Samsung televisions are no longer the only ones to integrate artwork from the world's greatest museums into their displays. LG Electronics has announced the signing of a multi-year agreement with London's National Gallery, marking a significant expansion in the company's art-focused television offerings.
The prestigious museum located on Trafalgar Square, which celebrated its bicentennial in 2024, and LG Electronics have formalized a partnership that makes the South Korean brand the official modern and contemporary art partner of the museum. Through this collaboration, LG commits to supporting the National Gallery's current and future artistic initiatives while gaining access to the museum's extensive collection for its television platform.
According to LG, this alliance aims to integrate the National Gallery's greatest masterpieces into its Gallery platform, which will be accessible on LG OLED televisions starting in 2025 across more than 150 countries. The initiative represents a major step forward in bringing world-class art directly into people's homes through advanced display technology.
The National Gallery houses more than 2,400 works spanning from the 13th to the 19th centuries, including masterpieces by renowned artists such as Van Gogh, Turner, Seurat, and Gentileschi. The museum attracts millions of visitors annually and is now seeking to forge stronger connections with audiences through digital platforms while engaging a new generation of art enthusiasts. According to museum leadership, this project will help "make classical and contemporary works better known while offering new perspectives on art."
LG's Gallery application, available on LG TVs running webOS, currently provides access to more than 4,000 selected images and artworks from major museums and artists, and will now include an exclusive selection from London's National Gallery. Users can seamlessly transition from viewing an impressionist landscape to contemporary photography with just their remote control. This feature transforms the television into a digital art gallery when not actively being used for entertainment purposes.
Through Gallery, LG has been multiplying prestigious partnerships, including collaborations with Ubisoft and Frieze, making accessible masterpieces such as Van Gogh's "Wheatfield with Cypresses" and Seurat's "Bathers at Asnières." These partnerships demonstrate LG's commitment to bringing high-quality cultural content to its television platform.
The competition in this space remains fierce, with Samsung presenting innovative features at the recent IFA 2025 trade show in Berlin. Samsung showcased a function that allows users to take photos of themselves and display them on their television screen as slightly transformed artwork, resembling a painted portrait. This feature adds a personal touch to the art display experience.
Samsung continues to offer an impressive collection of artworks through its Art Store application, featuring pieces from the world's greatest museums. Recent additions include works from Paris's Musée d'Orsay, along with established partnerships with institutions such as the Met, Tate, and the Van Gogh Museum. Samsung's The Frame Pro series has been particularly successful in this art-focused television market segment.
Meanwhile, TCL and Hisense have taken more modest approaches but also offer the ability to display selected artworks or AI-generated images on both traditional TVs and Frame-style models. TCL's NXTFrame series represents their entry into this specialized market, though with fewer partnership arrangements than their larger competitors.
The underlying concept for all manufacturers is to provide alternative content instead of a blank black screen when televisions are not actively in use. This approach transforms televisions into functional art displays, adding aesthetic value to living spaces while showcasing cultural treasures from around the world. As this market segment continues to evolve, partnerships with prestigious cultural institutions are becoming increasingly important differentiators for television manufacturers.
