REMODELING YOUR HOME?
LOOKING FOR THAT PERFECT COLOR?
Take inspiration from Pompeii and take heart from a Museum expert who does this day in and day out, exhibition after exhibition. From envisioning the final result to choosing paint colors, Birmingham Museum of Art Exhibitions Designer Terry Beckham shares his approach to creating the right space for art and the way we live.
There are large swatches of paint on the walls at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Shavings are strewn over the floor and spackling covers nail holes from artwork removed from the walls. Exhibitions designer Terry Beckham is considering the perfect reds, olives and blues to complement objects in a new exhibition opening in four months, “Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption.” The red will work perfectly with the signature Pompeii reds in the frescoes. The olive green is Old World and comforting. It's the right backdrop for the gorgeous dining benches, chests, and other decorative arts with which the sophisticated denizens of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Oplontis lived in ancient Roman times.
But he's not happy with the blue. "Too aqua," says Beckham, who often receives calls from museum visitors who want to replicate on their dining room walls paint colors they discover at the Museum. "It needs toning down so it won't conflict with the emotion people will feel when they see the body casts.”
You can’t miss Beckham. He’s the 6’2” tall guy in gray ponytail and Hawaiian shirt. And he’s got a huge job in front of him: transforming 10,000 square feet of space from the Museum’s former Chinese and Japanese galleries, dismantled temporarily to make room for the Museum's upcoming blockbuster exhibition, Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption (Oct 14-Jan 27). With nearly 500 objects, this is the largest exhibition ever mounted by the Museum. It will feature body casts of Vesuvius’ victims, room-size frescoes and mosaics, life-size marble and bronze statues, table silver, precious jewelry, gladiatorial armor and more. Pompeii visits only three US cities, including Chicago's Field Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where the exhibition travels following Birmingham.
Beckham, has designed 421 exhibitions large and small since joining the Birmingham Museum of Art in 1984, after graduating from the Alabama School of Fine Arts and the University of Alabama
Some of the biggest challenges in building out these spaces have been from gauging the size of objects to make sure they'll fit through the doorway and into the 12,500-ton elevator (which had to be rebuilt to accommodate Searching for Ancient Egypt in 1999, to taking out ceilings and rebuilding roofs to allow for the unusually large dimension of the Pompeian frescoes.
TIPS FROM THE EXPERT
Choosing paint colors
The best way to find the right paint color is to test in different lighting situations. When paints dry, the hues are significantly darker than they are wet. And the effect of a large swatch on the wall will give you a much better idea of the final effect than a tiny patch. Don't be timid: lay down as large a swatch and live with it for 24 hours.
Hanging paintings, photographs,
and other framed images
In a museum setting paintings are normally hung at eye level or 60 inches from the center of the image. He prefers single hangings, but permits double if the gallery space is tight. If you’re short on space at home or want that Old World feel, try double-hanging those family portraits and paintings.
Dealing with dust
Dust from sheetrock removal and installation can be a real bear when building or remodeling, to your sinuses, your belongings and your floors. It is important to protect your hardwoods by covering the surface with sheet cardboard and heavy-duty plastic sheeting.
Pompeii Red is Rare, Unique
In 2004, Italian researchers discovered the formula for the famous Pompeian red, the shiny and intense color that dominated Pompeii's wall paintings 2,000 years ago. Pompeian red consists simply of natural cinnabar pigment. It abounds on the walls of the Villa of Mysteries and in the famous Apollo fresco coming to Birmingham. The red represents the Roman mastery of color.
Normal cinnabar is mercuric sulfide, the principal ore contained in mercury. In Pompeian red, natural cinnabar was processed with particular care, "purification, grinding and dimensional control," researchers found, and required careful processing.
