Originally Posted by
InkUnderNails
I really know very little technically about art. It is just not on my radar. However, in contributing to and reading this thread, something has occurrd to me. I notice art when it is very good and when it is very bad. Most of the hotel art is in that vast middle where it is neither very bad nor very good. It is simply something that breaks up blank spaces on walls. If there were no "art," we would certainly notice and would probably build a thread on "Why are there so many blank walls in Hilton hotel rooms?"
Well, there you go.
That's the thing about hotel art. It typically strives for that middle ground. That's why it's generally not respected in the art world. I would add, though, that an artist friend did a lot of the art for the Renaissance Convention Center in DC, at least in the lobby, and her work was well above average (although she did indeed do it at the behest of a decorator). They may have remodeled and done away with it since I was last there--a shame if that's so. Her work was beautiful.
I do find that the upper-end Hilton brands usually go for abstraction and somewhat more ambitious works than the lower-end brands. (There's probably a master's thesis in that for someone.) You'll sometimes find actual signed and numbered prints in the rooms rather than just mass-produced, framed posters.
(I'm an art historian, in case you were wondering.)