"I’ll never forget the time that I almost fell on a 5-foot-tall Jackson Pollock," says Dallas–based lighting designer Curtis Liberda. "It was in the corridor of a Dallas collector’s home, barely lit by a skylight—even at noon—and I literally almost fell on my face."

The fact that collectors spend thousands of dollars on art and antiques and budget little to illuminate them is a mystery to lighting pros like Liberda who, with his firm, 2clighting, are messianic about displaying works of art. "Lighting is always an afterthought. It makes little sense to me," he says. "People always wonder why it doesn’t look like it did in the gallery—that’s because the lighting is wrong."

Too often, lighting is something that collectors think they can do themselves, forgetting that UV rays can damage works, that the gallery lighting that may have sold them on a particular piece is actually the latest in display technology and that a home has architectural and design challenges that just can’t be solved with the dreaded above-the-frame light or track lighting.

Serious collectors, however, are discovering the value of investing in a lighting designer. Best hired in the planning stages of a new home, during a remodel or when undertaking a retrofit of an existing home to house a collection, a lighting pro can customize an adaptable system to showcase your art. And the results, collectors agree, are worth it. "I remember a collector of Russian works—dark paintings with lots of black and browns—who walked into his home after we finished the lighting," recalls Liberda. "He just sat down in front of one of the paintings and stared. He was blown away. He had never fully seen it before."

IS YOUR LIGHTING WRONG? Reflections from photographs, overly harsh light that washes out color and shadows that "scallop" in a room or down a hallway are telltale signs of poor lighting. "It’s only when you discover good lighting that you recognize bad lighting everywhere you go," says John Runyon, an art dealer and collector in Dallas. "My late father [William Runyon], who served on the board of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and my mother, Beverly Snyder, never realized, back in the 1970s and 1980s, that their collections had horrible lighting." Runyon, who hangs Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, Tom Friedman and other Pop and conceptual artists, discovered Liberda’s firm, 2clighting, when he moved into a mid-century Alfred T. Gilman-designed house in Dallas. Liberda had worked with the previous owner on custom lighting, and Runyon says he instantly saw how proper light transformed his collection.

WORK WITH A PRO. Of course, hiring a lighting designer might sound like something that only the Lauders and Broads of the art world do, but that is no longer the case. While major collectors might keep a lighting designer on retainer, with a contracted maintenance program that continuously monitors equipment and works with new additions, any collector can hire one on a project basis. Be observant in your research: Some lighting designers, who might even be "lighting-certified," have relationships with lighting equipment manufacturers and will only use those products in an installation. Often, these designers will offer their services free, along with the purchase of equipment. It is best to consider members of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), who are the foremost professionals in architectural-based commercial, residential and landscape lighting, and are admitted only after an intensive peer-review process. Most importantly, IALD designers are independent and are not allowed to have financial relationships with lighting manufacturers, so they will select from the best of the available technology to create your system. These designers also attend educational conferences, which keeps them current on the latest technology and environmental energy codes.
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"We are able to offer references and help connect people with a designer," says Jennifer Jones, marketing and communications manager for the IALD, explaining that a professional does not have to be local to work on a project. "If you’re working on a home in Tuscany, the designer doesn’t have to go there. They can work off of on-site schematics and create a specification document that can then be installed by an electrician."