The Importance of art Display

Let’s talk about hanging your art.

I am seeing a lot of pics on Instagram lately where work is overhung and it’s honestly driving me just a little bit crazy. I’m talking about displays where whoever has hung the artwork on the wall seems more invested in getting as many pieces as possible onto the walls and not on displaying the work for best effect.

Four reasons I don’t like overhanging.

1) Your work deserves to be seen. When work is displayed so high and so low and so tight together, nothing can breathe, your work may struggle to shine.

2) Jammed-up makes it hard for the viewer to appreciate your work and therefore makes it harder for someone to fall in love with it and buy it

3) It can be, and often is, a (negative) signifier of the professionalism and value of the work, even though the work itself may not warrant that view.

4) More work displayed does not correlate to more work sold.

Personally, I love a good ‘salon hang’ and have used them myself. But a ‘salon hang’ doesn’t mean everything under the sun all jammed together. Here are a couple of examples on Instagram of really nicely arranged ‘salon hangs’ Jan Manton Gallery Michael Reid Northern Beaches

Even the Linden Postcard Show (which is an annual open hang exhibition in St Kilda, in Melbourne Australia) and features hundreds of works, still puts a good amount of space between the individual pieces. See here on Insta

Hanging work super tight together is fine when it’s a diptych or triptych but then you’d still have space between that and other work.

The way your work is displayed can enhance it or it can do the opposite and undo all the effort and consideration you put into making your work.

Five Tips to Improve Your Hang…

1) Focus on the strength of the overall exhibition, rather than only focusing on the individual works. An exhibition must work as a whole.

2) When working on installing an exhibition, be open to taking one thing out (obviously not the hero image). Take all the work to the installation because you can only decide in the space what, if anything should be left out. You may choose not to, you may already hang lightly.

Coco Chanel’s famous advice on elegance “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” is weirdly relevant here.

3) Leave sufficient space between artworks or groupings of artworks. If possible aim for up to 30% of the total wall to not have art.

When I work on my hanging plan I get the floor plan measurements, check for doors and windows and then divide available walls including space between artworks

It can be tempting to say ‘Oh that’s a 3-metre wall I can fit 3 x 92cm wide paintings on it’. But no, that is going to make your work look too tight.

The amount of space between artworks will depend on the scale of the artwork – the large the works are, the more space. At least 7.5 – 15cm (3″ – 6″) between the edges for smaller works.

What about 3D work?
Similar considerations apply – if displayed on a shelf, at eye level. If displayed on plinths don’t crowd them and use various heights and widths suitable for the sculptures to create an impactful display.

4) Use a central line to anchor different-sized and shaped works

The middle of the artwork – or group of artworks, if you are hanging say a grid – should be ‘eye level’ e.g. the centre of the work should be 155cm from the floor.

Eye level is different for everyone but this is the average used and since people are getting taller I made the measurement more of a range so aim for approx 57 – 60 inches 145 – 160 cm from the floor.

Use the low end for a lower ceiling height, and the high end for a taller ceiling height).

Make adjustments for mantle pieces, furniture, and a sloping floor but this is a good starting position.

5) When agreeing to participate in group exhibitions, consider how the work is typically presented as one of your considerations and then make a decision.

One more tip

If you want to learn more about how to present your work, visit the sorts of galleries you most want your art displayed in and contemporary museums to see how they display art. You can learn a lot by observing.

There will be times when a very cluttered hang feels ok for you, in which case go for it. And for your personal collection at home, enjoying living with it is most important, so use these tips wherever they are helpful and otherwise, you know the deal – in your homr you can hang your art however you like.

But otherwise, go ahead and try out these tips to help you display your work with more impact.

PS An Open Hang means all work received is displayed. An open hang can be a good way to get your work on display and a line on your CV. The Linden Postcard show is an annual event that has been going since 1990 and is well-regarded and widely attended.

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