ASU data project explores art market


Photo of maps showing data from Art Replica Networks research project.

A research project led by art history professor Julie Codell includes an interactive map that shows the geographical range of artworks bought during the transatlantic art trade.

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Julie Codell, an art history professor in the School of Art in Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, is currently researching the art market through data science.

Art Replica Networks, a project by Codell and Michael Simeone, director of data science and analytics for ASU Libraries, produces and analyzes network models and data visualizations based on transactions among private parties and vendors in the transatlantic art trade between 1850 and 2015. Given the explosion of art market studies, both historically and digitally, the project aims to use visualization to make complicated economic and geographical histories more accessible. An interactive map shows the geographical range of artworks that were actively and energetically sought in the transatlantic art trade. The digital format enables researchers to present the density of visual and documentary material pertaining to a large amount of data of sales with a clarity that would not be possible in print.

Learn more about the project on the ASU Library website.