#NoFilter

Tap on a painting below to remove Instagram’s Clarendon filter. Tap again to reapply.

jacksonpollack

No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollack

Clarendon freshens up the sludge grays, renders the yellows more acid, the blacks purplier, the whole whorl more vibrantly distinct.

amedeomodigliani

Nu Couché, 1918, Amedeo Modigliani

Here you can see how the Clarendon filter corrects for overly rosy skin tones.

pablopicasso

Les Femmes d’Alger, 1955, Pablo Picasso

Clarendon = brighter whites and stripier stripes.

rembrandtvanrijn

Portrait of Maerten Soolmans, 1634, Rembrandt van Rijn

Clarendon is modern. It’s LED not candle light.

markrothko

No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red), 1951, Mark Rothko

With #nofilter the scumbled color fields lack punch on the screen.

jacksonpollack

Number 17A, 1948, Jackson Pollack

Clarendon improves the spaciousness of this work by increasing the contrast between the expressionist splatter and the painting’s ground.

paulgauguin

Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), 1892, Paul Gauguin

Here the algorithm’s brightening impact works like a solvent, as though dissolving some drab topcoat of varnish.

paulcézanne

The Card Players, 1893, Paul Cézanne

Unfiltered, nineteenth century smog and pipe smoke darken the scene.

willemdekooning

Interchange, 1955, Willem de Kooning

Arguably the least succesful intervention, here the whitening filter overexposes the image and flattens the paint texture, concealing much of its masterfully gestural brush work.

leonardodavinci

Salvator Mundi, 1519, Leonardo da Vinci

Thousands of hours of conjectural retouching still left this contentiously attributed work in the shade. It takes an algorithm to bring the savior’s limpid light to the world.