How to Hang Art on Your Walls, Part 2
I love playing around with the ArtRooms app to experiment with different interior and framing possibilities for my own artwork. It’s a little bit addictive.
Two weeks ago, I kicked off a new blog series about exhibiting art in your home or office. (If you haven’t, be sure to check our How to Hang Art on Your Walls, Part 1.) This series picks up where we left off with How to Start a Meaningful Art Collection, a 3-part series on just that. Now that you’re purchasing art that you love, what do you do with it? How do you care for it? How do you create a meaningful visual experience in your home? And finally, how do you hang art, particularly if you’re allergic to power tools?
Kristin M. Roach, Material Studies, installation at Z.W. Mercantile in Ames, Iowa. Kristin began this project in 2007 to combat a creative block and created 4 rules for herself: 1) Find a 4×6 inch square of scrap mat board, 2) Tape to her drafting table, 3) Use Primary colors + white only, 4) Use scraps off her studio floor bound with wood glue. Learn more about Kristin and her work here.
Curating Your Space
Before you get started hanging work in your home or office, spend a bit of time figuring out which walls need art. (All walls, IMO.) Often, we have a large blank spot that is itching for a splash of color, but sometimes – particularly if it’s a new house or office – we’re starting from scratch.
The good news: there are no hard and fast rules to curation. The most liberating and creative way I’ve found is to imagine you are visually leading people through a space, while telling a story with the artwork.
Before we go further, I’d like to introduce a couple of terms that describe two different approaches to hanging 2-D art.
This 2017 exhibition was hung in a conventional museum standard approach at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, Alaska.
The Museum Standard Approach
Museum standard refers to exhibition practices commonly seen in museums and galleries. One dead giveaway is, if when looking around the space, you notice that the center of each artwork is approximately the same height from the floor. If you have a spacious home/room/office and fewer, large artworks, or if you love a minimalist, modern look – a museum standard approach may be a right fit for you.
The Salon Style Approach
The second approach is salon style. I see this every once in a while in museums, and most recently at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Salon style dates back to seventeenth and eighteenth century French “Salons,” royally sanctioned annual (then biennial) art exhibitions of the very best French artists. Paintings were hung floor to ceiling in order to showcase as many pieces as possible.
Aaron Squadroni, Hell Rust Mine series, Octagon Center for the Arts, Ames, Iowa. Photo credit: Kristen Greteman, Gallery Director and Curator. Learn more about the Octagon here.
I personally love salon style, probably because I feel most at home in a visually chaotic space. Plus, our house is tiny and I’ve got a lot of art. (And an adorable dog - see below.) I should also say that this arrangement drives my engineer-brain husband batshit since I paid exactly zero attention to margins, horizontal or vertical alignment, or even consistent framing styles. (Please note, you can certainly create a cohesive look with a salon-style approach by being deliberate about it.)
5 Questions to Get You Started Curating Your Space:
How do folks walk into, and around, your space?
Where y’all frequently congregate?
What do you first see or notice in a room, i.e. a large window, a staircase, an extra long wall?
Where are overhead light fixtures located?
**Strategic lighting will ensure that you can actually see the art you love so much.
What wall locations could be the site for anchor points in your room?
**An anchor point artwork draws considerable attention to a location of a room, either with the size, image, or vibrancy of a piece. In other words, it screams at you when you walk in the room, or at least seductively beckons you to investigate. Make sure this area is well lit!
After considering your space, pull out all the artwork you’d like to showcase. If you have images of each piece, you can simply utilize design software, like Photoshop to make things a bit easier.
Or you can go old school and just set individual pieces against the walls to get a sense of layout. I have found it easiest to start with placing anchor point first, and then build out from there. Place everything first, before you hang anything on the wall. And honestly, I’d encourage you to sleep on it before pulling out your drill and level.
Above all, do whatever feels most comfortable to you, and don’t be afraid to experiment. I’m a firm believer that your home should tell the story of your values, so go with your gut over listening to an expert. Just remember that you are creating an experience in the room, not just showcasing art objects.
Not scared of power tools? Read How to Hang Art on Your Walls, Part III, where I give you a couple of installation tips for both museum standard and salon style.
My detail-oriented brother (shout out, Woods!) spent an evening on Photoshop arranging and rearranging his family’s living room art wall until it was *just* right.