Today we’d like to introduce you to Marc Langlois.
Hi Marc, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I studied Art History at Wayne State, and I always knew from a very young age that I wanted to work at the DIA. I got my start as an intern in the museum’s Prints, Drawings, and Photographs department and was later asked to fill in on doing some lighting. The first day I started, I fell in love with lighting. Once I saw what I could do with a piece of art with lighting, I was blown away. After that, I’ve spent the better part of the last decade learning about the intersection of lighting design, conservation and how to apply it in a museum setting. Something that hasn’t really been a huge focus by museums historically. Today, I spend my days illuminating some of the world’s most recognizable art. Not only am I responsible for lighting every piece of art at the museum in a way that minimizing the damage light exposure can do to a valuable artwork, I also use lighting as a way to help tell the story the artists had in mind when they first created the pieces.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am one of only a handful of museum lighting designers around the country. This also means that there is no defined pathway for this career, no formal education that focuses on the unique circumstances that comes with lighting priceless fine art and cultural artifacts in a museum setting.
I’ve spent the last decade immersing myself fully in this space. I’ve spent time with other designers and scholars discussing lighting principles, learned from conservators on how light truly affects art long-term, worked with lighting fixture manufacturers on specifications specific for art museum settings, and I’ve stayed a lifetime learner of the fine artists, their techniques, and their mediums that adorn the walls of museums.
I’m forging a very niche yet necessary career pathway as I write the playbook for best practices when it comes to lighting fine art safely and beautifully.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
To me, a well-lit piece of art is about so much more than just making a painting stand out. The right light can help realize an artist’s vision, it can showcase delicate techniques and elements, and it can also set the mood or the tone for a piece of artwork or a full collection. In short, it accentuates everything that’s so wonderful about art – the technique, the style, the subject, and the emotion. For example, color temperature can drastically alter one’s perception, mood, and overall experience in a space. As lighting designers, we have the option to control our viewers’ emotions using simple shifts in color temperatures.
Illuminating artwork, however, is not something that can simply be explained in a technical document or achieved with a predetermined formula. Lighting, when used to its fullest potential, should be treated as art itself.
There have been many projects that have defined my career to date. Lighting “Star Wars™ and the Power of Costume” was one of the largest and most successful projects I have worked on. Being able to display and illuminate some of the most iconic costumes and drawings in modern pop culture was a dream of mine. Being able to light things that I grew up watching, like R2D2, was a real highlight. Additionally, I had the honor of lighting more than 70 Van Gogh works as part of “Van Gogh in America,” the largest exhibition of the artist’s paintings in the United States in more than two decades. It was a dream to work so intimately with such important and influential pieces.
What matters most to you? Why?
Every artistic object, no matter how similar, should be treated independently. Objects have different types of surfaces, textures, compositions, and—most importantly—conservation concerns. As a museum lighting designer, I constantly toe the line between how to make an object look its very best, as well as how to keep the object safe from overexposure and not impede on the artists’ original intention.
Contact Info:
- Website: marclangloisdesign.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/marclangloisdesign
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/marclangloisdesign
Image Credits
Detroit Institute of Arts
