Here are 5 Instagram accounts art lovers should follow

Over the past nine years, Instagram has been changing the way we consume art, sometimes even propelling emerging artists to fame. The image-sharing app, where the hashtag #art appears on more than 526 million posts, also allows outsiders to get an inside-look into prominent art institutions.

While recent studies have been pointing out the lack of diversity in major museum collections, some art-related Instagram accounts try to mend this imbalance, highlighting the work of non-male and non-white artists.

Here are a selection of five of accounts offering a unique and distinct vision into the art world:

Hans Ulrich Obrist, @hansulrichobrist

 

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Sjón Question 51 Is dreaming back in fashion? #sjon #MIF19 @mifestival #dreaming #adamthirlwell

A post shared by Hans Ulrich Obrist (@hansulrichobrist) on Jul 10, 2019 at 10:23pm PDT

The Swiss curator, who is also the artistic director of London-based Serpentine Galleries, boasts a sizeable 270k following.

Obrist famously staged his first exhibition, entitled The Kitchen Show, in his kitchen, while he was a student of political economics at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland.

His account features photographs of handwritten doodles from his friends, including New York-based pop artist Sarah Morris, British artist Duggie Fields, American filmmaker David Lynch, and Chilean poet Cecilia Vicuña.

Banksy, @banksy

The anonymous British artist has an unpredictable Instagram account, where his 6.3 million followers discover his latest street art projects.

 

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. Archway salvaged from Heathrow Airport.

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Jun 11, 2019 at 8:30am PDT

New artworks appear unannounced like his recent collaboration with British rapper Stormzy, for whom he designed a customised stab-proof vest ahead of his set at Glastonbury festival.

Although diverse in nature, Banksy’s artworks tackle timely socio-political themes, including consumerism, climate change and police brutality.

Jennifer Higgie, @jenniferhiggie

 

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The great German artist Käthe Kollwitz was born 8 July 1867. A painter, printmaker and sculptor her work is a powerful and often heartbreaking exploration of the human condition. Her beloved son was killed serving on the front in World War 1; this terrible event turned her into a lifelong pacifist. In 1944, she wrote in her diary: ‘Pacifism simply is not a matter of calm looking on; it is hard work.’ She died in 1945, before the end of World War II. Three museums in Germany are now dedicated to her work: In Berlin, Cologne and Moritzburg, and one in Belgium, Koekelare. (Thanks to @favereys for correction.) The Käthe Kollwitz Prize was established in 1960 for an artist living and working in Germany. Bow down. #kathekollwitz PS thanks to @jennyramkalawon for letting me know a show of Kollwitz’s prints is opening @britishmuseum 12 September this year. Thanks to @utbberg for alerting me to the fact that there’s a Kollwitz / Munch show currently on @munchmuseum in Oslo

A post shared by Jennifer Higgie (@jenniferhiggie) on Jul 8, 2019 at 12:40pm PDT

Higgie, who is a writer and co-editor of Frieze Magazine, dedicates her Instagram to women in the arts. Each day, she uploads an artwork by a female artist with a caption outlining her significance in art history across the ages.

Posts have been dedicated to the oeuvre of American writer and journalist Janet Flanner, Ecuadorian painter Araceli Gilbert de Blomberg, and Flemish artist Caterina van Hemessen.

Alice Rawsthorn, @alice.rawsthorn

 

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John Lautner | 2. For the first few years after John Lautner left Frank Lloyd Wright’s office to establish his own practice in 1940, he continued to supervise the construction of his mentor’s projects in California, while designing modest houses, bars, coffee shops and restaurants. Many of those early commercial projects were executed in an exuberantly futuristic style inspired by the Atomic Age. Featuring glass, metal and neons, these buildings were dubbed Googie Architecture after the coffee shop of the same name that Lautner designed in 1949 on the corner of the Sunset Strip and Crescent Heights. Yet he chose a subtler, less obtrusive approach to the design of this project at Desert Hot Springs in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs. It began in 1947 when Lautner was commissioned by the movie producer Lucien Hubbard to design a desert retreat where he could stay with the starlet Mary Pickford and their friends. Originally Hubbard planned to build a desert community of hundred units, but he abandoned the scheme after four were completed. Each one is trapezoid in shape, with skylights that look up to the stars at night, and large windows opening on to walled desert gardens. Designed by Lautner to withstand the extremes of the desert climate, the retreat was embedded in the ground, and looked so forbidding that many locals suspected it of being a secret government bunker. After years of neglect, it was reinvented as the Desert Hot Springs Motel, before being reinvented again as The Lautner Compound by the designers, Tracy Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge. #design #architecture #johnlautner #lucienhubbard #marypickford #palmsprings #deserthotsprings #deserthotspringsmotel #lautnercoumpound #tracybeckmann #ryantrowbridge #midcenturymodern

A post shared by Alice Rawsthorn (@alice.rawsthorn) on Jul 16, 2019 at 3:46am PDT

Design critic for The New York Times Alice Rawsthorn describes her Instagram account as her “daily diary on design,” which is followed by 58.8k people.

Each week, she picks a different topic and illustrates it with an image accompanied with a detailed caption.

Rawsthorn sometimes focuses on prominent architects and designers from across the world, such as Marcel Breuer, Charlie Rennie Mackintosh, and Louise Brigham.

Danielle Krysa, @the jealouscurator

 

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He had me at ‘ceramic banana head’ … fun and fantastic work by @kojikasatani on the site today 🍌💛 Link in profile

A post shared by TJC [danielle krysa] (@thejealouscurator) on Jul 16, 2019 at 10:39am PDT

Artist and writer Danielle Krysa created her website The Jealous Curator in 2009, to highlight artworks by fellow contemporary artists that “made [her] jealous”.

Her Instagram account, which is followed by some 193k people, is an extension of the website, featuring a new international artist each day.