With Eli Wilner , the railway line between a work of art and its frame is one that scarcely exists . His antique or hand - carved frames , which sell for up to $ 250,000 , can be seen in the White House , Metropolitan Museum of Art , Sotheby ’s and Christie ’s , surround works by artist like O’Keeffe , Monet , and Cézanne . Wilner even frame one of the earth ’s most expensive Picasso picture , which sold for $ 106.5 million .
“ Throughout the history of art,”Wilner toldThe New York Times , “ frames have been essential to the presentation of pictures . ” It makes sensory faculty , then , that the maestro framer would stretch his practice to the in style and most prolific artistic movement : the photos we snap with our phone .
eWilner Frames , theTimesreports , is an iOS app that allows substance abuser to lift their selfies and qat picture by putting them into one of the more than 100 physical body Wilner has design over the row of his calling . The app is devoid and includes four of his iconic designs , but a much wider excerpt of underframe is available for leverage in - app ( most will set you back about 99 cents ) .
“ In the digital age , as more people take and share photographs , it ’s crucial that we not forget how great frames can also heighten pictures from their wedding , honeymoon or bar mitsvah , and make them particular , ” Wilner narrate theTimes .
It ’s a lucid patterned advance in the march toward seeing iPhone photography as a legitimate soma of art , or at least not a habit that invites derision . Apple ’s " Shot on an iPhone 6 " campaign was so successful it ’s been rebooted for the iPhone 6s and Plus ; real user ' photos , dash on their phones , will seem on billboards in 85 cities around the cosmos , according toTIME . But the switch toward phone picture taking is n’t just come from within Apple ; even professional shutterbugs are trading their bulky bags of gearing for their headphone , includingNational Geographic ’s Mark Leong , who shotan entire editorial spread across China using an iPhone 6 .
Even the selfie , long considered the basest form of telephone photography , is gaining in prestige . The Atlanticdefended the selfie as an art frame , calling it “ a deliberate , aesthetic saying — it ’s a self - portrayal , which is an esthetic genre with an passing long pedigree . There can be bad self - portraits and near self - portraits , but the ego - portraiture is n’t bad or good in itself . Like any art , it depends on what you do with it . ”
I resolve to give eWilner a test - ride to see whether it could turn iPhone - quality pics into museum - quality art . Here , we have Franz Marc ’s famous 1911 expressionist painting , Dog Lying In the Snow .
WikimediaCommons// Public Domain
And , in contrast , an eWilner - framed photograph of my pawl , Maizy Schwartz :
Dana Schwartz // eWilner
every bit magnificent .
Although it ’s obvious that a Cézanne still - lifetime qualifies as prowess …
Wikimedia Commons// Public land
… the exact same can be say of this French toast Ruth Benedict in a vintage frame .
Download eWilner Frames
to give your brunch and pet pics the MoMA treatment they deserve — even if it ’s only in the virtual realm .
