Wallpaper and paintings can be combined effectively. MEINEWAND colour expert Kai Bergen has compiled a list of things to consider when doing so. Sebastian Stahl spoke to gallery owner Oliver Ahlers, who presents works of classical modernism in front of bird wallpaper by Osborne & Little.
Wallpaper and paintings reunited
Since pictures and paintings were historically reserved for the wealthy classes, in past centuries they were almost always hung on fabric or wallpaper wall coverings. This was also the practice in museums and galleries. From the late 1970s onwards, however, the architecture in museums and galleries became increasingly minimalist. Walls were almost exclusively painted white or, in new buildings, left exposed concrete.
This has been changing again in recent years. Coloured walls, as seen for centuries in art collections and museums alongside wallpaper and fabrics, are making a comeback. In England, a country with a long tradition of wallpaper, galleries have been using wallpaper as a backdrop for pictures again for some time now.
Which wallpaper patterns go particularly well with pictures and paintings?
At first glance, pictures can be combined very well with rather understated wallpaper patterns. However, the combination of expressive wallpaper and pictures is also appealing. This could also be modern wallpaper combined with 19th-century art. A mix of eras creates excitement.
Are dark or light wallpapers more suitable?
Whether to use dark or light wallpaper depends on the effect you want to achieve. Dark wallpaper can make the colours in a picture pop, thereby placing the picture at the centre of the wall.
Which style periods can be combined particularly well with wallpaper?
Images from periods up to classical modernism almost always work. With abstract painting, it depends on the motif. If the motif is very delicate, you have to be careful that the wallpaper does not draw too much attention to itself.
What should you consider when choosing a picture frame?
The frame is the third element alongside the picture and the wallpaper. Here too, many combinations are possible. You just have to try it out.
Interview
"I enjoy changing the wall again and again."
Sebastian Stahl spoke to Oliver Ahlers, founder and owner of Galerie Ahlers, about combining paintings and wallpaper.
Sunlight streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows into the interior of the gallery in Göttingen. It falls on a painting by Franz Radziwill. It hangs in front of green wallpaper by Osborne & Little featuring various birds. This is where I meet Oliver Ahlers.
Gallery owner Oliver Ahlers in his Gallery in Göttingen South of Hannover
Sebastian Stahl: How did it come about that there is a wall with wallpaper in this part of your gallery?
Oliver Ahlers: We recently renovated here. We relocated one of our picture storage areas, thereby gaining this new exhibition space.
And when you saw the bare walls during the renovation...
... it occurred to me that I had been wanting to wallpaper a wall in our rooms for quite some time.
Picture Source: Franz Radziwill / Courtesy Galerie Ahlers
So you wanted to try something different?
Nowadays, many people associate galleries and museums with empty white or concrete-grey walls on which pictures are hung in strict rows.
So we have all become accustomed to the museum as a so-called "white cube"?
Exactly, we think of museums and galleries today as large white cubes in which art is to be viewed completely without architecture or distractions around it. The concept has a certain logic to it, but, at least in my view, it quickly becomes boring.
Picture Source (v.l.n.r.): Lesser Ury (2), Franz Radziwill / Courtesy Galerie Ahlers
On these two walls, you are taking a different approach.
Not really (laughs). Actually, hanging paintings on wallpaper is nothing new. Just look at the castles in Fulda or Detmold, for example. All the paintings there hang in front of fabrics or wallpaper. Or think of Weimar, where every room in Goethe's house has a different colour.
Were they your role models?
That may have played a subconscious role, but it wasn't the main reason. I just like to keep changing our walls and rethinking them. Whether it's a dark red or pink wall, which we also have in our gallery at the moment and use for a Petersburg hanging, or the dark grey walls in our workshop. And now this new exhibition area with wallpaper.
Picture Source: Franz Radziwill / Courtesy Galerie Ahlers
And what do your customers say?
There are two camps. A small minority find it visually overwhelming, but the majority are enthusiastic. For most, however, seeing art in a gallery against a multicoloured, designed background is something unfamiliar.
Isn't that precisely what makes it so appealing, this interplay between art and its surroundings?
The beam of light on the frame, the shadow cast on the wall, the pattern behind the picture: all of this invites discovery. Many visitors are surprised at how deep our building is and how differently the individual rooms are designed.
Picture Source: Lesser Ury / Courtesy Galerie Ahlers
You also said that some people would be overwhelmed. Is there art that doesn't go well with wallpaper?
I think that's very individual. What's so nice about our walls is that they show visitors the effect a painting can have when it's hung in a lively environment. Our customers rarely hang their artwork in a white, empty room, but rather above the sofa or desk. Art harmonises well with coloured walls or patterned wallpaper. For me, there are no blanket restrictions. In my experience, everyone has a different sense of what goes well together. You just have to try it out.
What pictures do we currently see on the two wallpapered walls?
We have two works by Lesser Ury and a painting by Franz Radziwill hanging on Osborne & Little's Netherfield Park bird wallpaper. Both are artists of classical modernism, i.e. from the early 20th century. At first, Lesser Ury's Sunset hung next to Radziwill's work. The two did not harmonise at all, but Lesser Ury's view of Berlin, on the other hand, fits perfectly with Radziwill's work.
The bird wallpaper behind them provides a very fitting backdrop for the three works without dominating the space. It gives the room a cosy, homely atmosphere and makes viewing the art even more enjoyable.
The Ahlers Gallery
The Ahlers Gallery was opened in Göttingen in 1982 by Oliver Ahlers. In addition to a permanent, and still growing, roster of artists, the gallery, whose premises currently cover 350 square metres, specialises in works of classical modernism, post-1945 art and contemporary art in the form of photography, painting, sculpture, drawings and video installations.
From Göttingen, the gallery has become an integral part of the national art trade. As a member of the Federal Association of German Gallerists (BVDG), Oliver Ahlers' team is involved in the purchase and sale of artworks as well as their restoration. The gallery also focuses on advising clients on building collections and assisting with the administration of estates.
To this day, Oliver Ahlers has remained curious and seeks out promising talents, whom he regularly presents to his critical and art-loving audience in exhibitions.
Picture Sources: Boråstapeter, Morris & Co, Sandberg, House of Hackney, Rebel Walls, House of Hackney