The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) has launched a new section on its website which contains images and information on a number of the treasured artworks it holds, and is accessible for public viewing.
This is the first time in 40 years, since the museum was established in 1977, that the museum has opened doors to its precious collection of Iranian and western artworks, albeit in cyber space, so that people across the world can get a glimpse of a number of the best works from different artistic periods. The museum's treasures can be seen on its website http://www.tmoca.com
The images are accompanied by information on the title of the work, the artist, size and year of creation. Although it will take some time for all the information on the items to be uploaded on the website, when completed it will provide a rich source of resources on works of a specific artists, their biography and artistic styles, ISNA reported.
Since the museum space is not suitable for a permanent exhibition, it has been displaying only a few works at a time and for short periods in recent years; yet some pieces have never been shown to the public as they should be kept at a special temperature and exposed to only a certain amount of light. However, the website provides an online exhibition of all the works 24/7 for the global connoisseurs of art.
The Tehran museum has more than 4,000 items that include 19th and 20th century world-class Iranian, European and American paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures, including an impressive collection of artworks by great Iranian artists Manoucher Yektai, Sohrab Sepehri, Mansour Ghandriz, Faramarz Pilaram and Nasser Assar as well as western artists Andy Warhol, Claude Monet, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko, among others.
Biggest Western Collection in the East
Being the biggest collection of western art in the eastern world, it includes works from almost all artistic periods and movements. Of the total works, 1,500 are foreign pieces and the remaining 250 artworks have been created by local contemporary artists. Although the works have not been exactly evaluated but the most precious work regarding its price is believed to be the 1950 abstract painting 'Mural on Indian Red Ground' by the American painter Jackson Pollock.
The museum also keeps a number of sculptures in its treasury which have not been displayed before, the images of which will be uploaded on the website as well. As the sculptures need to be seen from all sides to be understood, so their 3D pictures will be put on the website and the users can have a 360-degree view of the works.
Efforts are underway to include all the pictures of the artworks and their information in a book to be published by the end of the year for presentation at foreign exhibitions.
