The
Grand Palais in Paris is current host to what has been described as an outstanding exhibition of the work of Claude Monet. The exhibition opened on the 22nd September and is set to run through until the 24th January 2011 in the National Galleries at the Palais.
The exhibition seeks to be a full survey of Monets development as an artist, and what makes the exhibition particularly interesting is that a full
focused artist website has been built to cover all aspects of the works shown and the exhibition. What's more, the website is truly stunning in the way that it operates. Using examples of Monet's work as backdrops and using Flash to have them turn from subdued black and white scenes, to full colour masterpieces.
As well as being graphically stunning the website has got some great content that lets you get to know Monet a little bit better, which is a credit to
RMN (Reunion des Musees Nationaux) who work on exhibiting, publishing, disseminating, promoting, developing and acquiring in the arts. The website is certainly a success for them and drawing attention to one of their arguably top projects.
Of all of the sections of the website, I would recommend following the Journey, which is one of the main links on the homepage. This lets you explore Monets work through a series of interactive scenes that follow through a sequence of moving imagery. In saying that, there isn't really a section of website that hasn't had the same level of care and attention. Even the practical information about visiting has a great example of a Monet self portrait.
My only personal criticisms of the website are that you really do have to be patient to get from one place to the next (something which the loading screen does ask of you), which is a consequence of everything being Flash based, and the link to turn the music off could perhaps have been more prominent
Screen shots courtesy of RMN