Pop-up art

Yes, Virginia, there is more to art than just velvet Elvises or gangster dogs playing pool.

One trip to the museum is enough for the images of modern art to play Pied Piper in our heads, leading us like hypnotized mice into a whole new world – whether it be abstract, surrealist, expressionist, impressionist, whatever. Now, the Web has made it possible for the slackers in all of us to stay in our rooms and still manage to visit a museum or two. (Heck, how many among us could afford a trip to the Louvre or the New York Museum of Modern Art, anyway?) We can log on to www.artchive.com and view Dali’s melted watches, Chagall’s floating lovers, Van Gogh’s dizzying, starry sky, Picasso’s nude geometric women, Warhol’s transcendental soup cans using our trusty PCs and an Internet connection.

One site worth visiting is www.artmuseum.net. A disclaimer: ArtMuseum.net serves as "an extension, not a replacement, for the live gallery experience." It aims to enhance the concrete-and-steel museum experience by "providing content online that goes deeper or broader than what the constraints of the museum allow." But what makes it different from other online museums is the eclectic sections it offers. Lovers of pop art (defined as "witty, sexy, gimmicky, mass-produced art" by the site) will gravitate toward the One Stop Warhol Shop, a virtual pop art supermarket. Flashy eye candy greets each visitor: from pink Marilyn Monroe graphics to the black-and-white Warhol portrait with pillows floating overhead. Loads of info as well: Warhol’s biography, filmography, bibliography, etc. It also includes stories about the artist’s association with the avant-garde rock group, the Velvet Underground, and other esoteria.

If pop art is not your cup of aesthetic tea, you could always visit the pages devoted to Vincent Van Gogh and his ecstatic sunflowers or other art-oriented ones like New Fangle, Art in Technological Times, Art & Culture: 1900 - 2000, etc. There is also a section called Refresh: The Art of the Screen Saver. Here, surfers have access to a plethora of creatively concocted screen savers which can be downloaded for free. There are 22 digital projects – artworks and functional screen savers at the same time – ripe for the picking.

Brainiacs, or those who regard the Web as encyclopedia with wires, should rest easy. The site touches on the marriage of art and technology or the birth of the "meta-medium," the unification of all media within a single interactive interface. Simply put, it means the artwork of the future: how technology can be utilized to create works of art that are truly mind-altering. ArtMuseum.net offers us a glimpse of that brave new artworld.

Now, skimming over the site won’t turn Netizens into overnight Francis Bacons or Basquiats and start painting monolithic mouths or distorted paisley dogs on the walls of the Quiapo underpass. But it offers us a brush with art, a dab of culture, a drop of the essential – much needed in our otherwise sad, sorry Troglodyte lives.