How to Maintain—and Exhibit—Your Art At Home

Lessons from the pros

By Jane Lerner

Every art buyer experiences the thrill of acquisition: the thwack of the hammer, the signature on the dotted line, the delivery of the crate ready to be pried open. But now that your art is home sweet home, how best to showcase it?

The first order is to hire the professionals. Art handlers and experienced installation experts will place the work perfectly; lighting designers will showcase everything with the right amount of focus; and conservators and fine-art framers can help maintain the work for generations to come.

If you do attempt to hang a piece yourself, “make sure you don't get in over your head,” advised Sebastien Leclercq, the senior art technician with Atelier Art Services in Philadelphia. Art handlers are problem solvers, and having installed art everywhere, from small apartments to huge museums, Mr. Leclercq knows how a minor moment of hubris can go awry.

“Keep it realistic. Don’t attempt to hang things that are heavy, or very large,” he cautioned. Use a buddy system, wear gloves (oils and dirt from your hands can be damaging) and use high-quality hooks that support more than the weight of the piece.

Setting the Right Light

Whether you collect Renaissance drawings or have a Richard Serra on the lawn, the move that will best benefit your art is to create a relationship with a lighting designer. Unlike the fast pace of galleries, where lighting schemes must be flexible and changeable, residential projects allow more time to get the light just right, explains Matthew Tirschwell of Tirschwell & Co., an architectural lighting design firm based in New York City.

Mr. Tirschwell and his colleague, design director David Burya, work in major art institutions, galleries and private homes, often showcasing museum-quality work in residential environments. “The approach to art lighting and the questions the client should ask are multifaceted,” Mr. Burya said. “The client should definitely discuss their art and how and where they discovered the art.” The origin story and personal history behind a collection can help a designer determine the right placement and focus for each piece, and create a relationship between the works in a room.

Technical, architectural, aesthetic and personal considerations all come into play when lighting fine art objects.

“A work of art is a story. It has plot, subplots, characters, a timeline, and history. Our job is to tell that story. We just do it with light,” Mr. Tirschwell said. “A properly lit piece will reveal moments previously undiscovered. I have had so many clients walk up to a piece they had hanging in their residences for years—years!—and say ‘Wow, I had no idea…’ It’s as though they see their art for the first time.”

As lighting technology proceeds at a rapid pace, there’s a wealth of information to consider. Mr. Burya can detail the finer points of low-level dimming, LED sources and other highly technical issues, but “the explanations of all the criteria are quite involved,” he said. “To be fair, unless a collector wants to understand the intricacies, this is the reason why you engage a lighting designer.”

Clients can have very different expectations, and your living room is not the Louvre. “Some clients recognize that this is, in fact, still their home,” Mr. Burya said. “Others treat their homes more like a gallery that happens to have furniture, and children. Either way, the lighting still should be perfect.”

Maintaining Art for the Long Haul

For long-term care and maintenance, it’s downright impossible to control all the factors that can affect your art: sunlight, humidity, temperature fluctuations, atmospheric dust, kitchen grease, pets, curious kids and so on.

“All lighting has some detriment,” Mr. Burya said, “and the basics are about exposure, which is intensity and duration.” Always turn off lights when not in use, invest in proper blackout and UV-blocking window treatments, and try to avoid spikes and dips in indoor temperatures and humidity levels. Set thermostats at around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity should not exceed much beyond 50%.

Tirschwell & Co., Inc

Tirschwell & Co., Inc

Art handlers will advise against obvious infractions like placing a watercolor in direct line of a sunbeam, or hanging an Old Master alongside the stove; lighting designers will take into consideration the amount of time each piece will be lighted, out of concern for heat and fading.

But when accidents happen, or when art suffers from decades (if not centuries) of accumulated grime, fine-art conservators can really save the day. Conservation is an art upon itself, and specialists can tackle almost any material or style. Like academics and artisans at once, conservators conduct extensive research on a piece in an attempt to restore it to its original vitality.

Additionally, experienced fine-art framing shops can advise on archival matting, UV glass or the use of a Plexiglas vitrine, to keep delicate works on paper, or sculptures, protected. Remember that replacing a frame or certain kinds of art restoration can affect the value of a piece, so it is advised to discuss any large conservation project with an art adviser or appraiser. It is unnecessary (and unadvised) to clean artwork on any regular schedule, outside of a gentle dusting or wiping the glass, but smudges, splatters, tears or other spots of noticeable damage should be cause for a call to a conservator. Do not ever try to restore a piece yourself.

Outside of the design skills, technical knowledge, clever planning and brute strength that art handlers and other art pros possess, why hire one? “It's for the love of your art,” Mr. Leclercq said. “If you respect your art, hire a professional.”