Susan M. Wadsworth, Rindge NH and Shushan, NY    April 23, 2021

Sometimes you have no idea how your work will look even if it is accepted into a show.  Sometimes all members’ works are accepted, so that lessens the “will I get in?” anxiety.  But then you still don’t know where they will put your work.

The Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, VT has evolved through the years to become a lovely gallery.  One approaches through a long, winding driveway that passes a sculpture park in the main meadow.  The central building is an old white mansion with large rooms now open for art, poised over a lovely view.  There is also a new, more modern gallery, with a focus on special shows, as well as a performing arts pavilion.  The SVAC is supported by members’ works and also caters to shows by professional artists.

In one show a few years ago, I was incensed than an artwork of mine of Venice was put right outside the upstairs restroom, and the glare was such that it was impossible to see the pastel through the glass.  I did complain as I left, and I was told that not everyone got all their works into the show.  So I guess I should have been happy the piece was even in the show.

So this past week, I walked with some trepidation into the galleries for the annual members’ show.  I was remembering how my large Monadnock pastels hung in the main, right gallery recently, and how wonderful it was not to have my work hidden upstairs in the smaller rooms.

So this week, I walked into this same gallery, and there was my triptych, Squam Lake Moonrise, prominently and beautifully hung right above the mantelpiece.  (The last time my work hung over one of their many fireplaces, upstairs, both works had been sold and removed before I even saw them there!).

It wasn’t until later that I realized the piece had been hung “backwards.”  Now, I sign every piece in pencil, and triptychs have “left,” “right,” and “center” written into the title, but sometimes my “inconspicuous” titles are hidden in the darker areas of the piece.  And I had to admit, at the SVAC, even I could not easily find the title.

So the “moonrise” essentially became the setting of the moon.  The dismayed volunteer offered to switch the pieces around right away, but it didn’t matter that much.  I thought it looked great, so I left it that way.

I had already decided that the piece could be hung vertically, horizontally or even diagonally.  So let the owner do what they will.

The volunteer was also so kind as to repeat several times “I love those works!”  So it was a bit harder to complain.  I also told her the story of the piece, which I will note here as well.

A few years ago, I was invited to Plymouth, NH to give a short talk about my work to a summer adult art class.  At the same time, they arranged for me to stay in a student’s lovely, new house set right on Squam Lake.  I had a bedroom that looked out on the lake, and as I got ready for bed, I set the blinds so that I could look out a bit.  The moon began to rise, and even though I tried to sleep, I would peek out occasionally to see how the moon was progressing and how the view thus changed.

As I transformed these memories into the three drawings, I was fascinated with how the perception of the pine tree seemed to shift between the drawings.  Light and views had changed as the moon rose.

In terms of how the work is hung, I also remember a work from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT.  They have Georgia O’Keeffe’s The Lawrence Tree.  I lived in Connecticut for about eight years, so I learned to love the Atheneum’s collection.  And when this work went out on loan, I noticed that sometimes it was hung differently.  This is a painting that gives one the feeling of looking up into a tree, turning in a circle to get all the angles.  Thus it really did work if hung from any of the four sides of the canvas.

Thus it is fascinating to me to see how people perceive certain works of art and how they think they should be hung.  Let’s not interfere too much with too much control.  There should be some freedom for those hanging the show, bringing new insights even to the artist who created the work.