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The Louvre in Paris, France, is one of the world's largest museums and it is the most visited art museum in the world.

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costume, drawings, pastels, watercolors, collages, prints, artists' books, photographs, and installation art are also regularly shown.^[1] Although primarily concerned with providing a space to show works of visual art, art galleries are sometimes used to host other artistic activities, such as performance art, music concerts, or poetry readings.

Types of galleries[link]

The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, Willem van Haecht, 1628. A private picture gallery as an early precursor of the modern museum.

The term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art. However, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere.

Galleries in museums[link]

The rooms in museums where art is displayed for the public are often referred to as galleries as well, with a room dedicated to Ancient Egyptian art often being called the Egyptian Gallery, for example.

Contemporary art gallery[link]

The term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are often found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are usually home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages, and remote areas where artists congregate, e.g. the Taos art colony and St Ives, Cornwall.

Contemporary art galleries are usually open to the general public without charge; however, some are semi-private. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales; from 25% to 50% is typical. There are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, though this is considered distasteful in some international art markets. Galleries often hang solo shows. Curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly.

A gallery's definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often (in North America and Western Europe) operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. Such galleries typically have a board of directors and a volunteer or paid support staff that select and curate shows by committee, or some kind of similar process to choose art that typically lacks commercial ends.

Vanity galleries[link]

A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, much like a vanity press does for authors. The shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artist's resume.^[2]

Visual art not shown in a gallery[link]

Works on paper, such as drawings, pastels, watercolors, prints, and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for conservation reasons. Instead, public access to these materials is provided by a dedicated print study room located within the museum. Murals generally remain where they have been painted, although many have been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th century art, such as land art and performance art, also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museum and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections, on or off-site.

Similar to an art gallery is the sculpture garden (or sculpture park), which presents sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture installation has grown in popularity, whereby temporary sculptures are installed in open spaces during events like festivals.

Architecture[link]

The architectural form of the art gallery was established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns.

The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of the municipal drive for literacy and public education.

In the middle and late 20th century earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) were increasingly replaced with more modern styles, such as Deconstructivism. Examples of this trend include the Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban, and Mario Botta's redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Some critics argue that these galleries are self-defeating, in that their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit.

Cultural aspects[link]

Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular National Art Galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism. This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi was for example dismissed as director of The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable.^[3]

Since the 1970s a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu, for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called Cultural capital is a major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with the Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture.^[4]

Furthermore, certain art gallerias, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime, and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to the mystification of fine arts.^[5]

Notable art museums[link]

Online museums[link]

Museums with major web presences[link]

Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries and government agencies with substantial online collections of prints, photographs, and other works on paper include:

• Library of Congress, prints (C19 on) and photographs collection (several million entries).^[6]

• The British Museum has 1,969,197 objects available online, of which 606,348 have one or more image (as at August 2011).^[7]

Museums, libraries and government agencies with substantial online collections with more focus on paintings and sculpture include:

• Boston Museum of Fine Arts, with over 330,000 works, most with images. Good for prints.[1]
• Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, with over 85,000 works
• Harvard Art Museums, with over 81,000 works, about half of which have very low resolution images.^[8]
• Louvre, with over 80,000 works in various databases, with a large number of images, as well as another 140,000 drawings.^[9]
• National Gallery of Art, with over 108,000 works catalogued, though with only 6,000 images.^[10]
• (French) The Mona Lisa Database of French Museums — Joconde *(from the French Ministry of Culture)

Online art collections[link]

There are a number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists.

A limited number of such sites have independent importance in the art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's and Christie's maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers and other professionals or professional organizations.

Folksonomy[link]

There are also online galleries that have been developed by a collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways.

The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include the Guggenheim Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

See also[link]

• Art exhibition
• Artist cooperative
• Artist-run initiative
• Artist-run space
• Arts centre
• Black cube art museum
• Contemporary art gallery
• List of most visited art museums in the world
• List of notable museums and galleries
• National Gallery (disambiguation)
• Vanity gallery
• Virtual museum

References[link]

Manuel Ballester Boix (born in Barcelona on June 27, 1919; died April 5, 2005) was an award-winning Spanish chemist.

Biography[link]

He received his degree at the University of Barcelona, his doctorate in Madrid, and finished his training at Harvard University. In 1944 he formed a team at the Spanish National Research Council. His work has largely been in kinetics and organic chemistry.^[1]

Awards[link]

• 1982 - Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research

References[link]

This article about a Spanish scientist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This biographical article about a chemist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Barry McGee (born 1966 in San Francisco) is a painter and graffiti artist. He is also known by monikers such as Ray Fong, Lydia Fong, Bernon Vernon, P.Kin, Ray Virgil, Twist and further variations of Twist, such as Twister, Twisty, Twisto and others.

Life and career[link]

McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South San Francisco, California. He later graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991 with a concentration in painting and printmaking.

McGee rose out of the Mission School art movement and graffiti boom in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early nineties. His work draws heavily from a pessimistic view of the urban experience, which he describes as, "urban ills, overstimulations, frustrations, addictions & trying to maintain a level head under the constant bombardment of advertising".

McGee's paintings are very iconic, with central figures dominating abstracted backgrounds of drips, patterns and color fields. He has also painted portraits of street characters on their own empty bottles of liquor, painted flattened spray cans picked up at train yards and painted wrecked vehicles for art shows.

McGee has had numerous shows in many kinds of galleries and was also an artist in residence at inner-city McClymonds High School in Oakland, California in the early 1990s.

He was married to the artist Margaret Kilgallen, who died of cancer in 2001. The couple has a daughter named Asha.

The market value of his work rose considerably after 2001 as a result of his being included in the Venice Biennale and other major exhibitions. As a result, much of his San Francisco street art has been scavenged or stolen.^[1][2]

Exhibition of his work[link]

Barry McGee "the Buddy System" exhibits at Deitch in NY. March 20, 1999 — April 24, 1999[1]

Barry McGee "HOSS" exhibits at Rice Gallery in Houston,Texas. From September 16 through October 24, 1999[2]

McGee's work was included in the 2001 Venice Biennale.[3]

Barry McGee exhibits at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, CA –View Examples of Artwork

Barry McGee solo exhibition at Rose Art Museum in Waltham, MA. Apr 29 – Jul 25, 2004.[4]

Barry Mcgee featured in "Beautiful Losers" exhibition at Circleculture Gallery in Berlin, Germany. February 13 – March 6, 2006.[5]

Barry McGee LOFT installation at Roberts & Tilton Gallery Los Angeles, CA. Dec.2, 2006 – Feb 3, 2007.[6]

Barry McGee solo exhibits at Watari-um Museum in Tokyo, Japan Jun 2 -Sept 30, 2007.[7]

Barry McGee solo exhibits at BALTIC Centre in UK. January 21 – April 27, 2008.[8]

Barry McGee and Clare Rojas exhibition "The Big Sad" at Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA. Mar 30 – May 17, 2008.[9]

2008 Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International[10]

Barry McGee solo exhibition at Ratio 3 in San Francisco, CA. September 5 – October 18, 2008.[11]

Barry McGee exhibits at "McGee / Templeton / Pettibon" exhibition curated by Aaron Rose at Circleculture Gallery in Berlin, Germany. April 9 – May 30, 2009.[12]

2009–2010 Biennale de Lyon, France[13]

Barry McGee and HuskMitNavn exhibition "The Last Night" at A.L.I.C.E. gallery in Brussels, Belgium. March 25 – April 28, 2010.[12]

Influence[link]

McGee was highly influential on the urban art scene that followed in his wake. He popularized use of paint drips in urban-influenced graphic design, as well as the gallery display technique of clustering paintings. These clustered compositions of pictures are based on similar installations he saw in Catholic churches whilst working in Brazil. He also was an early participant in the practice of painting directly on gallery walls, imitating the intrusive nature of graffiti. His use of chisel tip markers has heavily influenced sticker art and graffiti in general, which can be clearly seen in works produced by artists like sure, faust, and mecro. McGee learned his later lowbrow style form the late Margaret Kilgallen, but was taught graffiti in 1989 by SR-1, the founder of the THR graffiti crew, of which Barry was the second member.

Controversy[link]

McGee was involved in a controversy regarding the Adidas Y1 HUF, a shoe for which he provided the artwork. This gave rise to a protest campaign by some Asian-Americans who claimed that the picture on the shoe's tongue depicts a racist stereotype. McGee responded to the controversy in a March 2006 press release.[14] He stated that the drawing was a portrait of himself as an eight-year-old child. Barry McGee is half Chinese.

In 2004, as part of an exhibit, McGee spray-painted "Smash the State" on the walls of San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez' City Hall office (City Hall is a registered national landmark)."^[3] Gonzalez told the press that he knew his office would be repainted for the next occupant.

Quotes[link]

• "The more I learned about the art world, the more my interest in what was going on outside of it increased, I didn't have any desire to bring graffiti inside the school's walls or anything."

• "Compelling art to me is a name carved into a tree. Sometimes a rock soaring through a plate of glass can be the most beautiful, compelling work of art I have ever seen."

See also[link]

• Beautiful Losers (film)
• Mission School
• Lowbrow (art movement)
• Piece by Piece (documentary)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Barry McGee. 2002. Barry McGee: The Buddy System. ISBN 0-9648530-3-5
• Barry McGee, Germano Celant, Prada. 2003. Barry McGee. ISBN 88-87029-21-0
• Aaron Rose and Christian Strike (editors). 2004. Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture. ISBN 1-891024-74-4

arrestedmotion.com/.../interview-sr-1-founder-and-president-of-thr-crew/

External links[link]

• Barry McGee at Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA
• Barry McGee at A.L.I.C.E., Brussels, Belgium
• Barry McGee at Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA
• Barry McGee at Stuart Shave/Modern Art
• Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBS series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century – Season 1 (2001).
• Barry McGee in RETARD RIOT #16 w/ Noah Lyon & Mat Brinkman
• Barry McGee is represented by Stuart Shave/Modern Art
• Barry McGee + Clare Rojas + Noah Lyon – mixed media collaboration – 2004 / 2007
• A review of Barry McGee at Fondazione Prada
• "Barry McGee", UCLA Hammer Museum, 2000.
• "Twist" by Timothy W Drescher, Shaping San Francisco Digital Library.
• "Trains and Trucks with a Twist of Pain" by Eric Nakamura, Giant Robot #9, 1997
• "Barry McGee aka TWIST" on "Known Gallery"
• "Barry McGee at Deitch Projects: or, WHY, BARRY, WHY???" by Stephanie Lee Jackson.
• Transit Project Twist gallery
• Barry McGee gallery, Flickr.
• "Artist stays street savvy: Barry McGee's urban images reflect his tagger roots" by Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 2002.
• "Yerba Buena art inspires calls to fire department" by Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, October 28, 2003.
• "Last word on government: Graffiti installation in Gonzalez's office gets mixed reviews" by Ilene Lelchuk, San Francisco Chronicle, December 10, 2004.
• "Barry McGee (Twist) Interview" by Charlie Bucket, EntertainingThings.com, September 12, 2009 (original interview, 2000).
• Barry McGee; TWIST for SWINDLE Magazine (original interview 2006)
• "Barry McGee Interview" – An interview with Barry McGee about his life and exhibit in the Carnegie International.