up by themes “ such as Beauty, Life, Triumph, Faith, Power, and many more. The Info section is just a single screen which lists the gallery ‘s opening hours, and a few other relevant details.
Others may disagree, but I ‘d like to see the Insight contents pulled into the main content area “ with perhaps an easy choice of browsing through by artist, or by theme.
My only other wish list item for the app is that it would be nice to have the artist / expert who is speaking identified in each of the videos / slide shows that feature audio.
Overall though, this is a gorgeous app, that I can see many good purposes for. If you ‘ve never been to The National Gallery but plan to go, this is a great Intro, and pocket companion while walking round it. If you have no desire or means to get to the gallery, then even as a standalone app this is very nice and well worth having. I have no plans for a further visit (I ‘ve been twice), and I am very much just a casual admirer of art, but I am enjoying getting to know this app better and better and will enjoy diving in and out of it for some time I ‘m sure.
It also strikes me as a good educational tool for art students of all ages.
This is certainly one app that I would love to see as the first in a series “ with others covering other great art museums round the world.
You can find Love Art: National Gallery, London in the App Store now, and it is a free app.
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TAGS: iphone apps, iPhone art apps
