“Gallery artists salon” exhibition

Blenheim Gallery revisits the “Gallery artist’s salon” exhibition. The style ‘salon’ refers to a method of hanging paintings from floor to ceiling, originating in the 1670s at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, in Paris.

Blenheim Gallery artists will be presented in the ‘salon’ hang exhibition as a way of displaying the range of visual artists who participate with works in a two and three dimensional form, with some small sculptures as well on display.

This ‘salon’ style of exhibition became popular throughout Europe and, later, in North America. In Canada, the Art Association of Montreal (1860), the Ontario Society of Artists (1872) and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880) all followed this European model of hanging works until the early 1900s, when modernist trends began favouring more generously spaced installations.

It is a time when one fines treasures and much loved works that suddenly take the floor and invite the viewer to another aspect of an artists work.

The National Gallery of Victoria has recently undertaken a multi level hang of the collection in ‘salon style’ which is an opportunity to exhibit an extensive range of each artists’ works.