"Toile Libre" - On the Hanging of a Stretcherless Painting

On the Hanging of Unstretched Canvas

As my paintings are not painted on an easel, but on the floor from all sides, there is no actual up or down. There is only painted side and unpainted side. (in some cases, both sides of the canvas are painted).

In a perfect world I would invite those participating in the artwork to experience the painting as I do, by walking around and stepping on the canvas.

I like to think of the painting as a canoe or a rowboat or kayak. You may enter it or swim around it, looking in. It is only when you get into the boat that you can let it carry you away.

There is nothing wrong with watching a kayak from a distance, but it is not the same experience as is intended for the vehicle. My paintings are intended to carry one away from the day to day, not necessarily to white water.

As there is no imperative horizontal or vertical, no absolute right or left. The unstretched paintings may be hung either horizontal or vertical. There is only a sense of up, down, right or left when the piece is hanging on a wall. It is in a way unnatural for a painting made on the floor to be shown in a perpendicular position, on the wall. At the same time, it is absolutely normal and conventional for these artworks to be shown and viewed on a wall. It is the normal convention of displaying paintings, and these canvases are most certainly a class of objects known as paintings.

Hanging a large canvas on a wall allows the viewer/participant to experience the painting as if floating above it, in a way. It is if you can imagine the canvas flat on the floor and the viewer is hovering over the canvas. Unfortunately, the viewer/participant has his or her feet stuck on the ground and can only “float” along one side of the four possible directions. Yet, that is the normal way of experiencing art. We are stuck with floors and walls and gravity. If it were possible, I would love to invert my canvases and attach them to a low ceiling so one could lay on the type of floor creeper an auto mechanic rests upon to scoot around while working beneath an automobile. Ideally the viewer might experience the painting from a foot away as I often do as I make the painting, then back off and see what it looks like from a different distance.

But, for all intents and purpose, the unstretched canvases will be more or less flat perpendicular to the floor. How does one attach them to the wall?

I prefer to allow the canvas to appear to float a couple inches away from the wall, not unlike drapery for a window. Just as drapery is attached only at the top to a rod, so too is my canvas. There are several means by which to attach the canvas to the support rod. The rod may be metal or wood, and if possible be a few inches away from the wall. The least invasive method is to use a square metal or wood rod and to fasten the artwork with small C-clamps along the rod. Four to six C-clamps may hold the canvas to the rod. I have alternatively used staples along the top edge of a wooden French Cleat. The canvas is only stapled along the top, hidden side of the cleat, the part of the cleat not seen by the viewer of the artwork. A third option is to use a type of clip sometimes used to hold shower curtains, but these tend to be visible. My personal preference if to staple the folded edge of the canvas to a wood french cleat.

Concerning up, down, right or left; I encourage whomever is choosing the direction to flip the piece so that it “feels” natural and avoids looking like anything referential, such as a landscape. These are not landscapes.

Additionally, because the canvas is a natural material under the constraint of a plasticized paint, it will hang as it will hang. Do not expect the unstretched canvas to lay flat. It will “drape” naturally.

Below are examples of the same painting hung two ways. The upper of the two “feels” like a better orientation than the lower, as the elements appear to be “rising”. Both are correct. I like the upper arrangement. The interesting thing is that once on the wall, with the participant a foot away, they really have a sort of seductive quality that suddenly loses perspective of “better” or less better.


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