One of the great artistic achievements of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the proliferation of monumental paintings for the walls and ceilings of churches and palaces throughout Europe. These elaborate decorative ensembles were the result of carefully designed programs developed by artists in collaboration with patrons and advisors. These large, often figure-filled compositions were the result of careful processes of visual planning, in which reduced-scale sketches painted in oil played an important role.

Most painted sketches were never intended to be displayed publicly, but rather were made as tools in the creative process. They were used to experiment with ideas for a composition, to propose a composition to a patron, or to record a finished painting for future reference. Preliminary painted sketches could be very rough in appearance, mapping out the artist’s first thoughts about a composition, or more finished exercises that laid out not only elements of the composition, but also served as studies of color and light.

Sebastiano Conca (Italian, 1680–1764), "The Madonna Appearing to St. Philip Neri," 1740, James E. Roberts Fund, 71.6

This lively, loosely painted sketch is a preliminary study for a large altarpiece in the Pilo e Calvello Chapel, Sant’Ignazio Martire all’Olivella (formerly San Filippo Neri), Palermo, commissioned from Conca at the height of his fame in 1739-40. In these years, Conca led a large and busy workshop in Rome and served as the director of the Roman academy. Unwilling to relocate to complete such commissions, Conca would have sent small preliminary sketches like this to his patron in Sicily for approval before undertaking the final full-scale altarpiece. Two additional painted sketches and one drawing related to the altarpiece also survive, with slight variations between them that indicate Conca’s exacting approach to composition.

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Filed under: Art, The Collection

Today’s blog post was written by Public Affairs intern Dori Thayer. Dori is a recent graduate of DePauw University where she studied Art History.

IndyChannel recently launched their A-list ballot for 2011 – a yearly poll that highlights the best of Indy. The IMA is proud to say that we have been nominated as a contender for best museum. The wide-ranging list below, in the form of a TOP ten, are just a few reasons why you should vote in support of the IMA as Indianapolis’ BEST museum. We know you already agree but we hope to reassure you anyway.

10. First and foremost, the IMA is an ART museum, even though it provides films, talks, events, galas, and workshops that may convince you otherwise, the enormous and comprehensive collection is at the heart of our existence. The IMA strives and achieves in providing an art museum environment that is friendly and non-threatening to those without an artistic background, embracing the community as a whole. Those with a love and passion for the arts can mingle amongst peers and schedule an entire weekend of events solely with IMA activities.

9. The IMA has had a remarkable year which included a recent performance at the Venice Biennale, representing the US on a global venue. As you know, the IMA has been working tirelessly on this event, which has garnered amazing responses to Allora & Calzadilla’s works. The IMA represented Indianapolis and the US in an authentic and innovative way through this artistic duo. Did I mention the IMA represented the ENTIRE UNITED STATES? Just checking.

Photos by Andrew Bordwin.

8. In recent years, the opening of the Randall L. and Marianne W. Tobias Theater, aka The Toby, has drawn some big-named speakers into our Indianapolis sphere. Most recently Stefan Sagmeister came to speak about design and happiness from his personal studio, Sagmeister Inc, which was founded in 1993. Sagmeister has designed for the likes of The Rolling Stones, HBO and the Guggenheim with his maxim’s made of both conventional and unconventional mediums using his words and design as a “tool for social renewal.” The Toby has also hosted, Temple Grandin, a woman living with Autism, who is praised with her humane design for handling livestock facilities. An HBO film biography on her won seven Emmy awards! With an amazing turn out for the Toby’s first year (almost 37,000 visitors) the future only looks brighter. Who will the Toby draw in next?

7. Not only does the IMA host galleries filled with ancient arts and artifacts from cultures around the world, it also hosts its own contemporary art wing from a world-wide net. Do-Ho Suh’s contemporary work, Floor is  a very awe inspiring piece. Viewers are allowed and meant to step upon this expansive platform where hundreds of male and female figurines seemingly hold you up. The hundreds of figures that cover the underside of the 32 individual squares allow each viewer’s weight to be held up by their tired plastic arms. The IMA has a contemporary collection worth noting as well as artist showcases, presently being Mr. Thorton Dial—whose exhibition Hard Truths runs through September 18.

6. Spring has sprung and summer is fully fledged! 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park is an amazing outdoor experience that is definitely worth its own visit to the IMA. On these beautiful Indianapolis summer days, 100 acres is a perfect getaway from the bustle of the city (even just for a few hours)! With eight sight-specific works commissioned, the park shows how art and nature intertwined in a contemporary style. Joep van Lieshout, with his studio Atelier van Lieshout, created Funky Bones, and interactive large-scale sculpture of a Halloween-esque skeleton to be multifaceted, as both art and as functional benches. Plus, where else can you row out to an artist-inhabited island? Pretty sure we’re the only one.

5. In 2008 the IMA was named an Energy Star partner with a pledge to reduce energy consumption. In turn, we reduced natural gas consumption by 48 percent and electricity by 19 percent. In 2010 the IMA was named one of 11 museums to receive recognition by the Environmental Protection Agency which sparked the IMA’s own “greening committee”- displaying art and protecting the environment, one day at a time.

4. We love to collaborate! The Indianapolis International Film Festival has again paired with the IMA’s Toby theatre and DeBoest Lecture hall and will be running from July 14-July 18. This festival will show films from all over the world of varying genre, skill level and lengths. From one minute films (Check out Dinosaur Ballet) to full length feature films, this festival will have a film to suit everyone’s taste. The IMA bringing a small piece of the world to you through this collaboration is sure to be an eye-opening experience. (It also includes a film by one of the IMA’s own staff, be sure to check out Type A!)

3. A certain buzz has been generated from the unveiling of the enigmatic Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. This acquisition marks an expansion that the IMA knows no bounds and will restore and display art of many forms while also showcasing Indiana’s architectural gem, the city of Columbus itself.

2. Summer Nights is a summer film series that has been widely received by the Indianapolis community. Not only can you sit amongst your friends, and enjoy a great film in the evening, but you can lounge in an amphitheatre setting reminiscent of the ancient Greeks and enjoy food and refreshments. This series is widely popular and lets you escape from the air-conditioned doldrums of the standard blockbuster while enjoying an acclaimed film and a nice summer breeze. Are you convinced yet?

1. In the words of a beloved YELP reviewer: “…an art museum that’s free? Must be a joke or not worth going to. Turns out that I was wrong.” You heard right, to everyone’s utter amazement and enjoyment, admission is FREE! VOTE NOW for the IMA as the BEST Museum in Indianapolis!

Filed under: Around the Web, Current Events, Local, Polls

This week, Modern Art Notes started a series on the ten most-accessed works of art across a handful of museums’ websites. Featured museums included SFMOMA, MOMA, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Inspired, we started digging through Google analytics to uncover the IMA’s most-accessed works of art. The wonderful thing about analytics is the ability to compare short and long term date ranges which provides an opportunity to look for trending. With these interests in mind, we went back to 2007 (when analytics tracking was implemented) and compared the top ten most-accessed works for each year since then.

One interesting thing we found is that the top ten lists (based on unique pageviews) for 2007, 2008, and 2009 are all very similar. While there was some movement within the lists as far as #1, #2, etc., the pieces that made the cut for these three years were all the same (with the exception of 1-2 variations each year). A noticeable shift happened in 2010 when different works started popping up on the list.

As it just so happens, we introduced a new website in early 2010 and one of the changes we made involved the collection section. We improved the search capabilities with the intent of allowing someone to find something specific with ease, while also creating an interface to support casual browsing. A month later, we also introduced a new tagging feature that made the collections search more interactive. Tagging features in general have changed the way people look for information as users can search based on input or classifications from other users -  another possible reason for the shift in the top ten.

Even without these changes to the website, I would expect to see a change of sorts as technology improves and computer usage behavior changes. Online search habits have transformed (and will continue to do so) as people become more accustomed to search mechanisms and better in tune with the results a specific query will trigger. This is naturally going to change the results that are returned, thereby influencing the popularity of certain pages.

Over the past few years we’ve also become more active on social media sites, which may account for some of the changes seen pre and post 2010. Miss Lemon Drop (below) is just one example of this:

Caption: Mel Ramos, "Miss Lemon Drop," 1964.

We tweeted about this piece back in February, (in response to MAN’s Swimsuit Issue), and it made its top 10 debut for the first time as #6 for 2011. Granted, our 2011 list only includes the past two months of data, but I think this does speak to the influence of social media and the way it allows us to share our collection with wider audiences. Search engines have also added social networks to their results pages, fueling the popularity of those pieces we feature on places like Twitter or Facebook. This, in turn, gives museums an opportunity to call attention to works that may not otherwise be seen amidst the collection blockbusters that are regularly searched for on a site.

Speaking of blockbusters – even with changes in search habits, social media, and our website, we did see two pieces that made the top ten lists in all five years:

Tiffany Louis Comfort, "Angel of the Resurrection," 1904.

Do-Ho Suh, "Floor," 1997-2000.

Angel of Resurrection and Floor are clearly two popular pieces on our website peaking in popularity in 2009 at #1 and #4, respectively. Other works that made the list multiple times throughout the years include:

Rembrandt van Rijn, "Self-Portrait," 1629.

Alfred Thompson Bricher, "Morning at Grand Manan", 1878.

John Currin, "Blond Angel," 2001.

Winslow Homer, "The Boat Builders," 1873.

Below you can see a bit of the data we have gathered from this exercise. Starting with 2011, each graph lists the rank, title of the piece, and its change in rank from the previous year. From this you can see that Robert Indiana’s LOVE (1966) moved up one position from 2010 to 2011, or that Georgia O’Keefe’s Jimson Weed was not on the list in 2009, but made it to the top ten in 2010.

2011 Most Accessed (year-to-date)

Rank	Title
1	Tim Hawkinson, Möbius Ship, 2006.
2	Robert Indiana, LOVE, 1966.
3	Robert Indiana, LOVE, 1970.
4	Janet Scudder, Nude Child (Seaweed), 1914.
5	Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Fifth Plague of Egypt, 1800.
6	Mel Ramos, Miss Lemon Drop, 1964.
7	Louis Comfort Tiffany, Angel of the Resurrection, 1904.
8	Georgia O’Keefe, Jimson Weed, 1936.
9	Jan the younger Brueghel, The Sense of Taste, 1618.
10	Do-Ho Suh, Floor, 1997-2000.

2010 Most Accessed

Rank	Title
1	Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Fifth Plague of Egypt, 1800.
2	Robert Indiana, LOVE, 1970.
3	Robert Indiana, LOVE, 1966.
4	Ingrid Calame, From #258 Drawing (Tracing from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the L.A. River, 2007.
5	Georgia O’Keefe, Jimson Weed, 1936.
6	Louis Comfort Tiffany, Angel of the Resurrection, 1904.
7	James Turrell, Acton, 1976.
8	Do-Ho Suh, Floor, 1997-2000.
9	Vincent Van Gogh, Landscape at Saint-Rémy (Enclosed Field with Peasant), 1889.
10	Kara Walker, They Waz Nice While Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another), 2001.

2009 Most Accessed

Rank	Title
1	Louis Comfort Tiffany, Angel of the Resurrection, 1904.
2	Kara Walker, They Waz Nice While Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another), 2001.
3	Barnaba da Modena, Crucifixion, 1375.
4	Do-Ho Suh, Floor, 1997-2000.
5	Alfred Thompson Bricher, Morning at Grand Manan, 1878.
6	Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1629.
7	Robert Indiana, LOVE, 1966.
8	Master of San Baudelio de Berlanga, Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, 1125.
9	Winslow Homer, The Boat Builders, 1873.
10	John Currin, Blond Angel, 2001.

2008 Most Accessed

Rank	Title
1	John Currin, Blond Angel, 2001.
2	Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1629.
3	Barnaba da Modena, Crucifixion, 1375.
4	Louis Comfort Tiffany, Angel of the Resurrection, 1904.
5	Kara Walker, They Waz Nice While Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another), 2001.
6	Master of San Baudelio de Berlanga, Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, 1125.
7	Alfred Thompson Bricher, Morning at Grand Manan, 1878.
8	Do-Ho Suh, Floor, 1997-2000.
9	Winslow Homer, The Boat Builders, 1873.
10	Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar, 1669.

2007 Most Accessed

Filed under: Around the Web, The Collection

Now that the new IMA web site is live, we want to take time to introduce you to some new features over the next few weeks.  Rob gave a behind the scenes look at many of these features last week, but we’ll be going into more detail.

First up, collections search.

Search is available on every page on the site.

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Filed under: Technology

A Look Back at Works of Art Newly Displayed at the IMA in 2008

If you visited the IMA’s permanent galleries more than once this year, it is likely you did not see the same works of art. Each month the IMA rotates different works of art in an effort to display the breadth of the Museum’s collection. The scheduled rotation is determined through a collaboration between curators and conservators. Curators decide which works are displayed and their display time frame, while the conservators regulate the exposure time of certain sensitive artworks. Below are just a handful of the hundreds of works newly displayed in the IMA’s galleries in 2008:

For a look at all the works that went on view in 2008, visit the IMA’s Dashboard.

In celebration of the IMA’s 125th anniversary, the Museum also sought to acquire 125 new gifts to add to its collection this year. Stay tuned for a complete recap of this project.

Filed under: Art, Current Events