Showcasing Your Art Collection: Professional Tips for Creating a Show-Stopping Display
Over the years you’ve gathered an art collection that reflects your home’s unique voice. How you display it can be an exciting means of sharing how special it is for years to come. Here are a few important points to consider.
Before You Get the Hammer Out
Each type of fine art has its own practical considerations to attend to before it can be arranged. Oils, pastels, watercolors, drawings, rare documents, and even precious textiles all need to be framed. It’s important to work with an expert who knows how to protect the value and integrity of each piece.Take your time in selecting a framer, just as you would choosing any professional. Ask your favorite gallery who they recommend. Good framers have an artist’s eye and are able to articulate why one choice of frame, liner, or molding may work best for a specific artwork. They can advise you about hanging hardware, how to attach art to rock walls, hang it from ceilings, or who can build a special display case for such unique pieces as that stunning mask or headdress you found in Southeast Asia. Don’t be afraid to ask questions—this should be a team effort!
Lighting
Jorden Nye pottery collection & ancient tribal figure.
“Lighting is everything,” emphasizes longtime art collector Jorden Nye of Santa Fe, NM. “Without it the full potential of an artwork isn’t revealed. If it’s in partial darkness, the nuances—or even key elements—can remain hidden.”
The right lighting source can highlight a sculpture’s subtle patina. Intensity is also important. You may choose a single, individual light for a special piece, track or canned lighting for a whole wall, or a spotlight for glass or bronze sculptures. But artwork with its own lighting beyond what each room has to offer is an essential ingredient for the most dramatic display.
Hanging and Grouping
You’ve handled all of the preliminaries and now it’s time to place your art to best advantage. Whether you’re looking for a fresh approach to displaying your collection of many years, adding new works or just starting out, rethinking how to group your art can bring fresh appreciation of it. Here are a couple of tips shared by gallerists and other collectors:
Don’t be afraid to mix it up. Look for relationships between pieces in various mediums. Denver gallerist and collector Catherine Saks recently acquired a scarlet Dale Chihuly “seaform” glass sculpture and placed it in her home below a Quang Ho oil painting that included the same deep shade of red. Each piece accentuated the other. Look for such synchronizations in your own groupings.
Create visual “vignettes” by considering patterns, design, and complementary subject matter. Our brains seek order and relationships among all that we see. It’s part of how we make sense of the world. Our unconscious mind feels satisfied when we’ve achieved subtle correlations. Contemporary and traditional works can often be combined. Try, as Nye did, a two-foot tall, century-old African figure on your fireplace hearth next to contemporary New Mexican Pueblo and Mexican Matta Ortiz pottery. The carved and painted graphic designs in all three pieces made it work.
Quang Ho painting hung above a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture.
Galleries Are Your Friends
Developing relationships with favorite galleries is an important part of being an art collector and can help raise your collection to new heights of enjoyment and value. A top gallerist can be your best friend when it comes to suggesting framers, lighting technicians, and even display recommendations for specific pieces. Over time they know what excites you in an artwork and will call you first when they spot it!
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