Petersburger Hängung

18:57 Aug 24, 2009 

Oh dear....

18:42 Aug 24, 2009 

Goldcoaster,
Wish I could agree, but sometimes if we did, we'd be playing Emperor's New Clothes. Cf. the current first entry at http://www.linguee.de/search?query=raumgreifend&x=74&y=14

01:26 Aug 20, 2009 

With Helen both re. suggestions and the likelihood that a lit. trans. is likely to be incorrect (to date); ('even') the Goethe Inst. may well have had a 'non-native' translation or under our usual rush conds., an unsubstantiated guess where Petersburg was concerned. The most (widely) understandable alternative is surely in Helen's entry here - 'floor-to-ceiling hanging', 'the exh. space was hung floor-to-ceiling fashion with.... ' etc. Or my alternative below. In the late 1980s one exh. in a quick-change series (artist project, 'Slalom/Salon', Düsseldorf) had Petersb. H. as its title (and lived up to it). & the Salon trad. explicit there too.

16:15 Aug 19, 2009 

The above post taken from
http://vschneider.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/gentlemanly-hang/

16:12 Aug 19, 2009 

The Salons in France, exhibitions organized by the Académie de Beaux Arts, displayed paintings based on the idea that “more is more”: paintings were hung right next to each other, above each other, under each other; every wall was crammed with what was thought to be the best of the best (read: the most conservative and least challenging). The “salon hang” continued long into the 19th century, despite the fact that the “art-historical” hang came to dominate the logic of display in the late 18th and early 19th century. In fact, if my memory serves me right, the Louvre (before its magnificent renovation) still clung to the salon hang: the painting galleries were dark and claustrophobic; a glass of wine too many and the visitor felt as if the walls were collapsing on him, dragged down by the weight of hundreds of years of painting, Greek tragedies, and shipwrecks at sea.

The “art-historical” hang signals the transition from private collections meant for the few to public museums meant for everyone. Whereas private collections impressed, public museums were intended to instruct. Curators, taking cues from the fledgling discipline of art history, arranged collections ch

16:10 Aug 19, 2009 

I think this is likely to be the equivalent term. Apparently similar to the mosaic hang but with ragged edges - ie hung as paintings were in the 19th century/Victorian salons.

During the twentieth century the tradition of the salon hang seemed lost as modernism decreed that paintings be hung in isolation, surrounded by large areas of white space. Hanging work salon style became associated more with the amateur art society than the cutting edge. However, the casual nature of the salon hang seems appropriate to a new generation of painters who care little for the distinctions between high and low and are willing to borrow equally from both. An underlying theme of these works can be found in the irreverent sampling of imagery or techniques from art history, hobbyist art or the mass media alike.

The massed clusters of pictures, hung floor to ceiling, will provide an overwhelming display of the aesthetic richness, confidence and diversity of current painting.
http://www.delfina.org.uk/exh/pr_salon.html

This at least would mean something to a wider audience, as well as museology types.

15:47 Aug 19, 2009 

There seems to be a US term "mosaic hang" used to describe an entire wall of art:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/06/...

In this related link, one poster even comments
"we (in Europe) call the mosaic hang "St. Petersburg hang", actually ..."
(It turns out this poster is from Germany)
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/the-art-of-hanging-art-on...

14:15 Aug 19, 2009 

is also found on the Internet, mostly German, Dutch and Eastern sites. A description with photos can also be found, but there may be a different term used in UK/US

12:08 Aug 19, 2009 

don't mess with their (professional) definition/interpretation

12:03 Aug 19, 2009 

I would say that it probably is not incorrect but the style may be known by another name in the EN-speaking world.

11:59 Aug 19, 2009 

Sorry, no, I forwarded the entire e-mail above.

11:45 Aug 19, 2009 

All refs on Google are translations from the German except perhaps for this one: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/reflections_on_painting/

Do you have a description of the type of hanging in question?