Best Art History Apps

Google Arts and Culture is a massive collection of videos and images of cultural artifacts from over 2,000 museums around the world. It allows anyone, including students and teachers, to explore real-world collections, such as museums and galleries, from the comfort of their digital device. 

Google Arts & Culture app puts the worlds of art, science, history, and travel at your fingertips. In addition to letting you take a selfie and compare your face to images from great works of art, it also lets you find information about artists, museums, historic figures, places, and historic events. There's so much here: museum information, theater, music, travel, and profiles of people from different backgrounds and cultures, and it's presented in a way that takes full advantage of current technology.

Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone

Smartify is a free art identification app that allows you to scan artworks in order to not only identify them but also access instant art commentary on your mobile device. 

Smartify, available for both iOS and Android, which scans historic pieces and provides information about them. Much to Redd's dismay, the app will recognize forgeries as the real deal. This will show you the real art piece and its name well before conversing with Blathers, thus deflating the scammer's operation. Smartify is already in use in over 30 of the world's major galleries and museums, including the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Met in New York and LACMA in Los Angeles.

Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone

Most people could name and identify a few art styles.  For example impressionism, cubism or pop art.  A few more could be named but, perhaps, not so confidently identified.  As the developers of Kuinji! say, the distinction between divisionism and pointillism is not so easily spotted as the difference between pop art and cubism, say. This app aims to raise the art education of children and, perhaps, even their teachers.  It is a quiz app with multiple levels that are progressed through by deciding on the style to which a pictured artwork belongs.

Before downloading this art education app, you might notice that it has a 12+ age rating.  This is due to the content of the artworks within rather than the app itself. Whether you think this art history app is appropriate for younger children will depend on your viewpoint regarding the nudity found in paintings.

Devices: iPad and iPhone

DailyArt art history app is like a more mature version of Art Saga. It boasts a collection and histories for over 2,000 pieces of artwork along with 700 artist biographies. This art history app also features Wear OS support, a home screen widget, and it keeps track of what you have and haven’t seen. The histories of each piece reads like an article on a website so it’s not quite as entertaining as something like Art Saga. However, the sheer volume of content will keep you busy for a long time.

Devices: Android, iPad and iPhone

Many museums and educational organizations create apps to accompany their exhibits and collections. It’s a great way to take a virtual field trip to the Museum of Modern Art. MOMA Art Lab features 9 different activities that explore the use of shapes and lines in unique ways. For example, create a virtual mobile and watch it move, or create a collage and shake your iPad to reconstruct the collage. MOMA matches an artist’s work with the activity to educate children about modern art while creating their own masterpieces. Educational App Store really likes how the activity directions can all be read aloud to children making this art history app accessible to children as young as four. In addition, there is a light-bulb icon which provides ideas for creating your own artwork.

Devices: iPad and iPhone

Some artists have become classroom staples for primary school art lessons.  Seurat and Mondrian are popular because their artwork has an aspect that, superficially at least, is easy to understand. Children, regardless of their own artistic confidence, feel that there is an access point to trying to emulate the styles they see.

Classrooms should also welcome Paul Klee to their art lessons.  This Swiss artist's style also has an accessibility, despite the depth and complexity, that gives his work a place on the walls of the world's art galleries. To this, the art teacher should also factor in this art education app. It is an introduction to the artist's work in a way that makes interactions and content almost seamless. Everything in this art history app is constructed using Klee's work and style and then animated in a way that works beautifully. It’s a great art history app for everyone who love art or would like to know more about its history and share this knowledge with their friends or family.

Devices: iPad and iPhone

Play, learn and create a masterpiece with elements taken from the original works of five important painters: Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Henri Rousseau e Paul Klee. PlayART is an educational tool which introduces children and grown-ups to the world of art in an enjoyable, stimulating and innovative way.

Devices: iPad and iPhone

Have you always wanted to know the name of that famous painting you have seen a thousand times? Have you wondered which artist painted The Nightwatch? This art history app features over 100 works of art from over 100 artists and has 5 modes of learning about each piece. You can learn by artist, by painting or take a quiz about each. You can also try out game mode which randomly asks artists and painting names and scores you on how quick you answer.

Devices: Android