Art Zoom: A Guided Tour Like You’ve Never Been On Before

Listen to Maggie Rogers, Jarvis Cocker, and more narrate some of the most famous artworks in the world

By Google Arts & Culture

The Scream (1910) by Edvard MunchThe Munch Museum, Oslo

What happens when pop culture icons meet some of the most famous artworks in the world?

The Tower of Babel (1563) by Pieter Bruegel the ElderKunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Art Zoom is a new video series that invites you on a guided tour of some of the world’s best-known masterpieces. Taking cues from ASMR, each video is narrated by a famous creative voice full of personal insight.

The birth of Venus (1483 - 1485) by Sandro BotticelliUffizi Gallery

Each painting explored has been captured with Art Camera, which captures paintings in ultra-high resolution, “gigapixel” images, allowing you to discover paintings inch by inch.

So sit back, relax, and take a personal tour of some of the world’s greatest masterpieces.

The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent van GoghMoMA The Museum of Modern Art

Maggie Rogers: 'The Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh

Maggie Rogers is an American musician and singer-songwriter hailing from Maryland, USA. She rose to fame in 2016 after her song Alaska was played to Pharrell Williams during a masterclass at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Since then, Rogers has played Coachella, appeared on Saturday Night Live and in 2019, dropped her major debut album Heard It In A Past Life.

Listen to Rogers talk about the dramatic contrasts in Van Gogh’s 'Starry Night', the way his painted stars look like eyes when you zoom in close, and why this particular artwork makes her think of David Bowie’s music.

Art Zoom: Maggie Rogers x Vincent Van Gogh

The Gare St-Lazare (1877) by Claude MonetThe National Gallery, London

Jarvis Cocker: 'La Gare Saint Lazare' by Claude Monet

Jarvis Cocker is a British musician. He is best known as being the founder and frontman of the Britpop band Pulp. In between creating music with Pulp, Cocker has also released music as a solo artist, had his own radio show, and directed multiple music videos.

Discover why Cocker compares Claude Monet’s 'La Gare Saint Lazare' to an 80s horror movie and an ACDC concert, and listen to him explain why Impressionism is called what it is.

Art Zoom: Jarvis Cocker x Claude Monet

The Tower of Babel (1563) by Pieter Bruegel the ElderKunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Feist: 'The Tower of Babel' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Leslie Feist is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter. On top of being a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene, the artist has also forged her own solo career. Since 1999, she has released five studio albums, received four Grammy award nominations, and released a documentary film about her process called Look at What the Light Did Now.

As well as telling us the story behind Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 'The Tower of Babel', discover why Feist compares the renaissance artist and his contemporaries to indie folk-pop duo Kings of Convenience and singer, songwriter and activist, Chance the Rapper.

Art Zoom: Feist x Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Scream (1910) by Edvard MunchThe Munch Museum, Oslo

Girl in Red: 'The Scream' by Edvard Munch

Girl in Red (otherwise known as Marie Ulven Ringheim) is a Norwegian indie pop singer-songwriter. Since September 2017, she started the Girl in Red project, writing, recording, and producing music in her bedroom – but you can find her tunes all over the internet today.

Listen to Girl in Red as she details the angsty character that has made 'The Scream' one of the most iconic paintings in art history (and a very popular emoji too). So who is pictured in 'The Scream' after all? Tune in to find out.

Art Zoom: Girl in Red x Edvard Munch

The birth of Venus (1483 - 1485) by Sandro BotticelliUffizi Gallery

Lolo Zouaï: 'The Birth of Venus' by Sandro Botticelli

The French-Algerian R&B and pop musician Lolo Zouaï released her debut album High Highs to Low Lows in 2019 and had been one to watch ever since. Singing in both French and English, Zouaï celebrates being bilingual through her songs which explore the peaks and troughs of life.

Ever wondered what the mystery is behind the beautiful woman in the shell? Zouaï has you covered! Find out what makes Venus’s beauty so unusually appealing with a little help from Zouaï’s Italian ex-boyfriend.

Art Zoom: Lolo Zouaï x Sandro Botticelli

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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