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Where Not to Hang Your Art

September 1, 2007

Yes, there are some terrible places to hang your art. What makes a spot a terrible place to hang your art pieces? I made my decisions based on number of criteria:

a. can the art be dangerous to residents and guests?
b. can the art be seen?
c. will the art be seen at its most advantageous?
d. can the art be damaged?

When applying all of these criteria, you can see that the following places are better avoided:

1. Children’s quarters
Avoid hanging heavy art objects over children’s beds, toy tables and otherwise within their reach in play zones. Art work can have sharp corners and really hurt someone when bumped into. A well-framed art work is usually heavy. When it comes dislocated because your child has been playing with it… over time, it can hurt your child. Plus the art can also be severely damaged by child handling.

2. Dark corners and narrow spaces such as corridors/passageways
Unless you have spotlights onto your artwork and unless a choose your art work size in right (smallish) proportion to narrow hallways, these places are not ideal. You want your artwork to be seen!

Furthermore, if passerbys actually have to touch the artwork when walking by, your artwork will become tarnished, dulled and otherwise damaged.

3. Bathroom
Bathrooms and power rooms are usually wet places, and moisture damages artwork.
Sure, you may hang an inexpensive print in the bathroom to liven it up, but don’t put your fine art print worth several thousand dollars in there.

Some sculpture materials may be OK in moist environments - but care should be taken also with sculptures. It is always best to ask your gallery ahead of time. As a general rule: bathrooms are undesirable places for art.

4. Kitchen
Same deal with your kitchen. When hanging art in your kitchen will make it look nice, again, avoid hanging any high-quality master piece here. Moisture and cooking grease will for sure damage your artwork.

I have friends who wanted to stray away from this rule and build an airtight plexiglass display case around their huge artwork. Yes, everything is possible, but be warned and avoid damage by planning it right.

5. Locations with visual competition
Windows with great views as well as mirrors offer strong visual competition with fine artwork. Avoid such competition by taking your good works elsewhere in your drawing room.

6. Locations with direct sunlight
Direct sunlight damages artwork and should be avoided at all cost. Sunlight discolors your artwork, and to make matters worse, the fading of colors is often not even. Some paint colors are more ‘colorfast’ than others. Good artists protect their works with an UV light protection varnish. A quality framer will suggest to apply ultraviolet filtering (plexi)glass to your frame.

7. Locations with high temperature fluxuations. Not good for paintings. Paintings like to live their life evenkeel: not too hot, not too cold.


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Written by e Art fair .com · Filed Under Collecting & Archiving Art 

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