[alt-photo] Re: bottom-weighting mats

[Diana Bloomfield]

Yes, that was my only issue, really-- keeping things flat.  But for  
the month or so that they were on display, they did really well. The  
gallery seemed to offer consistent temperature (no humidity  
fluctuations), which helped.  I was also surprised they were so clean  
at the end.  The gallery owner felt as you and I do, too, that the  
prints are (also) so much about the paper, the tactile quality, etc--  
that to hide them with glass was, essentially, to lose that.  This was  
a two-person show, and I showed with a printmaker (mezzotints mostly),  
and he didn't use glass, either-- and we all really felt it made such  
a difference.  I honestly have never seen such an engaged crowd.  I  
suspect a lot of galleries won't do it, because they're afraid of  
damage, but painters don't typically put glass over everything, and I  
assume their work isn't constantly damaged because of it.

And, sometimes, if the gallery doesn't keep the glass clean (which is  
too often the case), it's like looking at prints through a dirty car  
window.  I showed work, many years ago now, at this really really nice  
gallery-- very high-end-- and I noticed, at the opening, that -- I  
swear-- it looked like someone had eaten honey buns or Little Debbies,  
or something, and then put their sticky fingers all over the glass, or  
talked and spit all over it..  It was awful, and I was horrified,  
especially because I knew I'd handed them over in pristine condition.   
So I said something, very nicely, to one of the women working there  
(I'm sure I was real popular)-- and they said, "Yeah, well, we'll  
clean it if we have a chance."  I mean, this was awful looking.  So I  
asked for some Windex and went over and cleaned it all myself.  It was  
at the start of the opening, so not yet many people-- but, good grief.


On Dec 1, 2011, at 12:55 PM, Tomas Sobota wrote:

> Hi Diana,
>
> Yes, the situation you describe is precisely what I was thinking of.  
> We
> keep talking of different paper textures, surface sheen,
> three-dimensionality of carbon prints ... and then cover everything  
> with a
> glass to insure that during the exhibition all these attributes pass
> unnoticed to visitors.
>
> Glass has its virtues, to be sure, for UV (and fly poo) protection  
> when
> hanging long time on a wall, but I wonder if for short time exhibiting
> purposes it wouldn't be better to leave it out. Your story would  
> seem to
> confirm this.
>
> I exhibited glassless and matless prints a couple of times. A bit  
> tricky to
> keep them flat, but I'm not an expert in mounting either ...
>
> Tom
>