Salon Style: Works from the Permanent Collection Vault

“Salon style” is a way of displaying art in which works are hung higher and lower than eye level and in large groups rather than in a single row. This trend started in 1737 with the Salon in Paris. Unlike the Salon, however, today’s trend in museums is to exhibit works of art in single rows with plenty of space around each piece. While we always follow this trend in our museum, we brought back salon style for this particular exhibit. This wasn’t entirely an aesthetic choice – the skylights in our painting storage room are being removed, so we had to pull the paintings off of their racks to protect them from dust and debris. Rather than store the paintings in this gallery and close it off to the public, we decided to hang them – all of them – for your enjoyment. In this unprecedented exhibit, over 200 pieces from our collection will be on display created by artists such as Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Clyde Singer, and more.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.