Art.sy: For the art lover and the art interested

You know how Spotify and iTunes can tell the kind of music you might like based on previous purchases and listening habits? The same way Foursquare can tell you what restaurants you might like, ever wish there was a tool like that for art? Now there is and it’s called Art.sy.

Art.sy, is a genome project for art. Think Pandora for art. According to Pandodaily, the New York company has been building its art “database of tagged and categorized works of art” since 2010.

“Art.sy’s mission is to make all the world’s art freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. We believe that by bringing together art and science, Art.sy will foster new generations of art lovers, scholars, collectors, and patrons. Thank you for joining us in this ambitious mission,” says the site.

“After two years of private testing and with millions of dollars from investors, including some celebrities in the art and technology worlds, the site aims to do for visual art what Pandora did for music and Netflix for film: become a source of discovery, pleasure and education,” writes the new York Times.

It’s pretty easy to use, so you spend a few minutes customising your profile by selecting your favourite artist. So I typed in Paul Gauguin, it suggested that I might like Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne, which I do like. Users are then able to follow those artist’s profile which is a collection of their work. Users are also able to follow specific “genes” such as “Old Masters” which features the works of the likes of Nicolas Poussin, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and Bartolomeo Sanvito.

There is also the Modern and Impressionist art gene with Pablo Picasso, Édouard Manet and Gustav Klimt. Each painting has specific information such as artist, price, era and the museum it currently hangs.

In an effort to expose as many people to great works of art as possible, the site has partnered with more than 200 galleries, museums and estates around the world and has raised up to US$7-million in venture funding.

Currently, our growing collection comprises 17 000+ artworks by 3 000+ artists from leading galleries, museums, private collections, foundations, and artist estates. Art.sy works with 300+ of the world’s leading galleries, museums, private collections, foundations, and artist estates from New York to London, Paris to Shanghai, Johannesburg to São Paulo.

Art.sy’s team is made of art specialists who can offer advice to potential collectors who wish to purchase items that are up for sale by galleries and private collectors, computer scientists and museum curators.

The site’s design is rather artful, built with a an exhibit experience in mind, it has a very Pinterest like feel and it’s clean giving the user an uncluttered experience.

As part of the Genome project, the site allows users to discover art works through pre-selected characteristics.

“Art.sy creates new pathways for discovering art through 800+ characteristics (we call them “genes”). Users can discover works through connections between art-historical movements, subject matter, and formal qualities, creating infinite serendipitous opportunities for discovery and learning.”

Apparently not everyone is loving the idea that you can now browse the world foremost artists in one giant collection. Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art tells the New York Times that all this actually “depends so much on the information, who’s doing the selection, what the criteria are, and what the cultural assumptions behind those criteria are”.

It’s a very tech-savvy way to get people interested and keep them interested in art. Forget snobs drinking wine and arguing about Kandinksy’s Dreamy Improvisation in some dingy art appreciation meeting. Now it’s online for all the world to learn about.