Art Trivia

As we went through the Turner exhibit at the National Gallery recently, my friend commented that she was most interested in the color of the walls. Since most of his paintings were landscapes, I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about until she explained.

Apparently before the installation of a major exhibit, all the gallery walls are painted in a color family that supports the colors in the art without overpowering them. The actual color varies from room to room, even from wall to wall withing a room. This had simply never occurred to me. But as I looked closer, I could see that she was quite correct.

Then I started to wonder just how many layers of paint were on those walls! Could they possibly remove the paint each time before repainting?

One of the guests at Deborah’s Christmas dinner happened to be an art historian who had done a stint at the National Gallery and who is currently at the Corcoran. She confirmed this wall painting concept and went further to explain what goes on behind the scenes.

She said there is often controversy between the person who designs the exhibit, the curator, and the installers. In the case of the Turner exhibit, apparently in the name of balance the installers chose to separate two large paintings that are on either side of the entrance into the first room of the exhibit. The curator would have wanted the paintings to be hung right next to each other because they belong together.

I guess, as with anything, the art world is not as straightforward as we might think as we saunter through an exhibit. I may never recognize the separation of paintings, but from here on out I will pay attention to the wall color.