The only thing more interesting to the general public about high-end art than its’ outrageous auction price is the incredible, finicky details of its conservation. The Kimbell has created an iPad app featuring supplementary information of the conservation of 32 works in their collection, in conjunction with its 40th anniversary exhibition, The Kimbell at 40: An Evolving Masterpiece, opening on October 7. The app will feature 31 paintings by Caravaggio, Monet, Picasso, Michelangelo, Bonington, Guercino and Poussin, along with one sculpture, a Pre-Angkor stone image of the Hindu god Harihara from Cambodia. For each featured artwork, between three and eight large, zoomable images accompany the text describing the conservation discoveries; many of these demonstrate the transformation of restored Kimbell works with before-and-after photographs.
It’s the Kimbell’s second iPad venture: Visitors to the 2011 exhibition Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, could use a specially created iPad application to delve more deeply into Cubism.