“I don’t have enough wall space for more art.” I hear this a lot. Perhaps it’s the polite way of telling me, “Nice work, but I’m not buying it.” But, many times it really does ring true. People who love art tend to already have collected a lot of it. Their walls are probably full to the point where they are aesthetically comfortable (some go salon style, some spread out…)
Example of Salon Style hanging. This was at the Passageway Gallery in Omaha.
I’m going to solve this problem for you. And, I’m borrowing our solution from museums.
The Art Institute of Chicago is a fantastic museum with an amazing collection. Founded in 1879 you can imagine that they ran out of wall space many, many decades ago. Even after expansions to nearly a million square feet. (No, I’m not saying to build more rooms onto your home for art, but if you are, can you do my house too?). In the “Department of Prints and Drawings” there are 71,000 pieces of art owned by the Art Institute. This collection is constantly growing, and due to paper being light sensitive, is rotated on a frequent basis. And that brings us to our solution: rotation!
Rotation gives you two main benefits. The first benefit is obvious, you can have and enjoy a bigger collection than your wall space normally allows. This will enable you to purchase that new piece you fell in love with, to start collecting an artist’s work that you really enjoy, to allow yourself the ability to explore more options, and to be focused on your possibilities rather than your limitations. The second benefit is that you will interact with your collection more often. You will see what is on your wall more. I know many people that have had the same painting on their walls for 30 or 40 years. If they are passionate about it, great! Most likely they don’t even notice it as they pass by. You will spend more time enjoying and thinking about your collection when you are truly interacting with it more.
Check out next week’s post for rotation tips!
My family enjoying the De Young museum.