The Art of Curating

If you have visited a museum you have heard the word "curator".  One definition for the post of the curator is that of 'content specialist'.  Often, depending on the size of the museum, the job also includes acquistion and interpretation of a collection.  And, in small towns, the job of curator usually includes the responsibility for hanging an exhibit.  (The word curate comes from a Latin word meaning to "take care.")

With shows I've been in I must admit that minimal care or thought went in to why a piece hung where.  Usually expediency or size dictated where something went.  But we all grow and for the next Pieces of 8 show we have given the job of curator a lot of thought.  Well, one of our members, Fay, has given it a lot of thought!  Fay was an interior designer and can spot a 1/4" off as easily as some can estimate the yardage to the tee.  I can do neither so I was thrilled when Fay stepped in and offered to design the hanging for our summer show: "Black and White and Red All Over."

We are scheduled to be at the King Center for the Performing Arts, in their Harris Gallery, during the month of July.  Fay asked for a detailed floorplan of the space (got it) and copies of all proposed art including sizes.  Then she got to work.

Fay took care to note the traffic pattern of persons entering the building.  What is the first thing they see she asked herself.  She also recognized that there was no automatic flow of traffic so she elected to design the walls based on symmetry of painting size and by alternating realistic work with more abstract pieces.  (In some shows progression of time or style may be a consideration for the order in which you see the work.)

Fay actually built a mock up or diarama of the room to scale.  She then did likewise with our art so that "hanging" them on the walls would give a true idea of space.  You will note that she chose to hang art with the center of each piece at eye level.  This is the way most museums hang work for maximum ease in viewing.  Each piece should have plenty of breathing space so that work does not compete for attention.  Curators note that eyeing the neighboring piece peripherally is fine as long as the art itself is not in focus.  The most common mistake amateurs make, one expert noted, is hanging too many pieces.

Many times the job of curator is also to select the work to be shown.  In this case we all decided that we would each submit our best 2 (self juried) and hand in one additional piece to be used at the discretion of the curator (Fay) as needed or desired to round out the show. 

Finally, the curator also has to decide on the placement of any verbiage, tags, labels and headlines used in the presentation.  We were just tickled that Fay stepped up for the job...having a pro-eye on the presentation can really make or break a show.

Here's one of my pieces for the show, titled "Black & White & Dead All Over." It is large, 40" x 30" and is a collage of newspapers with ink and paint, and, I hope makes a comment on the state of newspapers today.

You'll get another invitation to view the show as we approach July but since the behind the scenes work always interests me I thought I'd share with you some of thoses logistics.

Next time you visit a show or a museum take a little time to see if you can see what the curator had in mind in electing to hang certain pieces as he/she did.

Cindy



Best Laid Plans

We were chatting the other day about how art styles mirror personalities and it made me think of a piece I am working on.

Backstory: I love making plans (probably one reason I find plein air painting difficult: it demands immediate decisions and execution).  Whatever it is I enjoy the process of imagining, sketching, laying out and trying different ideas.  Doesn't matter if it is a vacation or a painting, I tend to lean towards the same routine. 

More backstory: My painting group has a show this summer at the King Center for the Performing Arts themed "Black and White and Read All Over." I've done a few pieces for it but my favorite idea was to be about the demise of the newspaper (the answer to the riddle) and rename it "Black & White and Dead All Over." I wanted to use the black and white of papers and a representation of the press from long ago contrasted with today.  My work is at a standstill and this is where we planners experience a slow agony interspersed with panic attacks.  Things are not coming along as my plans visualized.  Gulp.

Heres a detail of the 36 x 24" piece....I like this part well enough and enjoyed collecting the newspaper mastheads to build a NYC city skyline (more like the 20's than the 2000's).  I have actually considered cutting the board to use only this portion!  I want a little more resolution for the bottom half of the work.

I share this because I get the impression that some people think painting is all fun and relaxing...and many times it is.  But this junction is not fun....I have to stare at this until a brilliant idea (I'd settle for an average idea at the moment) comes my way and I can finish this up...in two weeks or less!!

So the next time you visit a gallery or a museum and enjoy a painting, take a minute and try to decide if it "flowed" for the artist or did he have a few moments of agony?  Was it something that came together as he had intended or was it a coincidence of happy accidents.  In my heart I know the agony ones allow the flow to happen more frequently...but the planner in me always has one eye on the clock and that definitely heightens the challenge.

P.S. While doing my research on newspapers I discovered that my "clever" name has been used several times.  A documentary has been released on the subject that you can read about here.