Piece from the Louis Vuitton Fondation MoMa temporary exhibition in Paris
Following the transformations that already occurred in both our public and private life, the advent of social media has modified the ways in which artists interact with each other, their public and the institutions that govern their careers. But the relationship between art and social media is complicated and might reveal something deeper than just a simple trend. Social media is redefining the art world. In recent years, it has had a profound impact on art institutions and visitors alike, influencing not just the marketing but also the creation of art itself.
In 2014, the Frye Art Museum created an entire exhibition called #SocialMedium, based on public votes from various social media. The most liked paintings from the museum’s Founding Collection were shown in the galleries along with the names and comments of nearly 4,500 people around the world who voted.
The campaign boosted the Frye’s social-media presence substantially, and now the museum has around 21,500 followers on Twitter, 13,500 followers on Instagram and 32,500 Facebook page likes.
The popularity of social media has also shaped the modern experience of visiting museums and galleries. Traditionally, art institutions have refused the idea of visitors taking photographs of exhibitions, mostly due to copyright concerns. Now, if a visitor attends an exhibition without snapping at least a few mobile-phone photos, it’s the exception rather than the rule. People will mediate their experience through their phones. They really become fixated on documenting their experience and it might take them out of the present moment. For art institutions evolving with technology and visitors’ tastes, it’s a delicate balance. Indeed, technology always shapes our lives. As always, we just have to learn to all be smart users of that technology so that it can really improve our experiences. Technology also offers unexplored artistic possibilities.
Besides, there are still countless other questions about how some social media especially Facebook and Instagram, may be quietly shaping the way art is produced and shown, perhaps even motivating artists and art institutions to feature work that looks attractive on digital platforms, even if it feels staged in real life. Certainly, social media can be a difficult space for artists to present ideas or images that lie outside the universe of sunsets on Parisian rooftops and cappuccinos.
As a matter of fact, Facebook's community standard does not allow photographs of nudity which clearly dismissed a lot of contemporary photographies. In January 2016, an image of Copenhagen's famous statue of The Little Mermaid by Edvard Eriksen, a century-old bronze inspired by the children's fairy tale, was removed from a Danish politician's Facebook feed for disrespecting the community standards.
Den Little Havfrue by Edvard Eriksen in Copenhagen
Obviously, if used and restricted without a single hint of common sense, social media can be a hindrance if not a threat to all types of art. Nevertheless, if it was truly impossible to associate these two, this blog wouldn’t even exist. Social media is a means which enables artists to enhance their performances, to conceive it from an utterly different perspective and even paved the way to a new form of art: digital art.
Learning so much by reading your articles ! You give me the envy to visit museums !
Great article. Make sure you link to important events or places or people, such as Frye Art Museum.