Salon Hang vs White Cube

サロン掛け / ホワイトキューブ

Both sit in Exhibition Design, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. One is layout and the other style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Salon Hang

Salon Hang — マルティーニ『1787年のサロン展』（CC0）Salon Hang — ルーヴルのサロン展 1787 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSalon Hang — ロイヤル・アカデミー展示風景（ロンドン, 1787） — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

The Paris Salon's way of stacking paintings frame to frame from floor to ceiling. Height announced a work's rank, and looking became competition and society. It is the exact opposite of the white cube, and its origin.

White Cube

White Cube — ロンドンのギャラリー ホワイトキューブ・バーモンジーの内部 2014年 撮影 Matt Brown — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0White Cube — ニューヨーク近代美術館 アンディ・ウォーホル《キャンベル・スープ缶》の展示風景 2007 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0White Cube — ハリー・ポット／Anefo 撮影 アムステルダム市立美術館の展示室 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

White walls, even light and an unadorned room, so that only the work stands up. MoMA made it standard, and though O'Doherty's criticism exposed it as an institution disguised as neutrality, it remains the default for showing contemporary art.

Salon HangWhite Cube
Era1667–19th century1930s–
FamilyExhibition DesignExhibition Design
KindLayoutStyle
CuesStacked floor to ceiling / Crowded frames / Rank by position / The whole wall usedWhite walls / Even lighting / The isolated artwork / Context erased
Best used forMaking the sheer number of works in a collection the attraction · Composing a wall of many small frames in a home or shop as one fieldMaximizing how a single work reads by holding its context back · Making a room that stays quiet when unlike works are shown together
TypeKeep titles off the wall, using numbers and an entrance key planSmall captions at one fixed distance from the work, identical everywhere
CompositionPrincipal works at viewing height, tilted and packed tighter as they riseWide gaps between works and a single sightline height throughout
MaterialGold frames on a deep colored wall, rank carried by frame widthNeutral walls, even light, floor and ceiling services out of view
CautionFailing to check the upper works from the angle a visitor looks up produces a wall where reflection and foreshortening hide everything.Believing white walls are neutral turns works about history and society into harmless objects, and their content never reaches the viewer.

Put these two together

Exhibition Design

IndexStyle