Frames : Essaie

How do we see and perceive a work of art? Why are paintings reproduced without their frames? When are a picture and frame inseparable? How do I find out? What consequences does the „frame-perspective“ have for the interpretation of the work of art?

Such were the questions leading to a doctoral thesis, written in the 1980s, about artists framing their paintings between academy and reform – and a life-long passion. My work about frames was and still is devoted to the discovery, evaluation, interpretation and preservation of picture frames conceived, chosen and sometimes also made by the artists themselves.

Artists who care about the frame, are part of a long tradition: from time immemorial, they have created frames that matched their pictures in terms of aesthetics, concept and materials.

Working on frames and their constant re-adjustment by the artist – often at different stages – is by no means a private luxury, but necessary for the optimum viewing. More often than you would think, painting and frame are inseparable.

There were no digital inventories and libraries during the 1980s and 1990s.

When my research on frames began, it – luckily – was devoted to studying art works at first-hand, in situ, in public and private galleries, in framers‘ and guilders‘ studios, and very often in storage, where it was possible to have a closer look.

It was not so difficult to find prominent examples of paintings in their original frames, but it took years to document and inventorize those art works.
At the same time it was important to make clear that, in many cases, they would have to be considered an integral part of a particular artistic concept – and that this would have consequences for the art historical interpretation and museum, restoration or exhibition practice.
Finally, eleven case studies proofed the importance of the frame for the work of some of the pioneers of modern art: Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Seurat, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, James Mc Neill Whistler, Franz von Lenbach, Arnold Böcklin, Franz von Stuck and Gustav Klimt.

From this foundation research, two internationally acclaimed exhibitions emerged in 1995:
In Perfect Harmony. Picture + Frame 1850 – 1920 (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) and Bild und Rahmen der Moderne von Van Gogh bis Dalí (Kunstforum der Bank Austria Vienna).

The catalogue was published in an English and a German version, tailor-made designed by Piet Roozen, they remain important reference works to this day.

Here, the works of important representatives of Classicism, Victorian art, Art Nouveau, Impressionism and Modernism were exhibited for the first time in frames designed by the artists; a „feast for the eye“ as the press wrote at the time. 254.000 visitors enjoyed the exhibit in Amsterdam.
The „peripheral phenomenon“ of art history became a magnet for the public.

Praise was given in more than two hundred articles, exhibition and books reviews, to the first-class selection, the importance and fascination of the theme, the all-encompassing concept and the cooperation of art historians and restorers. After all these years I am still grateful for our in many ways unique Zusammenarbeit.

Exhibits and books were a lasting success, with visitors, press and for museum, exhibition and conservation practice.

This frame design topic has been further developed. Thus, it was applied in greater depth to Franz von Stucks’ frame and overall communication concept. Stuck was considered in the 1900s as one of the best German painters, sculptors and draftsmen.

Stuck demonstrated not only an individual artistic style, but also a complete style of communication that goes far beyond his time. On behalf of the Von Stuck estate, both a scientific analysis of the graphic work was completed, as well as a re-evaluation of the complete works.

The publication, Franz von Stuck – Die Kunst der Verführung, das Markenzeichen Franz von Stuck: Eine künstlerische Erfolgsstrategie / Franz von Stuck – The Art of Persuasion, the Trade Mark of Franz von Stuck – a successful artistic strategy (2002) was the basis for five exhibitions (Franz von Stuck Birthplace, Tettenweis / Museum Villa Stuck, Munich / Erwin Scharff Museum, Neu-Ulm / Museum of Modern Art, Passau / Museum Wernigerode Castle).

Research continued e.g. with a scholarship from the Center for Advanced Studies in Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art Washington D.C. (joint Fellowship „German Expressionist frames“). Invitations followed to speak at lectures and symposia in Europe and overseas or to collaborate on publications such as The art of the frame in the context of Expressionist masterpieces.

Having collected hundreds of examples, more questions were – and still are – asked, like:
Do the artists‘ intentions count? Is the frame a bridge between painting, architecture and craftsmanship? Does it perhaps open a common ground between artists and their public? Is the concern for the frame – and its appearance – perhaps the manifestation of a first impression, if not a ritual in the interplay between individual and society and institutions? And another concept, changing the way art is viewed.

Not so long ago, a German journalist proposed in an interview with me in the context of the exhibition Unzertrennlich. Rahmen und Bilder der Brücke-Künstler (Inseparable. Frames and paintings of the artists of the Brücke) that the frame changes one’s view of the picture – and vice versa (Der Rahmen verändert den Blick auf das Bild – und umgekehrt) the frame became a sort of proper genre during the 19th and 20th century for modern and vanguard artists.

Meanwhile the pandemic seems to have changed priorities again. Original works seem to have lost their value, being reduced to two-dimensional reproductions within the given format of the flat screen, sometimes en miniature, sometimes huge. Is there an awareness of the need for quality? For reproductions, for the communication of the work of art, for the respect of the artists’ intentions and the right of the public to information beyond commercial interests?

Is this, perhaps, the manifestation of another first impression?

The methodological aspects represented seem to be more valid than ever in the age of digital reproductions of artworks, the reproduction of the artworks in their frames.

The times have changed, and printed publications are getting less and less important. Most of the editing houses I have been working with, meanwhile were forced to reduce their program or even vanished. Nevertheless the subject of the framed painting, paintings in spatial context, the message of the original and the obligation to preserve and communicate its integrity, stay the same.

It has been – and still is – a challenge to communicate the importance of an object – the frame – so far considered a peripheral phenomenon and more or less unimportant to art history.

Writing about the relationship between frames and paintings includes research on artists, architecture, design and craftsmanship, on collectors, exhibits and provenance, but it is also about traditions of seeing, about aesthetics and the respect for the art work, its creators and the rights of the spectator to face integrity and integrality.