Preferred illumination level by the viewers for displaying paintings in exhibition space

Abstract

Light plays a crucial role for display of paintings in any exhibition. Lack of proper illumination makes the displays ineffective to the exhibition visitors. Earlier studies have argued that viewers’ preference for illumination level is usually higher than recommended level. However, these studies were based on general room illumination and viewers’ preferred illumination level for viewing paintings has not been considered. Therefore, in this study, an experiment has been designed (questionnaire on semantic differential scale, N = 30) to understand viewers’ preferred illumination level for viewing water and oil medium paintings. The findings from the experimental result are depicting that viewers prefer higher illumination level (100 lux for water-based paintings and 150 lux for oil-based paintings) than the recommended for both mediums of paintings. Also, the result is supporting that viewers’ preference for illumination level is not significantly effected by the medium of painting.