Samsung‘s The Frame TV is based on a simple and brilliant idea: what if your TV could also be a picture frame for some of the world’s greatest artworks? And now its catalog has been joined by nearly 30 new artworks courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA for short.
The new Art Store arrivals were selected by curator Daria Greene, who wanted to honor the museum’s history and vision. The artworks include Frida Kahlo’s “Fulang Chang and I” (1937), the first time Kahlo’s work has been available for display on the platform, Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” (1889), Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream” (1910) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Evening Star III” (1917).
Can’t make it to the museum? Let the museum come to you
When we reviewed the 2022 version of the Samsung The Frame, we said that its new anti-reflective screen made it particularly good for viewing works of art. While even the best TVs can’t quite match the experience of seeing an original artwork in place – Van Gogh’s The Starry Night is available with massive zoom levels on the MoMA website, btu I’m told that it’s still not as breathtaking as being up close with the original – the combination of a QLED display, 4K resolution and anti-reflective display is as good as you can get if New York isn’t convenient to you.
The arrival of the artworks from MoMA is significant for another reason: until now the majority of artworks available for The Frame were public domain, either because they were so old their copyright had expired or in rarer cases, because the artist had given away their copyright.
That inevitably meant the catalog was skewed towards older works of art, and while they’re of course valuable too it did mean that the choice of modern art was a little limited. So it’ll be nice to see the MoMA collection take its place alongside other modern works by artists such as Keith Haring, Jen Stark and Shinique Smith.