Search the Collection is a searchable catalogue of the collection of the Gothenburg Museum of Art that is accessible on the internet. The collection comprises close to 70 000 artworks in various techniques. At present, about 20 000 of them are registered in the museum’s internal art database.
At the introduction in 2012, 600 of these were made searchable along with basic facts, and around a hundred with information corresponding to a catalogue with a more discussing tone. In the first phase, the Fürstenberg collection and a number of the more famous works in the museum were made accessible. From then on, the web catalogue has been successively expanded with new works. In 2016 the number of published posts had been increased to 2 700. In the long run, the catalogue will also be available in an English language version.
In the web catalogue, the visitor can:
- Search the collection for artists and artworks
- See a historical overview of the collection by studying images 65 of the foremost artworks in the museum placed on a timeline
- Navigate through the museum’s thirty-odd rooms with the aid of a map of the building, and see photographs of the interiors, texts about the themes in the rooms and presentations of the works currently on display
- See web exhibitions in which separate parts of the collection are presented with a text and a list of works, on which the visitor can click onwards to posts about individual works
In Search the Collection basic facts about the museum’s artworks, such as artist, title, date, technique, measurements and acquisition information, are presented together with an image of the work. In some cases, you will also find more in-depth information about signings, labels and other markings on the works, as well as provenance but also exhibition history and references in the literature. These works also have educational texts that describe the works and place them in a historical context. Biographical texts on the artists increase the understanding of the background to the artworks. The number of artwork texts, as well as artist biographies, are continuously extended. The information about each work corresponds to a catalogue raisonné, with the difference that the digital format allows it to be continually updated.
The lengthier web catalogue texts are an educational resource for the public, but also serve to increase the visibility of the collection abroad, which in turn contributes to more research and deeper knowledge about the collection. Part of the work with the web catalogue has been financed with the support of the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, in connection with the project Collection Database Made Accessible, a collaboration with the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg 2011–2012.
Take a closer look at Search the Collection