Piano Wall Art

Piano Wall Art: Wide, Tall, and How to Tell

Orientation is decided by which part of the instrument is in the frame. Anything that includes the keyboard wants width, because a keyboard is a long, low band and cropping it into a tall format cuts off the very thing that makes it readable. A raised lid, a player seated at an upright, or a view down the length of a grand from the front will all take a taller format, since the strong lines run upwards as well as across.

The wall above a piano forces the issue anyway. That space is usually a wide, shallow strip, and on an upright you need clearance above the top lid. Hang low enough to relate to the instrument, high enough that lifting the lid or the fallboard does not catch the corner of the picture, and keep the piece narrower than the instrument so it reads as belonging to it.

Colour is rarely a problem with this subject. Black, white, warm brown, brass and ivory tones go with almost any scheme, which is why piano images end up in rooms that have nothing else musical in them. If you want warmth, look for visible wood grain; if you want severity, the high-contrast monochrome treatments are as graphic as anything abstract.

Detail crops carry the feeling better than whole instruments. Hands over the keys, hammers and dampers seen through an open lid, the curve of a lid viewed edge on: these give you texture at close range, where a full instrument photographed in an empty room can look like a catalogue entry.

Before buying an illustrated or heavily stylised keyboard, count the black keys. They run in groups of two and three, endlessly repeating, and artists who are not musicians get this wrong more often than you would believe. Once you have spotted a group of four, you will never see that picture the same way again, and it will be hanging in your house for years.