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| Art Industry News: Florence’s Uffizi Gallery Is Under Fire for Comparing a Pretty Instagram Influencer to Botticelli’s ‘Venus’ + Other News | |
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Art World
Art Industry News: Florence’s Uffizi Gallery Is Under Fire for Comparing a Pretty Instagram Influencer to Botticelli’s ‘Venus’ + Other News
Plus, Trump removes Clinton and Bush's presidential portraits from the White House entrance hall and Adam Szymczyk gives his first interview since 2017.
Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know on this Tuesday, July 21.
The Uffizi May Be a Little Too Online – The storied Italian museum has been gaining a new audience with its irreverent TikTok videos. But now, it may have taken things a little too far. After influencer Chiara Ferragni, who has millions of followers on social media, visited the Uffizi for a magazine photo shoot, the museum posted an image of her in front of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, calling her “a sort of contemporary divinity in the social era.” Some felt the comparison cheapened the great work of art and that the museum was reducing itself to a photo set. Still, the Uffizi’s director stands by the strategy as a way to draw in new audiences. “The Uffizi don’t need Chiara Ferragni, and she doesn’t need the Uffizi,” Schmidt told La Repubblica on Sunday. “The important thing is to create a cross-over, to spark a dialogue.” (Telegraph)
Uffizi criticised for comparing Botticelli's Venus to Instagram influencer who visited gallery
The famous Florence art gallery has keenly embraced social media to reach new audiences - but the move has been unpopular with some
Florence's Uffizi Gallery has been accused of dumbing itself down after comparing a social media influencer to Botticelli's Birth of Venus.
Chiara Ferragni, who has millions of followers on social media, posed in front of some of the most highly regarded Renaissance masterpieces, including Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus, sparking criticism that great art was being used as a mere backdrop for Instagram pictures.
The Uffizi has enthusiastically embraced social media, using TikTok to present irreverent clips involving some of its most famous works.
In its official Instagram post, the Uffizi Gallery compared the Renaissance’s prototype of “blonde-haired woman with diaphanous skin” - embodied by Botticelli’s Venus - to Ferragni, calling her “a sort of contemporary divinity in the social era.”
The comparison irritated many of the Uffizi’s traditional fans, who said the museum was reducing itself to a set, shifting the attention from its masterpieces. Ferragni visited the museum during a photo shoot for the fashion magazine Vogue.
Eike Schmidt, the gallery's director, defended the initiative, saying it was part of the museum’s more “democratic” strategy to attract a wider and younger audience by using social media.
Mr Schmidt noted that the museum’s post received 2,000 negative reactions, but also 30,000 likes in just 24 hours.
“The Uffizi don’t need Chiara Ferragni, and she doesn’t need the Uffizi,” Schmidt said in an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica on Sunday. “The important thing is to create a cross-over, to spark a dialogue.”
Mr Schmidt has been credited with successfully renewing the museum’s image and helping it make more money.
But the museum, as many other cultural landmarks, faces a dramatic fall in the numbers of international visitors due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Italy’s tourism industry amounts to 13 per cent of the country’s output, but it has been brought to its knees by lockdown measures and travel restrictions imposed to contain the outbreak.
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