A new exhibition was hung last week on the walls of the Polk Museum of Art, featuring 20th Century painter Romaine Brooks. The PMA is the second, and currently only museum in the United States to feature Brooks’ retrospective, the first being the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Including 18 paintings + 32 drawings, the collection displays portraits of women in Brooks’ circle of friends in a way that was both empowering + progressive for her time. As Dr. Alex Rich (PMA’s Curator + Director of Galleries) illustrates, “On one level, these works provide a glimpse into what people might envision when they think of the increasing independence of women in the 1920s…On a deeper level, though, Brooks’ portrait subjects also reflect a lesser-known subculture of outliers and bohemians, many of whom were artists and, like Brooks, many of whom were gay.”

Installation Process

I got the chance to be in the museum while they began unpacking and installing the Brooks collection + can I just say, getting the new collections down to LAL is a long and well thought-out process.

Photo by LALtoday

A few months prior to the exhibition’s release date, Matt Belcher (PMA’s Preparator + Design Manager) begins the process of crafting how a collection will fit into the gallery hall.

One of these preparations includes wall design as the color is updated + sanded per collection. For the Brooks exhibit, Matt chose a gray color palette, expressing that if he did anything too vibrant with this collection of darker portraits + lighter sketches, her work would have been muted hanging against such vivid, dynamic walls.

Photo by LALtoday

The design team also has to think about art placement; according to size, theme + progression of the museum as a visitor walks through it (especially for audio guides). For the Brooks exhibit, they have decided to hang the sketches in, what is known as salon style (a style originating out of Paris, so...duh). Since they are such intimate drawings, Matt shares that salon style will let visitors get a closer view.

Photo by LALtoday

Unboxing and Condition Reports

Once the design is set + the delivery truck arrives, the paintings have to acclimate to the museum’s welcoming temperature for 24 hours before Matt can start removing them. In fact, Diana Smith (PMA’s Membership + Marketing Manager) shares that if the PMA’s required temperature drops or spikes, even for a second, alarms start going off. Can you tell they take care of their pieces?

After they’re removed from their shipping crates, Loren Hicks (PMA’s Collections Manager + Registrar) spends hours conducting condition reports to ensure there is no damage done to the pieces. You can see her (below) taking a flashlight up and down the frame + artwork, ensuring it’s in good condition.

Photo by LALtoday

The Polk Museum of Art has been working tirelessly at this new collection and I, for one, am ecstatic about it. The gallery will be released to the public Sept. 28. Will I see you there? 🎨

- Emily (LALtoday intern)