Where to hang pictures?

[Leonard Evens]

I've visited the Art Institute of Chicago many times over the years, but I recently was there viewing the impressionist paintings with the eye of a large format photographer. It seemed to me that all the paintings were hung so that a seven foot tall person would see them with proper point of view. This was particularly disturbing for the many pictures which had a fairly "wide angle" perspective. I wonder if they even considered that issue, or if after considering it they opted for hanging the pictures high to keep small children from touching them.

[Bruce Watson]

I helped hang an exhibit from the Eastman House at the local university. About 150 framed photographs. We made the consious decision to hang them for "normal" people. Normal in this case is college students (somewhat taller, on average, then their parents). We came down from the top of the image by about 1/3 the image height. That point was put at "eye height" (about 5'8"). Of course, for people 5'0" tall, this is above optimal. For people 6'6" tall, it is below optimal.

I have no idea what the AIC does, but I suspect that they do consider a number of factors when hanging. Good viewing height being but one factor. The Eastman House exhibit was framed with Nielsen metal frames and a plexi of some kind. If there are sticky finger prints, they are easily cleaned, and we cleaned several in the process of hanging.

[Mark_3899]

While there are no set rules, the common method is hanging on a center line 56"-60" from the floor. We used 57" and 58" on center at MoMA. Other museums I've worked at we are in that range. The only time it's different is when you double hang or you hang a gallery full of large paintings and then your center height is determined by the center of your largest work. The AIC does hang their paintings high, and I think that's because they want nice sight lines as you enter the galleries. I hope this was clear.

[MattO]

"... the common method is hanging on a center line 56"-60" from the floor"

That is a ridiculous height! Are you sure you didn't mean 5'-6" to 6'-0" ?

4ft 8" is not a "normal" height for viewing anywhere - that's not even chest high to the average man.

[Frank Petronio]

They also might be hanging 'em high for security and spittle/fingerprint protection.

[Mark_3899]

That is a ridiculous height! Are you sure you didn't mean 5'-6" to 6'-0" ?

No I don't mean 5'-6" - 6'-0". We are talking about the center of the picture, not the top. When I first started in exhibition design I thought the same as you Matt, because I was thinking about optimum viewing height for myself. You have to take into account all the people that are to view the work. The museum going public is not made up exclusively of 6' tall men.Think about children and little old ladies that are 5' tall (which by the way make up the bulk of museum visitors). The other reason for this height range is say you have a gallery that you plan on hanging works that range from say 40"x60" to 8"x10", you have to think about where that 8x10 is going to end up height wise in relation to the larger works.