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Illuminate Art, Elevate Experience: Gallery Lighting Design Tips

Few things are more irritating for art gallery visitors than bad gallery lighting. People only fully appreciate wall art if the gallery has illuminated the artworks in the gallery correctly. Gallery lighting designers must ensure that they use wall art lighting in such a way that visitors experience the detail and emotion of each artwork as originally meant by the artist. This article provides tips regarding gallery lighting design. People with gallery walls in their homes can also use most of the tips to elevate their friends’ experience when appreciating art in their homes.

The importance of correct gallery lighting design

According to most professional wall art lighting experts, reasons why they must always get the correct art illumination, include the following:

Revealing details

Correct artwork lighting enhances details and textures so that viewers are aware of the nuances of the artwork.

Reproducing real colours

With the right illumination, visitors can see the colours undistorted.

Helping visitors to focus on specific focal areas in the artwork.

Lighting designers use light strategically enabling visitors to become aware of key focal points in the piece of art.

Minimising potential damage

To protect delicate artworks against deterioration gallery lighting designers control aspects such as light intensity and UV radiation.

wall art lighting

Gallery lighting design and setup tips

Because art galleries differ in many ways from each other, it is impossible to provide specific rules on how to illuminate artworks. The following guidelines will, however, help in general – whether it is a large gallery or wall art at home.

Design the building where the gallery will be housed correctly

If the gallery owner is privileged to be part of the designing team of the building where the gallery will be housed,

  • ensure that strategically placed windows allow the distribution of natural light evenly without direct sunlight on the gallery walls,
  • be aware that the angle of the sun changes throughout the year and provide window adjustment possibilities, and if possible,
  • use skylights in the roof to provide natural light consistently.

Use applicable material to soften natural light

To prevent unnecessary shadows on the artworks, soften the natural light with frosted glass panels, blinds or curtains. Install blinds and curtains in such a way that gallery staff can change their position and/or angles easily during the day to keep harsh sunlight away from the art pieces.

Use reflective material and surfaces

Lighting design also includes the use of surfaces such as mirrors and light-coloured walls to take natural light into dark spaces.

wall art hanging hardware

Utilise wall art hanging hardware correctly

Most wall art hanging hardware has built-in lighting features that forms part of the overall gallery lighting systems for the lighting designer to utilise. When designers use the incorporated lights of art hanging hardware, they must try to set the lights in

  • accordance to generally accepted practices such as
  • using a 30-degree angle for minimizing glare in general, and
  • an angle of 25 degrees when illuminating oil paintings.

More general wall art lighting tips

General size of artificial light fittings

Experienced gallery lighting designers use two rules of thumb to decide on the size of artificial light fittings.

  1. Use a light half the width of a portrait picture.
  2. For a landscape picture, choose a light with a size between one third and a half of the artwork’s width.

Other relevant aspects to keep in mind

  1. It is always good if the light bulb can dim from 0% to 100%. This gives the designer freedom to choose the exact light effect needed.
  2. Mini LED spotlights are available with built-in dimmers from 0–100% and interchangeable lenses.
  3. Variable beam angles make it easy for installers.
  4. Zooming possibilities are also a great help to find the exact lighting effect.
  5. Narrow light beams are suitable for galleries and other exhibition spaces with high ceilings.
  6. Modern art hanging hardware is also safe to use because they use low voltage tracks.
  7. Although halogen bulbs provide excellent colour rendering and draw attention to details, it must be kept in mind that they need good ventilation.

Conclusion

If you illuminate wall art correctly, it elevates the experience of the visitor to the gallery. Although there are not fixed rules on how to apply wall art lighting, there are definite guidelines to keep in mind.

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