How to Choose the Right Frame for Your Art

Practical and Aesthetic Tips for Making the Most of a Piece

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It doesn’t make sense to agonize over the purchase of a special painting for days, weeks, or even a few hours, then choose the frame in minutes.

But that’s the way a lot of people do it.

“I would prefer to view a work of art unframed than to put it in the wrong frame,” says Eli Wilner, chief executive of Wilner & Co., a New York frame dealer. “The wrong frame will destroy the artist’s intentions.”

Mr. Wilner recalls a client who wanted a black frame for his 19th century Camille Pissarro painting of a crowded Parisian boulevard, because it matched all the other frames in his home.

“I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. You put a black frame around this painting and it will make it look as though everyone is going to a funeral,’ ” Mr. Wilner recalls. He says he finally brought the client around to purchasing a gold-colored frame with design impressions that “gave the painting the feeling of sunlight, of richness.”

Here are some of the basics of framing, and a few tips—both practical and aesthetic—to guide purchases.

Frames

A traditional reason for framing is it separates the art from the rest of the world—or the rest of the living room, as the case may be. Still, the best frames are an extension of the art they surround, not its antithesis, says Mr. Wilner.

“Museums tend to go for period frames in keeping with the style of the artwork,” says Rick Badwey, owner of Museum Framing, Alexandria, Va. Most of us don’t have the kind of budgets museums have, but the same principle can apply. “If you have an Amish work, you’d probably want something pretty simple,” Mr. Badwey says.

For family portraits, Mr. Badwey adds, it is popular to use wooden frames the color of gold, or covered in gold leaf, which is actual gold hammered into a thin sheet and applied to a surface on which an adhesive has been spread.

A lot of different woods are used in framing: most often, ash, basswood, cherry, maple, oak, poplar and walnut. Prices depend on the manufacturer and the supplier, but also vary according to whether the wood is hand- or machine-finished, carved, or gilded with gold or silver.

Of course, frames also protect art from being banged around. The framer should be able to tell you how thick the frame needs to be to support the artwork.

Mats

Matting is used with works on paper—as opposed to canvas—such as watercolor paintings, prints and drawings. Mats are exposed around the edges of the artwork and come in different materials and colors. Sometimes, double-matting is used to accentuate colors found within the artwork; one layer may be neutral while the other has a tint found in the art.

For pieces covered with glass (more about that next), an additional layer of matting may also be desirable to provide more separation between the art and the glass. Paper expands in higher humidity, and if it touches the covering glass it may stick, permanently damaging the image.

Mats come in three types. The least expensive are decorative mats made from wood pulp that has been rendered pH neutral, meaning that as it deteriorates it shouldn’t leak acids that can damage the art work—at least not for many years. The most popular mats are made from acid-neutralized, lignin-free wood pulp, which is a bit more expensive but holds up longer.

Museums and art collectors who want their pieces to last forever prefer mats of cotton fiber. Also referred to as museum board, cotton-rag mats generally are two to three times as expensive as wood-pulp mats but are naturally acid-free. The only drawback is they tend to “come only in neutral and subdued colors,” says Annajean Hamel, a framer and art handler at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. “You can get wood-pulp mats in some really cool colors,” she says.

Glass

Works on paper need glass or Plexiglas (also called acrylic) coverings to protect against dirt and dust. Canvas, by contrast, is inherently sturdier than paper and usually less risky to clean. Certain types of glass also offer protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, which cause brighter colors to fade.

In addition to its protective strengths, there is one other quality to look for in glass: We shouldn’t really see the glass. It should be largely invisible, letting us see the artwork clearly.

The main types of glass used in framing, from least to most expensive, are: clear, nonreflective glasses that don’t filter out ultraviolet rays; conservation glass, which has a coating that filters out 99% of UV rays; and museum glass, which eliminates 99% of UV rays and cuts reflection by 85%. Plexiglas products are generally twice as expensive as their equivalent in glass.

While it may not appeal to most, Plexiglas has the advantage of being more shatter-resistant than real glass, which could be of interest to art owners living in earthquake-prone zones. It also is one-third lighter, which may matter with very large paintings. Acrylics can be scratched, however, unlike glass.

Real glass is always preferable when covering artworks created in charcoal, graphite or pastels. The reason: Static electricity builds up on the surface of Plexiglas and pulls the art medium right off the paper. Sprayed fixatives on the artwork may help, and some makers of acrylic glass claim that they have removed the static from their products. But using glass eliminates the risk.

Backing

Backs of canvases and works on paper should be protected to keep out dirt, dust and insects. (Advice from an earlier time recommended putting holes in the backing, to allow the artwork to breathe, but that only permits dirt, dust and insects to get through.)

At the pricier end, there may be triple-backing for works on paper. This tends to consist of a cotton-rag board that touches the art, behind which is a thicker board of corrugated plastic (polypropylene) and, finally, a dust cover. Less expensive, and more popular, than corrugated plastic is a foamcore backing, which consists of polystyrene foam encased in pH neutral paper. Polystyrene may break down over a period of years and release gases that can harm the artwork. Hence, the wrapping.

There is no regulation covering some of the terms used for backing materials, such as “acid-free,” “antistatic” and “UV coating.” Michael Lee, director of photography and paper conservation at the Northeast Document Conservation Center, recommends contacting a museum curator or conservator, or a conservation lab, for questions and advice about best practices.