A brief History of Salon, 

The “Salon-Style Hang” is a method of hanging and displaying paintings that originated in 1667 with the beginning of the annual Royal Academy salon in Paris.  The major entertainment events of the year,  salons were juried showcases exhibiting the best of the best work of the year, by both students of the Royal Academy and by established masters. Because so many works were to be crammed into the exhibitions, walls were hung floor-to-ceiling with paintings on many scales and of many different genres. Usually the largest paintings with the grandest subject matter (history and religion) were hung highest on the wall, while more intimately-scaled work like still-lifes were hung at eye-level or below.    Soon Salons were seen all over Paris and opened the door to not only students but also to "not professional" artist and this gave us the first glimpses of what we would come to call the Impressionists.

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Salons today 

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Fast Forward to today and Salons or salon style hanging is seen everywhere,  from Institutions to our very own homes.! It's a way to display all of our favorite works in our own art collections.  Institutions salon hanging shows, show us how some artworks are very similar or very very different. 

With this particular salon exhibition my intent is for viewers to examine both similarities and differences of these artist, each artist has their own distinct voice and style, but in the Salon their individual voices come together for a conversation that is very cohesive

Jonathan P. Jackson 

Curator