Five of the best Google Arts & Culture virtual collections for your coronavirus isolation
- The Google Arts & Culture platform features thousands of high-resolution images from more than 1,200 museums globally
- Best collections include those by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington
Coronavirus closures may mean months could pass before you can stand in front of a museum masterpiece again. In Hong Kong, for instance, all cultural venues were closed again this week after some were reopened earlier this month.
If you have time on your hands and a deep need for cultural sustenance and succour – be it for yourself or your children – it’s time to get familiar with Google Arts & Culture.
The project launched nearly a decade ago and has expanded exponentially. It now features thousands of high-resolution images from more than 1,200 museums globally, including the National Gallery in London, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
You can visit Google Arts & Culture as a website on your laptop or desktop, but the project is at its immersive best when engaged via the Google Arts & Culture app, which you can download for free on your smartphone or tablet.
The great joy is its ability to transport you into the textural world of a piece of art. Zoom in to brushstrokes, skate across oceans of colour or tap on the screen and explore the universe contained in the blue-green pigment of a single painted eye.