Interpreting Art with Light: Museum Lighting between Objectivity and Hyperrealism

Abstract

Light renders art visible in museums. At the same time, light also interprets. In this regard curators, architects, conservators, lenders, artists, and visitors often have differing expectations about how art should be appropriately displayed. This article is based on the aesthetics of image and exhibition and presents six categories of display-ranging from the objective reception of art to hyperrealism and the dynamic communication of art treasures. Differentiation occurs based on three aspects: The content within the artworks, formal aspects of the image medium, and the spatial and temporal surroundings of the work. By analyzing the artwork's brightness, contrast, and light atmosphere, curators can appropriately specify lighting for the room and exhibit to aesthetically establish a common link between the observer and the artwork or to realize a modification for emphasizing a conceptual idea. The analysis also offers criteria as to what extent the lighting concept communicates an authentic impression in relation to the perception of how the artist created the picture. ARTICLE HISTORY

Dynamics of Industrial Revolution 4.0: Digital Technology Transformation and Cultural Evolution

“…In arranging and placing technology to support historical collections, several things need to be considered in order to be effective, one of which is the interior environmental conditions. Physical aspects of the environment such as visibility generated from lighting effects, visual barriers, and glare will affect the appearance of the display so that it also affects the attention of visitors (Schielke 2019). Based on the existing, the lighting used at the Mpu Purwa Museum is 25% natural lighting and 75% artificial lighting.…”

“…Lighting has an important role in the exhibition space, both for the conservation of collections and visitors (Hunt 2009). With an appropriate light, exhibition organizers are present with an influential tool that enables the definition of the atmosphere for viewing art, establishes a sense of drama to support its reception, and generally contributes to the success of the exhibition (Schielke 2019). The lighting intensity is very important for visitors to be able to easily observe the collection and read the label information clearly ).…”

Effect of color temperature on appearance of paintings exhibited under LED lighting

“…To cancel out the influence of light reflection, the black background was created. Moreover, with dark wall colors, the artwork became the center of attention that helped participants to focus on the paintings, not to the peripheral surfaces.…”

New Museum Lighting for People and Paintings

“…The lighting designer, in turn, must work with the multiple resulting demands and constraints to create a setting that is vital to the short-and long-term success of the museum. These complementary considerations are summarised in this special issue by Thomas Schielke (2019), who explores the role of light in creating vastly varying atmospheres, depending on the artworks' content and artists' intentions, either unifying the works with the space or objectifying them, immersing or isolating the viewer, expanding or focussing the view.…”

“…In this special issue, Durmus, Abdalla, Duis and Davis (2018) foresee a future in which these innovations in lighting technology are harnessed to tune illumination spectra to the reflectance properties of individual artworks (or parts thereof), to minimise damage and maximise colour rendering and discriminability. Indeed, as Schielke (2019) describes in this issue, the prospects for tuning light spectra are not limited to these material aims; tuning the light in targeted zones may generate hyperrealistic colors and thereby enhance the artist's concept. Building on previous studies that aimed primarily to improve energy efficiency, Durmus et al (2018) demonstrate the use of computational techniques (in particular, a multi-objective genetic algorithm) to optimise light spectra under the triple constraints of minimal energy absorption, maximal colour fidelity, and minimal energy consumption.…”