Lighting your artwork like a pro

Lighting plays a huge role in accentuating an artwork and it is crucial to understand its placement to refine the aesthetics of any space.

Museums and art galleries have pre-installed, adjustable lighting specifically for their art, in order to create the best display, while it is rarely so in other interior spaces that have art pieces hanging on the walls or placed elsewhere. Often, the lighting for paintings and sculptures are arranged or put up as an afterthought and fail to do justice to the art.

Lighting plays a huge role in accentuating the artwork, demarcating it from its surroundings, while it also contributes to the aesthetics of the space and the mood, as well as to the overall viewing experience. The selection of the right lighting for an artwork depends on several factors — design, functionality, domain expertise as well as knowledge of art conservation.

The purpose of lights for art is manifold; lighting plays a significant part in the display of the art, its presentation and helps to maximise its impact and highlight finer details. At the same time, the placement of the light is also crucial, as it determines the position and formation of shadows, for instance. Poorly-lit sections and elongated shadows can affect the viewing experience considerably.

Natural is preferred

The entire experience can be optimised by adjusting the light placements, their angles and their illuminance. Similarly, the colour of the light determines the appearance of the artwork, the effectiveness of the colours and how close they appear to the original painting. The correlated colour temperature refers to how warm or yellow, and cool or blue, the light appears. Natural light is the best option for both producing and viewing art, which is why, most studio spaces prefer to be airy with large windows and with an abundance of natural lighting. However, this does not imply that direct sunlight on the art is fine; it can warp and damage the artwork in the long run. Incidentally, sunlight has the highest Color Rendering Index or CRI, which is a quantitative measure to reveal the true colours of various objects and forms a benchmark for good colour rendering. This is also why natural light is preferred for making and viewing art.

Track lights offer ease of use and positioning and are increasingly utilised in non-gallery interiors as well as to illuminate art. These spotlights, in addition to ambient lighting, add highlights and enhance the colours and details of the art. Most track lights can swivel, allowing greater flexibility in repositioning and changing the angle of illumination, which becomes an advantage. Lamps and bulbs that emit cold light, for instance LED bulbs, which do not emit ultra violet rays and give out less heat, are preferred as a cost-effective, viable option.

Normally, an even distribution of lighting is preferable for a two-dimensional work, while a three-dimensional work can be brought to life by changing the angles of illumination and playing with the shadows to add further interest. Sculptures and installations can have more than one source of light to bring out their three-dimensionality and volume. Lighting technology, design, spatial and conservation considerations are some of the vital parameters, which ought to guide art lighting for any space.

The author is a Bangalore-based art consultant, curator and writer. She blogs at Art Scene India and can be reached on [e-mail]

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