whatisapainting.com

Overview

• URL: https://whatisapainting.com/
• Created by: The Provenance Lab, Leuphana University Lüneburg
• Associated project: Modern Migrants: Paintings from Europe in US Museums
• Contact: provenance@leuphana.de

Description

An algorithmically generated interactive website exploring how museums classify and describe paintings. Each page refresh randomly selects a different institutional classification from US museum data and presents it through a dynamic, Mondrian-style generative layout.

The project reveals that there is no universal consensus on what a "painting" is, even among major museums — demonstrating the diversity of artistic mediums from watercolor on canvas to oil on asbestos. This definitional plurality is a foundational challenge for the Modern Migrants project's scope.

Data Source

Draws from classification data (media.json) collected through the Modern Migrants project.

Key Reference

Maurice Denis (1890): "a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order"