Seven Deadly Sins against Presentation: A Rant about Exhibition Submissions

A week ago I was involved in hanging an un-juried show. As you would expect, the standard was very mixed. Such is the nature and the charm of the breed. What you wouldn't expect though are some of the sins against presentation which were there. If an artist shows a piece in an exhibition, it is reasonable to assume that he chose that piece because he is proud of it. You might also assume he would want that work to look its best, especially if he is trying to sell it. Granted frames can be expensive, but in our era of Ikea, Poundland and charity shops they don't have to be.

I give you Seven Deadly Sins against Presentation:

• Not reading the instructions: Every show has rules about how work is to be shown. Read them, follow them, simple. Failure to do so will usually lead to rejection or, at the very least, arguments.
• Pretending a picture is framed when it isn't: Really? Take a long dispassionate look at your ability with a paint brush. Do you honestly believe you can paint a trompe l'oeil frame onto your canvas? One with straight, consistent edges? One where if you've masked it the tape was perfectly square and no paint has bled onto the picture? One where the decoration on the faux frame is consistent and regular? A professional sign-writer would struggle! Far better not to waste a few frustrating hours on this but to do odd jobs for the same amount of time and use the money you earn to buy a real frame.
• Making your own frame without using the proper materials: Frames can be made from all manner of things if you have a good eye, the right attitude and the right skills. If however your idea of the right attitude is to go to the DIY store, buy some cheap strip wood, nail it to the side of your canvas and smother it in leftover emulsion then it's not going to work.
• Not thinking about the wrapping or the back of mounted work: Bevel cut window mounts are easily available in every art shop but don't usually come with backing boards. But look! What's that against the wall? Can it be a rack of mountboard? Mountboard? You mean the exact same archival quality board that this mount I want to buy is made from and that can be easily cut to size with a knife? Seriously, how difficult a connection is that to spot? If you don't want to mess around cutting card, an internet search will reveal hundreds of places which will cut a custom sized mount and matching backing board and sell you a poly-bag the correct size for very little money indeed. So why, I ask myself, are all these mounted pieces looking so motley? Why, there's one in a plastic bag thats been re-used and look! the price for whatever was in it has just been crossed out. And gosh! there's one with Christmas wrapping paper instead of backing board. Of course that won't damage the drawing; its bound to be acid-free, and of course it won't show through the paper even though it's a very bright and bold pattern.
• Not paying enough attention when recycling old frames and mounts: By all means re-use frames but take a long hard look at them in bright light. If chunks of the decoration are missing, if the mitres no longer join properly, if there is any damage they're not usually worth using. If the frame is sound, for pity's sake clean it! This includes both sides of the glass and replacing the mount if necessary. If you don't bother to clean the glass how do you even expect people to see your work?
• Spending so much money on the frame that everything else has to be bodged: One piece turned up in a pristine, solid oak frame; great! Only the mount inside the frame had been cut with scissors from thin brown cardboard and the glass wasn't glass, it was a clear polythene bag. Not only did this fail to do the picture justice but it will damage the picture because the board will cause the paper to yellow and is not thick enough to keep the picture and "glass" separate, and the "glass" will offer no protection from knocks or UV light. Oak veneer would have looked the same and left some change for a piece of glass; looking in supermarkets and home shops would have revealed frames the same size with glass and board included.
• Not using proper hardware: Galleries ask for work to have string strung between eyelets or d-rings for reason. If you try to tie your string between two nails instead, not only does it increase the chances of your work crashing to the floor but there is a very real danger of whoever is handling the work catching and hurting themselves. This only costs a few pence to sort out.

So there you have it: seven ways to make your work look worse than it should and annoy the people hanging the show. All it takes to rectify these things is a little thought, time and pride. The worst of it is that members of the group in question have access to an impossibly cheap frame-maker who will solve all these problems for them. If budget is as much of an issue for you as it is for me, then think about presentation before you even pick up your brush; you could either work to a few set sizes and re-use your frames (cleaning them each time of course!) or you could work to standard photo-enlargement sizes which opens up a world of cheap but respectable frames. I used to be a manager for a major supermarket; you'd never know it from their stores today, but once upon a time they instilled a mantra into all their staff - WIBI. This was short for Would I Buy It? and every time stock was being handled that question was asked to try and make sure no unsaleable goods were on display. Its a good attitude, and one everyone should have whenever they show their work.