10 awesome art Instagram accounts you need to follow
After talking to you about the best app for art-lovers, today I am sharing with you my favorite accounts to follow “on the gram”.
I chose them for different reasons, some are funny, some are smart, some are both. They all have something in common, they love art! And it will also prove you that, yes, art professionals can be funny and laugh about art. It does not always have to be so serious, definitely not like they portray us on TV… I am so angry when I see a scene happening in an art museum or a gallery. We all look mean, way too serious and condescendant. Just in like any professional field there are nice and mean ones (I am one of the nice ones btw).
So here is the list, to check out their accounts click on the images. Happy reading!
1 – TabloidArtHistory
This is for the hardcore pop culture fan out there. Two art historians juxtapose together artworks with events of pop culture. Think a popstart outing, TV reality show, behind the scene of a movie shoot, anything like that. They show them together for their resemblance of composition, colors or meaning. It can also give a new perspective on both the event and the artwork. Very pleasing.
2 – Jerry Saltz
He is the senior Art critic for the New York Times and has many various point of views on news, politics and what is going on in the art world. He gives insights on the daily life as an art cricit, and also advice for artists and young people starting in the business. He has a strong sense of humor and a lot of his posts are politically engaged.
Also this year, 2018, he won the famous Pulitzer price for Criticism for his piece “My life as a failed artist”. In this article he talks about how failing at being an artist made a great art critic. Read it here, I strongly suggest it.
3 – Museum Mammy
Kimberly Drew is a curator and the community manager of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. When she was still in College she started the Tumblr Black Contemporary Art on African-American artists. At first on the blog she posted on artists who had museum articles about them but did not on Tumblr. So they would be recorded as archives for art history. The blog is still online today, she has curated exhibitions, wrote pieces and has a strong following on instagram. There she posts a lot about her research, museums, her fellow curators/writers research and about exhibitions she sees. And you will find regular posts of a 27 year-old instagram, because she is keeping it real.
4 – Art Handler Mag
A funny account giving insight on the everyday life as an art handler. It is the kind of job little well-known but very important. They are responsible, well, for “handling” the artwork. Preparing them, moving them, installing them. They also have to do it while being supervised by curators, artists, clients, it can be extremely hard and funny at the same time. Funny mostly when they tell it as a story not for experiencing it…
5 – Whos____who
Now a very important subject in art is copying work. It is illegal of course, however it is also a movement “appropriation” and can also be used as inspiration or homage to a fellow artist. But it is a tricky move. This account repertories artwork that look alike. Which one inspired the other? It is not given. The reader can only just acknowledge the resemblance and will have to do his/her own research to find out. But remember, as we all know two people can have the same idea, at the same time in two different places. So keep an open-mind. It is I believe, on firsthand the responsability of the artist when creating to also check whatever has been done before, on secondhand his or her gallerist.
