Art Authority Blog
Our long, strange, 10-year trip
Ten years ago, on July 10 2008, Apple rolled out the App Store. It sure has been a long, strange trip for us here at Art Authority LLC since then.
In 2008 we were Open Door Networks, founded in 1995 as a dial-up internet provider, and known mainly for developing Macintosh network utilities like the DoorStop Personal Firewall.
The iPhone of course changed everything. When introduced the year before, Apple didn’t allow developers to provide software for it, but they quickly saw the error of their ways and the rest is most certainly history. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to develop iPhone apps, and our iEnvision Web-image browser app was available on day one in the “iTunes App Store” ten years ago.
iEnvision included “bookmarks” to five categories of image sites that we thought displayed particularly well on the iPhone: comics, space photos, newspaper front pages, children’s books and… art! It was a great start for us, and within a month, we broke out the individual built-in categories from iEnvision into individual apps, which we called “Envi apps.” There was “Comic Envi,” “Space Envi”, “News Envi”, “Kid Book Envi” and… “Art Envi.” Many other Envi’s soon followed.
The App Store was a huge success, as was Art Envi in particular. When Apple announced the iPad in early 2010, it was a no-brainer what we were going to implement on Apple’s next groundbreaking device: art, art, art. Art Authority in particular. Art Authority for iPad took Art Envi to the next level, with dozens of times the number of artists and the amount of art, many more ways to search and access the art, and a professionally-designed virtual museum interface. The result: “an experience unlike any other” (the NY Times), which has often sold as the #1 reference app in the App Store. We are proud to have, literally and figuratively, changed art history with our art apps.
Our transition from Macintosh network experts to Art Authority was just getting started. The Art Authority app’s widespread acclaim was noticed by a number of real art authorities, including the Getty Museum’s Stanley Smith and digital printing guru R. Mac Holbert. In early 2016 we got together with Stanley, Mac and other art authorities to form Art Authority LLC. The company had become the app.
Our trip didn’t stop there. E-commerce company Project A had long been associated with Open Door’s efforts, and with their e-commerce know-how, Stanley and Mac’s printing expertise and the app’s access to 100,000+ works of art, we had everything we needed to move Art Authority beyond the app world into selling museum-quality reproductions. Many companies had gone from physical goods to electronic; we went from electronic to physical goods.
The final piece of the puzzle (so far) fell into place when we acquired the assets of art e-commerce pioneer 1000Museums. 1000Museums.com remains the principal site for selling our (physical) wares, and the museum relationships that the site has helped nurture look to be the next big step in what has certainly been a very long, strange 10-year trip. All started by Steve Jobs, the iPhone, and the App Store.
Happy Anniversary!
Best for Last: Art Authority apps free this weekend only
As part of our “Best for Last” sale, the award-winning Art Authority for iPad and iPhone apps are completely free this weekend only. We’re hoping all you last-minute Christmas shoppers will use the apps (or the 1000Museums.com web site) to take advantage of the LAST two days you can order our 1000Museums archival prints and get them in time for Christmas* at the BEST sales prices of the year (30% off through promotion code BESTFORLAST).
So, if there’s anyone left on your gift list (and we’re betting there is), please download the apps (if you haven’t already), go to the built-in 1000Museums Gift Shop, and put in your orders. After that you can enjoy the apps for free throughout 2018 and beyond.
*Sorry, but due to our custom processes, only unframed prints shipped in the US will make it in time for Christmas.
Visit 1000 museums this Sunday
Through our 1000Museums brand, Art Authority is proud to be a Charter Sponsor of Museum Store Sunday, which is tomorrow! MSS is the museum equivalent of Black Friday, and we’re kicking off our holiday campaign with some serious specials to highlight the day:
- The award-winning Art Authority apps for iPad and iPhone, with their own museum store through the new 1000Museums Gift Shop, will be only 99 cents through Apple’s App Store (normally $9.99 and $4.99 respectively)
- Every archival reproduction from every museum at 1000Museums.com will be 25% off, custom framing included
- The brand’s newly-introduced archival Note Card line will be 25% off at FocusOnFineArtGifts.com
- Newly-introduced items and specials will be available on 1000Museums partner sites, including those with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, US Library of Congress and National Gallery in London
So please go visit your local museum(s) and then please come back and visit a thousand more through our apps and the 1000Museums.com web sites.
The Art Authority Gift Shop
If you’ve been a fan of Art Authority apps, you probably know that we’ve pioneered a number of new features since debuting our award-winning virtual museum app along with the iPad in 2010 (and even earlier as iEnvision with the iPhone in 2008). SmArt Resolution, Art Near Me, Art Real Size, and Art Like This to name a few.
Today we’re happy to announce another one: the Art Authority virtual museum (100,000 works and counting) now includes a real Gift Shop. As we hinted out when we acquired 1000Museums.com we have integrated that site’s museum-approved archival reproduction capabilities directly into the iPad and iPhone versions of Art Authority.
Now Open: The 1000Museums Gift Shop! Real-world, physical prints in five sizes with custom framing options. Top quality. Museum-approved. 1000Museums has been providing these products through their (now our) web site for a decade, and now you can get them through our apps too.
The Gift Shop can be easily accessed from within the Art Authority museum in three different ways:
- From the lobby of the museum, just tap the Gift Shop sign. Going in through the lobby gives you access to the full 1000Museums Gift Shop, which includes tens of thousands of works. On the iPad, you can even browse some of the 1000Museums all-time favorites before entering the full Gift Shop.
- By viewing the “Art you can buy” show in the main directory, and each period room’s directory (on the iPad). These shows include all works in the Art Authority museum (or the specific room) that are available in the Gift Shop too.
- When viewing individual museum works, just tap the “Available at 1000Museums” or “BUY” button to view and purchase reproductions of the work within the Gift Shop.
One of the main reasons we acquired 1000Museums is because our missions were so closely aligned: bringing all the world’s art to all the world. Now our apps and web sites are closely aligned too. And just in time for the holidays!
Going National
Art Authority LLC and the National Gallery UK today announced a major new relationship to make museum-quality archival prints of key National Gallery artwork available to US customers through Art Authority’s 1000Museums print-on-demand technologies. The center point of the relationship is the site FocusOnNationalGalleryUK.com. The site, available today, makes dozens of all-time favorite National Gallery works available in five print sizes, with multiple framing options.
As with other 1000Museums “Focus On” sites, FocusOnNationalGalleryUK.com offers a unique curated collection of archival reproductions of works by major artists and institutions, in this case National Gallery works by European masters including Canaletto, Monet, Turner and Van Gogh. Art Authority and the National Gallery worked together to design and curate the site. Additional works and products will be added in the near future.
Vincent van Gogh
1889
National Gallery London
“To make prints of the National Gallery’s paintings more accessible to customers in the United States, we have chosen to partner with Art Authority and their 1000Museums brand, due to the high quality of their reproductions and knowledge of our collection, as well as their long-established relationships with the art world” said Douglas Gilmore, Trading Director at the National Gallery Company. “We look forward to a long and productive collaboration.”
“We are proud and honored that such a venerable institution as the National Gallery chose us to bring their works to the U.S.” said Stanley Smith, Chief Museum Officer for Art Authority. “We are particularly gratified by their recognition of our commitment to quality and our cutting-edge technologies.”
Art Authority has worked with a number of other institutions and artists’ estates on similar “Focus on” sites including:
• Focus on Frank Lloyd Wright – FocusOnFLW.com
• Focus on Mark Rothko – FocusOnRothko.com
• Focus on Henri Matisse – FocusOnMatisse.com
• Focus on Library of Congress – FocusOnLibraryOfCongress.com
• Focus on Latin American Masters – FocusOnLatinAmericanMasters.com
The full 1000Museums line of fine-art reproductions is available at 1000Museums.com.
Focusing on Latin America and L.A.
In concert with the opening of the multi-site art event “Pacific Standard Time:LA/LA,” through our 1000Museums brand, we are proud to announced “Focus on Latin American Masters,” a site devoted to major Latin American artists of the 20th century. The site at FocusOnLatinAmericanMasters.com supplements the “far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles” that is PST:LA/LA.
As with the various other 1000Museums “Focus On” sites, FocusOnLatinAmericanMasters.com makes available a unique curated collection of archival reproductions of works by major artists and institutions, in this case Latin American Masters of the 20th century including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. As with other “Focus On” sites, Art Authority has worked directly with the institutions involved, in particular the San Diego Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), both of which have shows as part of PST:LA/LA.
Frida Kahlo, Girl from Tehuacán, Lucha María or Sun and Moon, 1942, Coleccion Perez Simon, Mexico
“Focus on Latin American Masters” and all Art Authority’s Focus On sites feature their established 1000Museums brand, known for the latest in print-on-demand technology, top-quality archival reproductions, and broad set of museum and cultural institution relationships. Other “Focus On” sites include:
• Focus on Frank Lloyd Wright – FocusOnFLW.com
• Focus on Mark Rothko – FocusOnRothko.com
• Focus on Henri Matisse – FocusOnMatisse.com
• Focus on Library of Congress – FocusOnLibraryOfCongress.com
Focusing on Rothko and Matisse
Fresh on the heels of “Focus on Frank Lloyd Wright” we are pleased to announce “Focus on Mark Rothko” and “Focus on Henri Matisse.”
As we hinted at when we launched our Frank Lloyd Wright focus site, we’ve been working with top names in the art world to bring focus to their collections and help you view and purchase archival reproductions from those collections in new ways.
Mark Rothko pioneered color field art, and “Focus on Rothko” at FocusOnRothko.com lets you browse and select his works by color. Or more traditionally by title or time period. We’re also pleased to be working with our neighbor the Portland Art Museum to support the new Rothko wing they are building to honor one of Oregon’s native sons.
Mark Rothko, Ochre and Red on Red, 1954 (oil on canvas, 92 5/8 x 63 3/4 in.) The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, acquired 1964. © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Albert Barnes was one of the earliest backers of Henri Matisse’s work, and we are proud the Barnes Foundation supported “Focus on Matisse” at FocusOnMatisse.com by making available a number of rarely seen works by the leading Fauvist (check out the three “Three Sisters” works in particular). You can browse and select Matisse works by style, including cutouts, portraits, still life and line drawings.
Henry Matisse, Codomas, plate XI from the illustrated book “Jazz, 1947” (pochoir, 16 5/8 x 25 5/8 in.) Indiana University Art Museum, 65.23.11. © 2013 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Speaking of support, purchases from Focus On sites support both those who created these classic artworks and those who care for them. Portions of every purchase go to the artists’ estates and the works’ owners. So you can give back and enjoy great art at the same time. That’s certainly what we do here. And of course all prints from Focus On sites are hand crafted here in Ashland, Oregon using the same museum-quality materials and processes you’re used to with the 1000Museums brand.
There’s much more to come too. We’re particularly excited about our soon-to-be-announced work with the Library of Congress and with a similar institution “across the pond.” So definitely stay tuned.
Focusing on the Future (and Frank Lloyd Wright)
It’s been almost a year since we announced our first major art acquisition, 1000 museums worth of art. Since that time, we’ve been integrating the acquisition with our core collection, and thinking about the future. Today we’re happy to announce that, with the help of “America’s greatest architect” Frank Lloyd Wright, we’ve brought that future into focus.
June 8, 2017 is FLW’s 150th birthday. We’re honored that the FLW Foundation chose our 1000Museums brand to design and make available a series of “Wright across America” commemorative prints for the year-long celebration (much more on those prints later). That honor crystalized our thinking about the future and provided us the first instance of that future as well.
So, without further ado, Art Authority is pleased to announce the first in a series of “Focus On” sites, “Focus on Frank Lloyd Wright.” The site includes a great collection of both time-limited commemorative prints and timeless reproductions of original Wright sketches and drawings. All have been approved by the Foundation, to which a portion of every sale goes. And all are of the museum quality for which the 1000Museums brand is known, printed on acid-free paper with inks rated at 200 years of permanence.
Beyond FLW, we’re also announcing plans for future Focus On sites for a number of other venerable American icons:
- The Library of Congress (founded 1800)
- The Boy Scouts of America (founded 1910), and their quintessential American painter Norman Rockwell (born 1894)
- Popular Russian-American artist Mark Rothko (born 1903)
- American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (born 1912)
These sites should be available this summer, with many of the works available now directly through 1000Museums.com.
As you can see, with the help of 1000Museums and Frank Lloyd Wright, our focus on the future is clear.
Art Authority Summer Intern Program Year 7
Today we are announcing year 7 of our very successful summer intern program. As we’ve discussed a number of times on this blog, the Art Authority Summer Intern Program offers art and art history majors a 21st century alternative to traditional art docent internships. By working on our cutting-edge app and database, technology-focused students gain experience with and exposure to a set of tools they’ll need as “art goes digital.” This year, after our acquisition of 1000Museums.com, interns can also gain experience working with a major e-commerce site as well as in the field of fine art reproduction (high-end print-on-demand).
We here at Art Authority have learned a lot over the past seven years, both as far as how to run the intern program and as far as what’s needed to keep our app line evolving. Students have learned a lot too, gained credit towards their major, and even found jobs as a result of the program (a couple of them have worked here, one being our current intern manager). We’re really looking forward to another great and meaningful summer for all concerned.
If you or anyone you know is curious about the program, please check out the Summer Intern Program Web site for more information and an application form. The number of spaces are limited, so anyone interested should apply as soon as possible.
Adding our Art Acquisition
As mentioned previously, we recently acquired 1000 museums worth of art through our purchase of 1000Museums.com, the go-to site for top-quality fine art reproductions. We’re pleased to announce that we’ve now begun the integration of that site with our flagship Art Authority for iPad app. Art Authority for iPad 4.10.3 is now available through the App Store, and it includes the ability to purchase prints of a number of major works of art directly from 1000Museums.
When browsing through art in the app, simply look for the “Available at 1000Museums” button to access the purchase page for that work directly from the app. You can choose five sizes (up to 32″ x 40″) and four high-end framing options. You can also select additional works from the site at the same time. One of the many great aspects of 1000Museums is that portions of your purchase price go back to the artist and museum involved with the work itself, so you’re getting a great piece of art for your wall and giving back to the art community at the same time.
With over 100,000 works of art in Art Authority for iPad, as you can imagine only a small percentage can currently be purchased directly from the app. But 1000Museums has tens of thousand of works available too, so expect a whole lot more to be added to the app in the months ahead. And of course that’s only the beginning. As we say in the app, we have big plans for Art Authority + 1000Museums!
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