Review written by Shun-Sho Carmack
In the arts sector, many have attempted to make art history accessible to the uninitiated viewer. This is no less prevalent in the realm of apps. Run a simple phrase search for "art history" on your favorite app provider and the page will showcase dozens of options available to download. Smart Art – Art History Escape is another recent bid to promote interest in art history with educational materials through the lenses of stories and pictures.
Figure 1: Eight iPhone screenshots showing the introductory slides welcoming new users to the Smart Art app. Source: Author.
Disclaimer
For this product review, I downloaded the free app from the Apple App Store to my phone. This review primarily discusses the usability of the no-cost version, but it does address paid features visible to the free user.
Additionally, while I consider myself technologically competent, I would not consider myself a highly savvy app user. Before this review, the only other arts education app I had downloaded and used was the Google Arts & Culture app. Although I documented initial perceptions and results during that experience, I did not thoroughly assess and review the Google Art and Culture app. Despite my lack of an art history degree, I bring a strong background in studio arts, journalism, and library and information science. As such, part of this review will also be discussing the app’s origin and documentation.
Overview
Smart Art – Art History Escape, or Smart Art for short, was launched July 8, 2020, and is classified as an education app. Its stated mission is to "make you feel inspired and know your way around in arts and culture," delivering short historical and thematic histories paired with featured paintings.
The app is free to download with in-app purchase options to unlock the entire catalog. Boasting over 500 original stories and a collection of over 70,000 paintings, each entry is cataloged with thematic tags and connections to similar or related works. Themes range from Secret Symbols to Medieval Monday.
A monthly subscription costs $4.99 and the annual fee is $29.99, just a few cents over half the monthly cost. The app can be used without an account (only purchasers can create an account) and does not run advertising in any of its pricing models. Currently, the app is only available through the Apple App Store and is compatible with both the iPhone and iPad. A WiFi connection is required to access content, although some text-based attributes remain visible when disconnected from the internet.
Targeted Demographic
Based on the App Store description, the app’s intended audience is 12+ with a bend towards the enthusiast or professional. The content might appeal more towards amateurs and the art curious with a high emphasis on images and jargon-light text. Texts employ a conversational tone, entry titles are short thoughts or quips, and narratives include emojis. However, the extensive taxonomy of terms and images indicate that exploration may be entertaining for more knowledgeable users.
Features
The app has three primary sections: Daily Stories, Artwork Collection, and a Search function. All sections emphasize images for initial engagement. Each section is described in detail below.
Figure 2: Three iPhone screenshots showing the primary sections: Daily Stories, Search, and Artwork Collection (from left to right). Source: Author.
Daily Stories: Identified by a scroll icon, this section offers users two types of narrative options. Each day, a new story is loaded for users, pairing a focal artwork with factoids, image themes and interpretations, and artist history. Areas allowing users to explore topic tags, related artwork, and additional readings are at the end of each narrative. The Daily Stories page also engages users through Highlights. This post follows the same narrative framework of a Story but with an accompanying gallery of curated images that relate to the Highlight's topic or theme.
Artwork Collection: With an icon reminiscent of a circular mosaic, this section opens with a patchwork gallery of images, seemingly arranged in no particular order. Each entry provides the artwork's title, date, and artist. Beneath the primary information are tags along with additional suggested artwork.
Search: Pressing the Smart Art logo—an image of a red, brown, and beige bird—allows users to access this third feature. A search page emerges from the bottom of the user interface to fill the screen. Here, users can type in a text search bar or click multiple text or image tags. Sectioned by artist names, art styles, genres, and schools, each tag division has an information box that explains what the section means. After selecting desired terms, the search can be executed within Stories or Artworks but not both.
Paid Content: Subscribers have the opportunity to use additional app features. The Favorite feature allows users to build personal saved collections of stories or paintings. The Favorites pages are visible to non-subscribers but not functional. Likewise, although the Search function delivers query results, users can only access these results as subscribers.
Additional Features: Interactive features include a zoom feature, which allows users to examine artwork closely. The app is also equipped with a home screen widget and options for push notifications.
Figure 3: Two iPhone screenshots illustrating zoom functionality. The image on the right shows the detail of a small area of the image on the left. Source: Author.
Authorship and Origin
Smart Art's developer is Ask Connoisseur LLC, an entity registered in Delaware. Little information is available about this organization, but according to public records, the LLC was incorporated March 4, 2019. In the app's About page, creators are identified as a two-person team, Marina and Dmitry, with Marina's website listed. After exploring her site and following a trail of links, I discovered that Smart Art emerged from an experimental project Marina conducted on Facebook. Forming a group with the same name, Marina began that project, intending to make art history accessible through short stories to anyone regardless of previous knowledge or education level. Before Facebook shut down the group due to community rules violations, the group had grown to over 3,100 members within seven months. Following this, the original concept was reinvented into the Smart Art app.
Pros
UI/UX: The first word I thought was "slick": Smart Art provides an almost effortless experience for users interacting with the app. Navigating between the three primary features was easy to accomplish by merely following my own curiosity and pressing buttons. The app distinguishes between simple text and clickable objects by designating the latter with rounded edges. Any text or image encompassed by a rounded border could be pressed to access a different entry.
Tone, Wording, and Format: The light-hearted approach to art history makes the material relatable and less intimidating to those who are new to the subject. Spacing each narrative by sentence-long factoids, stories employ bullets, varying font sizes, visual effects, and emojis to break up the text. This prompts quick consumption.
Image Quality: Pictures are provided in high quality, making viewing them a pleasure. The colors are intense and the details are clear.
Cons
Authority/Veracity: Despite extensive sleuthing on the developers, the image and information sources remain unknown. While separate literature states that the writings are Marina's, she made no mention of her art history training or authority. However, the creators want you to consider this an academic source, suggesting its use as a supplement for art education and research. Given the writing's nature, it is impossible to determine where the facts end and opinion begins. This is problematic as it does not provide accountability and creates a risk for misinformation. Without documentation, it is unclear how the app can use the images and monetize them.
Limited Unpaid Access: Despite its extensive collection, nonpaying users have limited access to collections. Without paying, I was initially able to access the four most recent Stories and Highlights and the first four listed images in the Artwork Collection.
Note: During my exploration of the app, the Artwork Collection feature suddenly allowed me to access all of its images on that page. It is unclear how or why this occurred.
Engagement: The app does not provide any way to engage with other app users. What was a key component of the Facebook iteration is absent in the app, removing the ability to see differing perspectives or classifications of artwork.
Scope: The collection primarily represents Western art with an inclusion of some Japanese art. Ignoring paintings from other cultures furthers the divisive concept that great art is white art. This portrayal of art history to newcomers is troubling as it furthers an exclusive white narrative with token references to other cultures and ethnicities. This is in opposition to the ongoing move to reframe art history.
Final Thoughts
Smart Art offers swift and easy engagement with paintings and their histories. The conversational nature of entries made them easy to digest and less taxing with limited time. It also increased the appeal of exploring additional artwork, and that is important. Its images are beautiful and inspired me to explore, leading me to spend more time on the app than I expected.
Unfortunately, this app's limitations were concerning. The lack of attribution to source materials leads me to doubt the veracity of every fact. Without knowing where the information is sourced from, I found myself wondering if even the titles were accurate. The narrowed cultural scope was also disappointing, furthering the too-prevalent idea that the only artwork of value is from Western culture. Although this may not have been the creators’ intent, the inclusion of only some Eastern art comes across as tokenism and not inclusion.
Finally, available content for non-subscribers was too limited, lowering the usefulness of the app overall. Without the breadth of access and support of valid documentation, Smart Art becomes a novelty piece. Smart Art is not the only app that provides arts history education, as I mentioned in the introduction. Downloading and examining Smart Art for its functionality for app development is highly recommended, but for all other purposes, I would recommend looking elsewhere.