MICHAEL SARFF

Exhibit builder MICHAEL SARFF
Art exhibitions don’t exactly install themselves—and it takes a lot more than just hanging some hooks to ready valuable and often fragile works for public view. At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, for example, major exhibits like the recently closed “Russia!” require six months to a year to plan, two to three weeks to install, and a veritable army of curators, designers, conservators and art handlers to get the job done.

Guggenheim’s exhibition-construction manager Michael Sarff’s post involves overseeing the preparation of gallery spaces before the art goes in them. This entails building walls, painting the space and installing display furniture like platforms, cases and pedestals. “With every exhibition,” he explains, “you have to sign off with a bunch of people to make sure that what you are doing matches everyone’s goals.” He cites the installation of the icons in the “Russia!” show, which needed special walls that could support their weight. “Every work of art has its own requirements,” Sarff says.

The rotunda of the Guggenheim presents a special challenge because it’s built on a slant. “We do our installing on a three-degree ramp,” Sarff says. “If we put in a pedestal, we have to make sure it slopes at a degree and a half—enough so that when you look at it while standing on the ramp, it will appear level.” In fact, all the hanging in this space is done by eye. “You can’t hang anything using a level,” he says. “You can only go with what seems correct. True level really looks off in this building.”—Howard Halle