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Protecting a Yacht's Artwork
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Rock superstar Lenny Kravitz recently redecorated his Magnum 60.
Clean white fabrics now rest where cow prints once blared, a white mink comforter slathers the bed, and just a hint of gray peeks through the white shag carpeting that oozes about five inches off the sole.
Only one piece of artwork adorns the bulkheads inside the stark, minimalist interior: a gold-framed Joan Miro that stands about 10-by-12 inches, around the same size as some of the artist's $30,000 unframed canvases.
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Kravitz's piece is tucked behind glass in his yacht's saloon, which is just a few steps down from a wide open door to the sun, sand and salt air.
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All three are among the foremost enemies of any fine collectible.
Since the wealthy and famous first started building yachts, designers have had to find ways to protect the artwork they want aboard. Some boaters use new, “climate-friendly” techniques to display their favorite images, but for the most part, paintings remain the foremost choice when it comes to interior decor. On all but the largest, climate-controlled yachts, that means finding a balance between what's practical and what's enjoyable.
“Sunlight, you can combat,” says J. Russell Jinishian, who publishes MarineArt Quarterly. “It's an issue like protecting furniture. |
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It's tinting the windows and making sure that if it's something that needs to be under glass, the glass is special to filter out the ultraviolet rays.”
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Moisture can be addressed by choosing artwork done in hardy media. “Oil paintings, by and large, have stood the test of a thousand years,” he explains. “The Italians used to literally hang them on the recessed areas of the outsides of buildings.
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Acrylics, they're also pretty safe. What you may find is that the paintings, because the canvas and paint and wood are organic materials, they ripple. It's nothing bad; it's just the thing relaxing and swelling. Take the painting off, turn it around, you can stretch it out.”
Watercolors under glass are all right, he says, but obviously require more protection from moisture. Seepage may ripple and warp the surrounding mat, but it can easily be changed.
Sometimes, a yacht's movement is more hazardous to a painting than nature's elements. Jinishian recommends not only having paintings hung professionally, but using Velcro or bolts to secure the corners.
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Bettie Carter, who oversees interior design on Lazzara Yachts' 80-footers, recommends using security hangers, which she buys in bulk from art supply stores. Several manufacturers make them, Carter says, and all work well when attached to a yacht's bulkhead.
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“There are three, they're locking mechanisms, two at the top and one at the bottom,” she says. “They hook together so the painting doesn't move.”
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Some yacht owners have solved the problem by finding new ways to display their favorite images. The 85-foot Doggersbank Endurance , based in the Pacific Northwest , is the first yacht to work with Redmond, Washington-based Backlight Images Inc. The company creates three-dimensional photo imaging on the surface of translucent Dupont Corian. |
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“We bring in the picture of the yacht, scan it and run it through some software, and create that into the surface of the Corian. It's a relief process,” says company owner Rick D. Wing. The surface appears carved when it's complete. “When the light is off, it looks like sculptured art. When you illuminate it from behind, it creates the photo that was given to us in the first place.”
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Wing says he discovered the patent-pending process by accident three years ago and has since taken orders for trade shows, retail applications, even for the Mercantile Center in Chicago .
An 11-by-17 piece costs about $300 to $400, and a 24-by-40 piece runs as much as $2,000. The creations can be as small as 8-by-10 inches or as large as 5-by-10 feet.
Jinishian says that no matter what style of display boaters choose, art is meant to be enjoyed. Sun and seawater are formidable opponents, but they're not insurmountable obstacles.
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“If you listen to some people, you should never open the shades in your house, never hang anything in a room with a fireplace,” he says. “What you end up with is hanging your paintings in a closet. That doesn't make any sense to me. If it gets wet, you wipe it off. It's easy to freak out, but it's not the end of the world.”
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Kim Kavin, editor of www.CharterWave.com |
