Look Up! All Signs Point to Art

Featured on nytimes.com

Can the likes of Jasper Johns, Edward Hopper and Cindy Sherman help jump-start the struggling billboard business?

This summer, images by dozens of famous American artists will be plastered on 50,000 displays from electronic billboards to bus shelters, an initiative by leading museums and the billboard industry to create one of the largest outdoor art exhibitions seen in the country.

Museum directors hope the project, called Art Everywhere, will draw more visitors to their galleries, while the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, devoting about $500,000 to the effort, is betting that great artworks will make looking up fashionable again. With the web pulling dollars away from billboard advertising, some in the advertising industry see it as a move to get millions of Americans to “take your head out of your phone,” explained Rob Schwartz, the global creative president of TBWA, the worldwide advertising agency.

Five museums collaborated — the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — with each submitting 20 works from their collections, from gritty urban scenes to ’60s Pop Art to challenging images reflecting race and gender politics. They include Mr. Johns’s “Three Flags,” Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington, Grant Wood’s seminal “American Gothic” and Glenn Ligon’s self-portrait of his shaved head.

Beginning on Monday and running through May 7, the public can view the 100 selections at ArtEverywhereUS.org and vote for favorites. The 50 images that receive the most votes will be announced on June 20 and be reproduced on outdoor displays coast to coast in August.

Click here to read the full article.