Black or White Matting?

OK...maybe I should put this in hot topics. The person I currently use to do all my framing and matting swears by black mats. I like black mats for bin prints, but that's about it. My fiancee, who has pretty good taste, has jumped on the bandwagon and now she is a fan of black mats too.

However, I was told by another artist that white mats are the industry standard and that images with other colors are considered amateur.

Personally, I can see both points of view. However, I think white mats are far too bright in most cases. I am wondering what you all think and what your experiences are?

What is your preference and why? What is most marketable?

Probably reflecting our clientele and product line more than anything, I don't recall selling a single black mat in over 20 years through our studio. We have a few on display in black, but not a single person has ever selected black. Alaska is generally a couple of years behind the rest of the country in styles, so maybe we're just behind the curve. If so, I've got a couple of years to stock up before the rush!

I stopped using anything but white mats over 10 years ago, Michael. For me, it's a personal like thing.

I generally avoid white matting, unless it's a B&W print. Otherwise, I usually select mat colors that are light, but compliment the colors in the photo. Of course, making your mats all black or all white certainly makes mat board stocking easier! The other argument is that a white mat has little risk of not matching someone's home decor. There are also many shades of white to choose from.
I've also entered some art shows that require only white or off-white mats.

Interesting! At my house, I have a mini-collection of my own prints on my office wall (about 52 prints). I notice half are black mats and the rest are either white or just off white. It kinda mixes things up in a nice (?) way. I must be the guy keeping the black matte company still in business

Troup

A choice of black, white or cream mats seem to enhance most images. Oddly, most of my sales are with black mats on images that are in black frames with gold highlighting. These images are prepared for hanging in a office while the gold frames with white or cream mats are greared toward florals and household use. Both have sold well.

100% of my sales have been on off white/ivory mats. A few bright white on B&W. No black.
JR

People often like to have information about what the photo is and so I find that white or off-white (ivory, cream) mats on which I can write a caption, my initials, and year in light pencil work well.

This is a very fruitful discussion, and thanks for starting it Michael!

The important element in our experience is this:

The other argument is that a white mat has little risk of not matching someone's home decor.

Photographers see the matting as an element that works the way WE want it to with our image. Homeowners and decorators see it as an element of decor.

One option not addressed yet is NO mat. In the portrait world, I bet we sell only one matted photo for every 100 unmatted and framed in heavier wooden frames. I'm talking mostly large canvases, but it extends into other print styles too.

This is my personal opinion - frameless is the new, modern look (people want to hang unmatted, frameless display which can be canvas, metal or mounted on various materials). I have also noticed that black matting is gaining popularity as "contemporary". In shows, where one presents arts in mats (in bins),knowing that the buyer will re-mat it anyway in most cases(you are selling the print, not the mat) - choosing black differentiate the artist from others (most artists traditionally use white mat). Specially if the prints are colorful, there is nothing like black mats - as you can see, I am very partial to black mats and sell all my prints in black mats or frameless

This is interesting! In 2006 I had my first show and did all my own printing and matting. All the images were of Common Loons. Trying to keep everything looking the same for a gallery I matted all prints in black and all the frames were black as well.

The loons really did look best matted with black.

I am about to have my 5th show that will include B & W images for the first time. This show will have white/off white matts with black frames and those that don't will be on canvas and gallery wrapped.

I read somewhere that black is the most popular mat 'color' but I don't recall where and I use it rarely myself. I think the mat color depends entirely on the image. I probably use white more than any other color but I like moderately textured whites, not the smooth matte surface ones. Also it is difficult to find a real "white" mat board (I hand cut all my own boards). Most "white" mat boards are varying shades of pale cream or buff. When I use a colored mat I choose something that reflects a color in the image and the tone, like the hue, depends on the image I'm matting. The black or white mats only aesthetic seems to be an art gallery/museum thing. The thinking seems to be that colored mats make the work look like "decor" but since that's how my customers use the photos I sell them... (shrug). If someone decides after I die that my photos are *ART* they can always re-mat them in black or white.

I can't contribute much now but I just ordered 10 white mats and 10 black mats to compare with a few of my images mounted inside. I'll post my findings here after I've matted them and shown them around to friends and potential clients.

I have a good friend who carries only black matted prints in his gallery. He initially carried only white, then added a mix of black and found that black significantly outsold white. I don't know what kind of numbers he was working with but I found his experience interesting since I'd NEVER considered a black mat.