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Spectator
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
What's wrong with taking selfies in galleries?
There is nothing more glorious than an art gallery selfie. In the same way that hearing someone mispronounce Van Gogh lets you know you're dealing with an autodidact (the best!), so a gallery selfie suggests someone who doesn't quite belong in that space: someone who is ignorant of the etiquette of the art world and who is enjoying themselves because of, not despite, that. Complaining about taking selfies in galleries is so obviously a class thing (not to mention an age thing). Which is why it's so charming to see Tate Britain's director Alex Farquharson (whose name does not make him sound like a class warrior) enthuse about encouraging visitors to take 'Instagrammable pictures' of the gallery's work in an effort to entice tourists in. The rest of the art world is appalled, but I stand with Farquharson. Madrid's Prado Museum and New York's Frick Collection already ban visitors from taking photographs with phones. The director of Florence's Uffizi is threatening action against visitors 'coming to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media' after a man became so enraptured by Anton Domenico's portrait of Ferdinando de' Medici he tried to recreate the Tuscan prince's jaunty pose and accidentally fell backwards, tearing the 18th-century canvas. Surely that accident isn't nearly as offensive as the Just Stop Oil cretins deliberately spraying masterpieces with soup. While JSO's actions stink of entitlement, of Phoebes so spoilt by access to art they don't care if they stop everyone else seeing it, by contrast there's something rather sweet about someone so excited by encountering a painting for the first time that they're overcome by the desire to be part of it. Sure, selfie snappers can be irritating. I've sat in the Rothko room at the Tate irked at having my melancholy shattered by cheerful influencers pouting in front of the Seagram murals. And thought how ironic it was – since Rothko so despised the fashionable crowds he thought would see the painting at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York (which the series was commissioned for) that he decided 'to paint something that will ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room'. Still, such self-snappers are no more ignorant than the curators who once accidentally hung two of the Tate's Rothko paintings upside down. I've waited impatiently at the National Gallery for tourists to stop photographing their own faces so I might catch a glimpse of 'Sunflowers' and wondered what Van Gogh would think. Although given he was so frustrated by his obscurity he cut his own ear off, I suspect he might find the attention rather thrilling. After all, weren't his self-portraits just selfies in oil? And isn't all art some form of narcissism? Or masturbation, as Duchamp's 'Paysage Fautif' attests. There's something rather sweet about someone so excited by encountering a painting for the first time that they're overcome by the desire to be part of it I get a kick from how gallery selfies offer an original perspective on work. After the Carters (Beyonce and Jay-Z) used the Louvre to shoot their music video 'Apeshit' (watched more than 287 million times on YouTube), the gallery broke all ticket office sales records. But as interesting was how Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's choreography of that video cast new light on the gallery's collection, seen through a prism of power and race. The video's opening shot of the couple, posing either side of the 'Mona Lisa' in coordinated pastel suits, resumes at the end with them turning to face Da Vinci's portrait, establishing themselves as both on par with, and consumers of, the work. The selfie similarly shatters the barriers between high and low art. I frequently post gallery pictures on Instagram. I don't buy the idea taking pictures kills the moment; rather it cements it. Research by the Association for Psychological Science confirmed taking photos of an experience enhanced memories of visual encounters. In one experiment, researchers sent participants to tour a museum exhibition of Etruscan artefacts, allowing some to take cameras. Tested after about what they'd seen, it was those who'd taken photographs who remembered the objects most. Farquharson recognises this. 'I think it [a photograph] is a really important aide-mémoire for people… as much as our curators curate, our visitors curate too,' he said. Indeed, gallery photography has democratised art collecting, once exclusively a hobby for the super-wealthy. These days there are online curators such as Love Watts aka Jordan Watson, a New Yorker from Queens who built his 'collection' and reputation on Instagram by sharing images he liked. Now an international curator credited with disrupting and democratising the art world, his gallery-cum-club at Glastonbury Festival, Terminal 1, encouraged festival-goers to rave among artworks. You could miserably say gallery selfies are vapid, or you could embrace people sharing something they love. I plump for the latter because art after all was made to be seen. Clever curators know this, creating exhibitions with selfies in mind. At Frieze, a mirrored version of Time magazine's cover begged viewers to take a picture with themselves in the frame. The recent Electric Dreams exhibition at the Tate had a noticeably selfie vibe to its installations, and watching people snap pictures of themselves at the National Gallery's Face magazine show reminded me that whatever new thing young people do is always the object of derision before the mainstream co-opts it. Perhaps the ultimate example of the selfie being subsumed into art is Richard Prince's Instagram paintings, works made from selfies he took from other people's Instagram accounts – sparking a row over ownership and prompting model Emily Ratajkowski (whose own Instagram selfie was nicked) to write an essay questioning who owned her image. In a move she insisted was reclaiming it, she posed for a 'selfie' in front of Prince's picture of her picture, then sold an NFT of it. If Andy Warhol was still alive, he'd be equally selfie-obsessed.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
To A-Listers, Private Museum Photoshoots Are Priceless Works of Art
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On average, roughly 11,500 people visit Madrid's Prado Museum each day. Yet "Houdini" singer Dua Lipa cast a spell to clear the entire gallery holding Hieronymus Bosch's late-fourteenth century triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights in mid-May, all in service of an Instagram dump. In one shot, she pensively stares at the painting with her back to the camera, flaunting Dilara Findikoglu's "Napoleon" capri pants and matching lace-up top. In another video, she walks in front of the camera recording the Dutch painter's arguably most famous masterpiece to stick out her tongue (and flash a studded Bottega Veneta bag). Dua's trip to the Prado is the latest in a list of gallery visits by celebs for whom Met Gala bathroom selfies feel been there, done that. With the frontiers of private islands and Monaco superyachts all over-photographed, A-listers from Kendall Jenner to Katy Perry seem to have had no choice but to shell out for private tours of the world's most revered art collections in service of vacation 'fit pics. They're presumably taking in the art, too, but we followers see only what celebrities want us to see: a famous painting free of shoulder-to-shoulder crowds and cellphones held high. It's the pseudo-intellectual cousin of the celebrity Halloween costume photoshoots that roll around every October. Only instead of orchestrating makeup, backdrops, and props from an LA studio, they're reserving dedicated face time with the Mona Lisa. (She usually accepts up to 25,000 visitors a day, but Jenner and Bad Bunny got her all to themselves on one of their Paris date nights.) In Kendall Jenner's version of the Night at the Museum photoshoot, Da Vinci's iconic work and The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese were cast as backdrops to her custom matching set and The Row clutch. With the outfits in the foreground, followers can instantly look up what their favorite stars wore (oftentimes, rare vintage or off-the-runway designer items). But if they want more info on the priceless works in the background, they're out of luck. Celebs will show you where they went, but they won't say what they learned with their private guide. The pieces they're choosing for a lap through the galleries hardly resemble typical Euro summer vacation gear, either. For everyday travelers, art museums are an all-day itinerary item requiring 10,000 step-proof sneakers and comfy pants. Celebrities are most likely beelining to the biggest works for their photos and heading to an exclusive dinner; pointed-toe pumps by The Attico or strappy The Row heels meet their personal dress codes. Once again, they're one percent masters at work. The celebrity art museum photoshoot is maybe just the A-list's form of a souvenir we all recognize. Who isn't guilty of turning around in front of a timeless artifact, monument, or Michelangelo statue and asking for an "I was here" photo? Then again, celebrities have never been typical tourists. And if we want the same shot, we'll have a lot of other travelers to photoshop out of the frame.
CNA
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Spain returns artwork seized during Civil War
MADRID: Spain on Thursday (May 22) returned paintings belonging to a former Madrid mayor that were seized for their protection during the 1936-39 Civil War and never returned under Francisco Franco's dictatorship. The seven paintings had been kept in several museums throughout Spain, including the Prado Museum in Madrid, where the handover ceremony to the family of Pedro Rico, Madrid's mayor as the Civil War broke out, took place on Thursday evening. In 2022, the Prado published a list of artworks that had been seized during the war and set up a research project to track down their legitimate owners. The government has identified more than 6,000 items, including jewellery, ceramics and textiles, as well as some paintings, sculptures and furniture, which were safeguarded during the war by Republican forces fighting Franco's Nationalists and never returned by Francoist institutions when he came to power. "It's a very important moment of justice and reparation that the Spanish government is doing for their families," said Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun. The paintings returned to Rico's family nine decades later were mainly scenes of everyday life by 19th-century artists such as Eugenio Lucas and his son Lucas Villaamil. Francisca Rico said she was very moved by the restitution of the paintings belonging to her grandfather, who was mayor between 1931-1934 and then in 1936 and who died in exile in France.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Spain returns artwork seized during Civil War
MADRID (Reuters) -Spain on Thursday returned paintings belonging to a former Madrid mayor that were seized for their protection during the 1936-39 Civil War and never returned under Francisco Franco's dictatorship. The seven paintings had been kept in several museums throughout Spain, including the Prado Museum in Madrid, where the handover ceremony to the family of Pedro Rico, Madrid's mayor as the Civil War broke out, took place on Thursday evening. In 2022, the Prado published a list of artworks that had been seized during the war and set up a research project to track down their legitimate owners. The government has identified more than 6,000 items, including jewellery, ceramics and textiles, as well as some paintings, sculptures and furniture, which were safeguarded during the war by Republican forces fighting Franco's Nationalists and never returned by Francoist institutions when he came to power. "It's a very important moment of justice and reparation that the Spanish government is doing for their families," said Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun. The paintings returned to Rico's family nine decades later were mainly scenes of everyday life by 19th-century artists such as Eugenio Lucas and his son Lucas Villaamil. Francisca Rico said she was very moved by the restitution of the paintings belonging to her grandfather, who was mayor between 1931-1934 and then in 1936 and who died in exile in France. "(They're ) finally doing what should have been done long ago," she said.
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Spain returns artwork seized during Civil War
Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture, gives a speech during a ceremony held by the Spanish government returning paintings stolen during the Spanish Civil War from Pedro Rico, former mayor of Madrid, to his family, at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Ana Beltran A person looks at paintings, stolen from former mayor of Madrid, Pedro Rico, during the Spanish Civil War, displayed before being returned to his family during a ceremony held by the Spanish government at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Ana Beltran A person looks at paintings, stolen from former mayor of Madrid, Pedro Rico, during the Spanish Civil War, displayed before being returned to his family during a ceremony held by the Spanish government at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Ana Beltran Francisca Rico, granddaughter of Pedro Rico, former Mayor of Madrid, attends a ceremony held by the Spanish government returning paintings stolen during the Spanish Civil War from Rico to his family, at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Ana Beltran Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture, gives a speech during a ceremony held by the Spanish government returning paintings to the family of Pedro Rico, former mayor of Madrid, stolen during the Spanish Civil War, at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Ana Beltran MADRID - Spain on Thursday returned paintings belonging to a former Madrid mayor that were seized for their protection during the 1936-39 Civil War and never returned under Francisco Franco's dictatorship. The seven paintings had been kept in several museums throughout Spain, including the Prado Museum in Madrid, where the handover ceremony to the family of Pedro Rico, Madrid's mayor as the Civil War broke out, took place on Thursday evening. In 2022, the Prado published a list of artworks that had been seized during the war and set up a research project to track down their legitimate owners. The government has identified more than 6,000 items, including jewellery, ceramics and textiles, as well as some paintings, sculptures and furniture, which were safeguarded during the war by Republican forces fighting Franco's Nationalists and never returned by Francoist institutions when he came to power. "It's a very important moment of justice and reparation that the Spanish government is doing for their families," said Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun. The paintings returned to Rico's family nine decades later were mainly scenes of everyday life by 19th-century artists such as Eugenio Lucas and his son Lucas Villaamil. Francisca Rico said she was very moved by the restitution of the paintings belonging to her grandfather, who was mayor between 1931-1934 and then in 1936 and who died in exile in France. "(They're ) finally doing what should have been done long ago," she said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
