Art Authority for Mac App Reviews

Im very disappointed by the total lack of experience. Even worse than a Finder :( Cant wait for some updates...

Images are OK, but, there is no info about the picture you are seeing. Also, info about the artist is merely a link to wikipedia. Needs a lot of improvement to worth the price.

photo is smal this is only problem of this great app good but problem with lion

I am an elementary school teacher and this is a fantastic resource and an absolute bargain at $9.99. The range of artists is very impressive and the Canadian content is extensive. The database is ingeniously organized with names a nd dates of works shown chronologically. Go to the Art Authority to preview artists and paintings available. Highly recommended.

Functionally the App performs swimmingly. A really great way to bring high quailty art onto your computer from the internet. This App increases everybodies access to art significantly beyond conventional internet searching, browsing and downloading. The overview collections could expand (hopefully) pushing this one forward into the territory of greatness! Also it would be nice to have more info on hand, currently linking broad topic headers (i.e art or "van Gough) to the Wikipedia page is laudable, it would be really first class to provide or link to paragraph length info and/or criticism specific of the individual works especially the highly treasured/historical pieces. There is no way to query the database. Artists are collected into the era and movement to which they contributed. For the majority of artists I found that the collections were incomplete (Munch), on the other hand some were much better (van Gough) than what you will find in an average book collection specific to the individual. Image size and quality is a non-issue, everything looks perfect, colours match what you would see in a gallery and there are no noticable defects to the files. Larger monitors will enjoy improved viewing space where large pictures will be slightly shrunk on smaller screens. Would be interesting to hear someones experience connecting to a TV monitor as a better gauge of true image quailty. Nothing I found was the quality of the masterpieces of the Prado Museum available in Google Earth, or even true HD for that matter. On the other hand the images download quickly and the program is responsive even when handeling large collections. Thanks for the great App! Already one of my favourite.

The database of pictures is impressive. I find the Itunes style index unattractive though it works. While it would be nice to have a textual overview for each period and each artist included with the program rather than links to wiki in my view its absolutely necessary for a program like this to provide this for each image. The generic link to the artist on wiki is clumsy and not good enough. Needs work.

I was kind of disappointed with the Mac App version of this application after being impressed with the iPad version. This version lacks the intuitiveness of the iPad version. For $10 I expect a little more from the program than a file folder of images and a display window, which is frankly what I could get doing a google search for an artist. Shuffling through an index of names is tedious, especially when Im just trying to browse new artists I havent heard of before. I dont want to have to load the entire collection every time only to underwhelmed, so previews would be good. The program has the potential to be great if they can improve the usability of the program and provide more preferences as they do for the iPad version. I suspect improvements are likely and I will gladly give a higher rating to reflect those changes when they come.

It is really a nice idea to provide us this sort of applications. There are some personal suggestions: 1. If there could be a sidebar could show the info of the art works ( artist, year, type, location) permanently. 2. It seems that when different collections were opened, they were opened in different windows. 3. If the timeline of each collection could also be showed in sidebar or somewhere else.

The images are just taken from Wikipedia and are often in a very bad, low resolution. You are better off Googling the artists and saving pictures from there. I just wasted ¥1200 on this.

I rarely ever review anything, but this app is so bad that I have to. I downloaded it expecting to find a large amount of paintings, at decent resolution, with some info. Lets take Basquiat for example: I used their clunky interface, that basically has you select artists by browsing for files (like in finder), to find Basquiat. Being a very popular artist I figured hed have a lot of paintings. There were 17. One painting was repeated three times, then two others were repeated twice. So there really wasnt 17. They are extremely low-res, some maybe 300px. As for the info, it will just take you to the artists wikipedia page in safari. I recall one image not even being a painting but the logo from artnet. Another example is Jeff Koons. The only work of his that they have is directly from his official site. Dont buy. Absolutely not worth $9.99.

Art Authority is my favorite app on the iPad. It has a wonderful, deep collection of art. Some areas are skimpy, of course, but overall this is a fabulous collection of art. This Mac version could use some improvement in navigation. There seem to be 3 browsing environments -- the UI of the app itself, plus Finder, which I get plopped into occasionally, and Safari, which pops up if I double click on a painting in a show. I can find the art in all three environments, but YUCK, it is quite confusing. Also, the iPad version has very easy navigation to wikipedia pages on the artists. I cant figure out how to do that on the Mac yet. In sum, the art here is great. The migration from the well-thought out iPad interface is OK, but I expect it will improve in later versions.

So, heres the deal: I have a thing about finding great desktop backgrounds. This app does it for me. It allows me to find an adequate amount of art to display as my background. Honestly, there is more art than I would find the time to look at, and I have an obsessive personality and huge impulse control issues. I really enjoy this app, and reccommend it to anyone.

Art Authority for Mac provides the same comprehensive coverage as the iPad version, but lacks the latters slick interface. However, it compensates by allowing for larger images. If your idea of value is that $10 should get you 40,000 super high resolution images, then you will certainly be disappointed in both versions, especially if your focus is on modern art. However, if you think $10 is a bargain for 20,000 images that look good or great in large windows on a 24" monitor, then you will be excited about the Mac version. Thousands of beautiful images, arranged chronologically within artist, most of which you are unlikely to see in museums or books, unless you are extraordinarily diligent in pursuing them. If youre really interested in painting, but lack this diligence, this app would be a great way to deepen your appreciation of this vast subject.

The title sums it up. There are a few errors - an anunciation and the mosaic of Christ from the Hagia Sophia mixed in with Greek art, for example. I really hope they continue to add works.

Otherwise a beautiful app.

You would expect from a $10 app that the photos of the art would be of a higher resolution and quality than those easily found using a basic Google Image search. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This is somewhat understandable for more recent works that are under copyright and thus present certain limitations, but for older works this is simply unacceptable. An app of this sort has enormous potential for those interested in art but it is really not up to par yet.

I got really excited about having an app that was a concise compilation of, apparently, everything; its always nice to be able to pull up a quick reference, which is one redeeming aspect of this app. Im dissappointed, however, because the images are downloaded directly into your computer -- as in files -- which takes up a substantial amount of space, and the "information" that this app claims to provide on works and artists it actually a direct link to Wikipedia. Thats the "in-depth information" the descriptions claims to provide. So, in summation, I paid $5 on links to a website I can access for free, and for a whole lot of space on my computer to be wasted. Some pictures are also terrible quality (I know they say that its a copyright issue, but its frustrating because the app is not free). The only postive aspect to this app is its organization of works based on period and / or artist…but if you know anything about art, you can do that yourself. Not worth the price, however discounted; I would spend that money on a trip to a museum instead.

I generally do not review applications online, but this disaster for the Mac inflamed me to action. I have not seen this aplication on an iPad, but here the interface is a disaster. Navigation is by scrolling through a long list of names or subgroups. There is no search by artist, name of painting, period, or any other attribute that might be connected to a painting or sculpture. The collection of Rodin is pathetic. Sculptures with only a single view and so few are there. There were many other artists with poor representation in their collections. When in a painting, there is no reference to enlarged views. This application is fine for someone who wants a shabby resolution collection of art viewable with click links to a Wiki online for further information about the work. Selected works seem based not by most significant, but what they could easily get their hands on. My recommendations: provide better interface. Enable search by work name, artist, and key words. Make option to see what close up views available. For sculptures provide reference view for what other views are available. Provide links to google museum when sculpture has a live view available. Have option for better screen resolution so that can enjoy at larger screen sizes. Remember, not all have tiny screen macs and the new Apple Television if at large screen size will make a mess of small resolution images. Yet this should be an option so that those with less needs do not need to wait time for download. Do a better job of selecting works to better represent the artists. Provide a list of how many of each artists works are in the collection before purchase so that those with special passions will not be as dissapointed as myself. Would love to get my money back! Do not waste yours unless they fix this mess.

I rarely give bad reviews but I had to here. First, great idea. Our great art doesnt get nearly enough pupils on it so, bravo for even taking this idea on. But, I gotta say, the app needs the touch of an experienced developer. Seems as though the app may have been a first real app kinda deal for the developer? By way of constructive criticism, here are the three things that need attention: 1. Overall lack of UI polish. 2. Unclear first run experience. e.g., wasnt clear to me that I needed to open a file to get artists work to display (maybe Im an idiot though) 3. Selecting all artists and then opening them opens as many windows as artists selected -- not intuitive and had to force quit. So, Im done fussing, and am now going focus on the great art this app re-packages for us. Thanks for trying!

As slick as the Welcome Panels were, it took several false starts until I figured out how to see the artwork. I was very anxious, so perhaps a little impatient, but the UI seems like its missing something -- like maybe an In-App portfolio from which to choose the Art rather than falling back on the basic folder structure of the Mac. My TrackPad was also of no use, as the controls within the software just ignored it. Thank you for making the Art available for our desktop monitor. The iPad is great, but not as good as a larger screen. (Older eyes need larger views) I look forward to any improvements you decide to make! Maybe someday youll enable us to send the images from our Mac to the AppleTV for a proper Show!