Mat cutting history

[Curt]

At what period in time did photographers start putting window mats on photographs? What did they do the cutting with?

 

[Steve Roberts]

At what period in time did photographers start putting window mats on photographs? What did they do the cutting with?

Interesting question. I don't know when, but with regard to "how", a former colleague of mine trained as a technical artist (some forty years ago) and as part of some kind of presentation skills on the course he was required to be able to cut bevelled window mats with nothing more than a ruler and knife. To this day he refuses to use anything more elaborate and puts my efforts with a Logan cutter to shame!

Cheers,

Steve

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The ideas of the wide window mat and of hanging works with space between them, so that each work could be appreciated without distraction from adjacent works, are usually associated with Steichen and the 291 Gallery.

 

[User Removed]

I'm not sure about photography, but this topic of using window mats can go all the way back to the 13-1400's when artwork used to be displayed in a salon, were all pictures were hung side by side, from ceiling to floor with no wall showing. At this time, nearly all paintings had what I call a "built in perspective system" which took the viewers eye directly into the image and told you exactly what to look at.

At time went on, artist started changing the compositions of their images, making more use of the area that would exist outside their painting, where the viewers mind could emagine a whole scene, and the painting just being a tiny detail of that scene. By doing this, paintings never looked good when hung next to each other so artist started using super wide and thick frames to isolate the image. Soon, a larger space was needed around the image, so mats were used.

By the time photography was invented, I believe artist already knew that images needed space to breathe, and matting/framing was part of the final displace of the piece.

Of course, over the years, there has been people not using the frame and mat, and creating images that have no perspective, but rather an all over image. For example, the spatter paintings of Jackson Pollock. However, in this case, it was about how the final piece really communicates with the wall and becomes part of the gallery space. A frame was not needed nor wanted.

Hopefully that clears some stuff up for you!

Regards,

Ryan McIntosh
www.RyanMcIntosh.net

 

[Ian Grant]

Well my scottish grandmother bought two framed landscape photographs on her honeymoon in the English Lake District in 1910 and they are window mounted.

They are still in the original frame, unfortunately they weren't archivally framed in those days, the mount board has aged, and the prints have faded slightly. The wooden back to the frames seems to have been the major cause of the damage.

Ian

 

[Dave Wooten]

What Ryan said above. Also works in the 1300's and 1400's had "windows" painted into/onto as part of the composition and then framed, also Icon art in Russia and elsewhere-dyptichs and tryptichs and panels gave added depth and dimension...on some the "matt" could be closed some Icon art on metals had "mat" overlay giving it a 3d "cut out" effect. Interestingly today there are a few photographers in Russia who have photographed the old icons via laser/holography...giving an even more 3 D effect.

Not exactly to the question but recent history, albumen portraits as well as other process portraits were matted in the effect that they were mountted and debossed and embossed, framed etc.

The popular sillouette (sp?) artists often framed with an oval overlay-paper mat.

Good question-the historical development and origins of the present day practice of presentation of photography within a matt.

The use of a matt to keep separation space of the photograph from the glass probably plays a part here? The first salon to present photography behind glass?