10 years of Samsung The Frame. How the TV became an element of the interior and a carrier of art

Over the following years, The Frame developed not only as a lifestyle TV, but also as a platform for art – with Art Mode, Samsung Art Store, Matte Screen Coating and collaborations with museums and artists. Therefore, the history of The Frame is not only the history of one model, but also the history of a change in the way of thinking about the place of a TV set in the home.

How The Frame changed the way we think about TV

For years, the TV was the strangest element of the living room. A black, shiny surface that reflected everything like a mirror during the day and tried to pretend to be a cinema in the evening. So the question arose: what if, instead of hiding the TV, we turned it into something that we wanted to show off?

This is how Samsung The Frame was born. And although there is nothing strange about it today, in 2017 this approach was completely against the grain. The premiere at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris was not a coincidence. From the very beginning, The Frame had the ambition to go beyond the RTV equipment category. Designed in collaboration with Yves Behar, it resembled a picture frame rather than a black sheet of glass. Instead of another iteration of a “better picture”, we got something that changed the rules of the game – a TV that did not disappear when turned off, but took on a life of its own.

From Art Mode to Samsung Art Store

At the beginning there was the Art Mode, i.e. instead of a black void – images. Initially several dozen, then hundreds. Today it is over 5,000. But the real breakthrough moment came only when the TV gained access to the world gallery. The Art Store wasn’t just a function – it was a statement. Suddenly, the living room stopped being a place where you could “see something” and started to resemble a private gallery.

And here another story begins, because Samsung The Frame did not try to compete with museums. Museums have been allowed into our homes. Cooperation with institutions, access to the classics, and then increasingly bold opening to contemporary artists. It’s a bit like Spotify for art – only instead of a playlist you have a wall.

Thanks to cooperation with institutions such as Prado, Albertina and Magnum Photos, it was possible to hang Monet, Cézanne or Rubens in the living room. This was the moment when technology stopped being just a carrier of content and began to play the role of a curator.

The year 2021 was symbolic in Poland when The Frame appeared at auction at the Art in House Auction House. Sold together with a physical painting, it achieved one of the highest results. This event showed more than just a marketing success – the line between analog and digital work began to blur.

Matte Screen Coating – a moment that strengthened the entire concept

But the idea itself is one thing. The second is the technology that has to keep up. Because it’s easy to say “a picture looks like in a gallery”, it’s harder to make it not look like a glowing screen. For years, this was the biggest limitation. Reflections, shine, mirror effect – all this revealed that we were dealing with electronics, not art.

Therefore, one of the most important moments in the history of The Frame were not new paintings, but… the matte coating that appeared in The Frame in 2022. The reflections disappeared, the colors calmed down, and the whole thing started to resemble just… a painting! This was the moment when the illusion became convincing.

The following years saw consistent development of this vision. Cooperation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened access to some of the most important collections in the world. The 2024 Pantone ArtfulColor certification confirmed what was previously more of a promise – that a reproduction can be almost indistinguishable from the original in a typical home setting. Interchangeable frames, designs created by artists, the TV as an element of the arrangement, not “equipment to hide”.

It is symbolic that The Frame began to function outside the home as well. He appeared at auctions, in galleries and in public spaces. At some point, it was no longer clear whether it was still a TV set or a platform for digital art.

The Frame as an interior element, not just electronics

And today? Today we have over 5,000 works, dozens of institutions and subsequent collaborations that show that this was not a one-time experiment. Even gestures such as introducing Tamara Łempicka’s collection to a digital gallery are important because they show that technology is starting to tell local stories, not just global trends.

However, the most interesting thing about this story is something else. Samsung The Frame didn’t win because it was the best TV. It won because it stopped being “just a TV set”. Its creators understood that in a modern home, a screen is not just a device for viewing content. It is an element of space that should look good even when it does not display anything.

And maybe that’s why this decade is so important. Because it shows that technology is finally starting to adapt to our lives, and not the other way around. And the TV? For the first time in years, it stopped being a problem to solve. And it became something that was just nice to have on the wall.

What does 10 years of Samsung The Frame mean today?

The most interesting thing in the history of The Frame is not that over the decade it has gained new functions, greater access to art or further collaborations with institutions. What’s more important is that it changed the way we think about the TV itself. From a device that was supposed to disappear into the background when turned off, it has become an element of space that can co-create the character of the interior. And that is why 10 years of The Frame is not only a product anniversary, but also a good moment to see how technology has begun to better adapt to everyday life, home aesthetics and individual user choices.