Some tips on framing and hanging paintings (Peter Delahaye)

Ever since I began collecting paintings, and even more so now as an artist, I’ve been aware of how important framing is to a work of art. My paintings look “all grown up” in the right frame and I’ve been blessed by having two experienced framers here in Venice to help me choose the correct frame to enhance each work, and sometimes to push me to be bolder in choice. I’ve also collaborated “at distance” with framers in their workshops, and as far afield as Los Angeles via video calls together with clients. This gives collectors greater confidence that the artwork will look perfect.

The more exhibitions I’m involved in, the more conscious I am also on how to choose to hang a set of paintings for a show. I’ve also traveled to hang paintings in restaurants that I’ve done the interior design for, or site-specific works in homes of collectors. Watching how curators put shows together is fascinating and instructive. Some hangings are dramatic; others simple, while I find some miss the mark completely, especially in recent high profile art fairs. So spend time yourselves looking not only at paintings at galleries and museums but studying the way in which the pictures are hung, how they relate to each other and how a whole wall might be dressed.

Today I want to talk about both framing and hanging paintings. I will exclude making frames yourself from scratch which requires special equipment and skills.

My work is often multi-panel or made as a series, so understanding the rhythm between a set of works is key to both framing and hanging. My choice of medium is often watercolour, so I insist on protective glass and acid-free matting, vital to ensure that colour doesn’t fade over time. Glass can be reflective or non-reflective, but the price of the latter is often prohibitive. Acrylic and oil works don’t need glass protection, while watercolour and collage do. Sometimes oil canvases are better not framed. I frame 3-D works in deep box frames. When framing diptychs or triptychs or multi-panel pieces in the same frame I always choose a framer who has a computerized mount cutter so that the large single mount has windows perfectly cut to go over the various works.

 

I go for museum quality custom-made frames mostly, but also recommend Crate and Barrel, Ikea and Habitat as good off-the-shelf brands. Most of my frames are simple, white or natural wood, and I’m fond of brushed bronze, too. Black frames and mounts tend to “cage” paintings. I will scour antiques markets for old, empty frames which can be bought reasonably.

Occasionally, I’ll ask for an over-the-top treatment for a work of art and use baroque Venetian framing, even for a relatively small piece, as you’ll see in photos below.

Tobian Art Gallery in Florence has the space and lighting to really show off well my large multiple panel pieces. Here are some of the Dawn painting series exhibited stacked one above the other.

Matts, sometimes called mounts, have a maximum size of 130 cms. in most countries. In Germany, you can find 150 cms. For anything larger I would invest in thick wallpaper surrounds, cut to size. Surfaces can be paper, linen or silk. Some collectors like to use double matts in two colours to better show off the work. Some insist on highlighting a clean paper border at the edge of a painting, or even floating the page against a coloured background matt to feature, say, a handmade paper irregular edge.

If, like me, your living space looks more like a gallery than a home, then my suggestion would be to layer-up one painting above the other, or better, create one totally filled wall which has a mix of paintings hung in salon style.

To do this you need to first measure height and width of the proposed wall space and experiment by laying out the paintings on the replica floor model until you’ve achieved the perfect balance of large and small, old versus contemporary, colour juxtaposed with black and white. If it looks a chaotic jumble you need to start again, or throw a “Hanging Party” by inviting your DIY hammer-and-nail-ready friends and neighbours to help you. By the way, the new Director of Venice’s Peggy Guggenheim museum (Karole P.B. Vail is actually her grand daughter) has placed pieces of the collection in daring “salon” format with stunning success. Who knows if genes were a factor!

Gone are the days when a whack of a picture nail in a wall creates a minor crater. Rarely do I drill screws into a wall. I prefer to use “le Crochet Français” a hard tempered steel nail, hammered in at 45 degrees to the wall surface. I don’t use picture hooks, unless paintings weigh more than 15 kgs. Long paintings of over a metre require a double support at either end.

I will resort to using improbable surfaces or locations to hang favourite works. Here is a watercolour landscape on a narrow column shared with a double-portrait (two paintings back to back) . Note the double-glass see-through frame holding up the paintings is without a mount.

Or figures hanging in my austere bathroom, made all the more dramatic by an oversized white mount.

Here in a narrow stairwell I’ve added a visually dramatic custom-made piece for a client. 

In general, when I’m hanging works in other people’s homes, I find almost everyone places paintings a metre or so too high. Yes, I’m picky! My benchmark is just below eye level for single works, and I always take a laser beam to correctly align the hanging fixtures in a row of paintings. Where I make site-specific pieces, I’ll want to dictate the exact location of the works. In a home in North America, for example, I’ve painted abstracts illustrating the elm wood forest behind their residence as a head-board feature, as well as a multi-panel “sideboard” on canvas panels that can be distorted when panels are slid sideways.

I have also added a three metre long narrow shelf above my own bed so that I can mix and match paintings on a weekly basis. In Edinburgh, I’ve placed a vertical arrangement of “kite” panels to emphasize the height of the lounge, and pick up a palette of existing colours in the room.

Finally, have you noticed how some of your zoom participants could benefit by customizing their backgrounds with a carefully positioned painting, instead of collapsing, overstuffed shelving.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my ideas and at the same time show you some framed artworks hung in private spaces of collectors. I would be keen to hear your comments about your own framing and hanging innovations. I’m also available if you want to get advice. My email is peterldelahaye@hotmail.com

Editor's Note: We would like to challenge our photographers and artists to do a comparative piece on framing and hanging pictures.