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artists

living
with Art
By Stacey Goergen Photography by Oberto Gili
and Amanda BenchLey Foreword by Robert Storr

artists
living
with Art

Abrams, New York



6 Foreword by Robert Storr
8 Introduction

10 Tauba Auerbach
18 Francesco Clemente
26 Chuck Close
38 Will Cotton
50 John Currin / Rachel Feinstein
60 E.V. Day
70 Carroll Dunham / Laurie Simmons
82 Eric Fischl / April Gornik
92 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
102 Mary Heilmann
1 1 2 Rashid Johnson
122 Joan Jonas
132 Glenn Ligon
142 Helen Marden / Brice Marden
1 54 Marilyn Minter
contents 166 Michele Oka Doner
176 Roxy Paine
184 Ellen Phelan / Joel Shapiro
196 Ugo Rondinone
208 Andres Serrano
2 1 8 Cindy Sherman
230 Pat Steir
242 Mickalene Thomas
252 Leo Villareal
262 Ursula von Rydingsvard

272 Acknowledgments
272 Credits
When Neighbors Drop In which creation churns in the mind of the competition with artists who came before him Disney on hallucinogensby Joyce Pensato.
maker, nor sets a higher mark for what a work is a constant feature of his visual environment, For her part, Mary Heilmann, who in addition
Living with art is not a neutral experience. At of art can, indeed must be. To that extent it even as earlier phases of Closes collecting to a rich array of her own creationspainterly
least it shouldnt beand wont be if the art is functioned as a talisman of the burdens of an included works by Old Masters of his own era caprices, prints, and furniture as sprightly as
any good. Its not like having visual Muzak aesthetic callingand a goad to action. such as Roy Lichtenstein and Willem de Serranos is ponderouslives with a skate-
blandly hover in the background but rather like That said, artists who collect (and histori- Kooning for much the same reason. If an art- board decorated with the image of costume
turning the volume up on a song or a sym- cally some, like Rembrandt van Rijn, Edgar ists work can hold the wall with that of his jewelry painted by her friend Minter. Likewise,
phony that makes its presence known, a sound Degas, and Jasper Johns, have done or do so heroes, he knows hes on the right trackand Rashid Johnson has largely focused on fellow
that is keenly felt as it permeates the room. avidly) generally fall into two categories. First she does too. African Americansnotably William Pope.L,
Which is why people who choose to live with come those who cant resist owning things that For his part John Currin pastiches and Ellen Gallagher, and Glenn Ligonwhile also
art are very selective about the things they have catch their eye and in some way remind them parodies traditional painting and surrounds making room for the Swiss mischief maker
around them. of roads not taken or possibilities that they himself with his own ironic work alongside a Dieter Roth, even as Mickalene Thomas clus-
They are especially choosy if they happen have not exploited (not yet anyway). sampling of the unironic real thing. However, ters small works by Kiki Smith, Derrick
to be artists themselves, because in that case Omnivorous but discerning men and women the tell tale icon in this mix in the well-ap- Adams, and her Yale posse, including alumna
the presence of another artists work is like who accumulate images and objects the way pointed loft Currin shares with his wife, sculp- Wangechi Mutu and professor Sam Messer,
dealing with an assertive guest in the house: others buy books or CDs and DVDs, artists tor Rachel Feinstein, is a drawing of a 1930s or while Glenn Ligon bunches his approximate
one with whom it is impossible to avoid con- who make sure that the widest affordable 1940s beauty by the sardonic comrade-in-arms contemporaries Christopher Wool with David
versation, even argument; one who whispers, visual frame of reference is always open to of Marcel Duchamp and unrepentant Wojnarowicz with their collective elder
mutters, interrupts other conversations, even them. Often these artists have traveled exten- kitschmeister Francis Picabia. Be warned! Ellsworth Kelly and elsewhere gives pride of
haranguesalthough it takes a special person- sively and brought back tokens of the places this small sketch announces, You have left the place to On Kawara and an aboriginal painting
ality for anyone to extend an invitation to they have been and examples of art by artists realm of aesthetic consensus and conventional from Australia.Which effectively dissolves the
someone who makes themselves a constant they met or cultures they discovered far from good taste! Now youre on your own. Still, in categories I provisionally set up.
irritant. Nevertheless, such people exist and home.I am this kind of artist; so, it would comparison to Close it would seem as if Currin So lets put it more simply: Unlike collec-
much art does just that: It needles, stings, or appear from vicariously crawling the walls and and Feinstein stick fairly close to their distinc- tors who approach art like postage stamps or
discomforts the viewer in ways that simply navigating the floors in this book are many of tive brand of tasteas does Andres Serrano, stock portfolios, artists acquire and put up
cannot be ignored. the talents represented in these pages. who also favors an antique aura with dark sub- things that mean something very specific to 6
Which is why many artists choose not to Of a similar turn of mind are those who jects, dark surfaces, and heavy furnishings them, things that energize them and help them 7
FOREWORD have art in their environment, not even things immerse themselves sequentially in specific rather than branching out widely. to make their work better and more distinc-
theyve made. Because rather than stimulating types of work or periods in art history. Andy In contrast, sculptor Joel Shapiro and tive.Accordingly this book not only offers a
their minds it may crowd out nascent ideas that Warhol and his Carnegie Mellon classmate and painter Ellen Phelan take the prize for muse- privileged peek at where some of the most
have yet to find form. There is a Zen parable friend Philip Pearlstein were of this stripe; um-quality choices of canonical artists; their accomplished artists of today live, but also into
told by Philip Guston, who learned it from the Warhol shopped till he dropped and ended up collection includes extraordinary paintings the corners of their imaginations.
composer John Cage: When an artist enters his with one of the largest hoards of decorative and drawings by Arshile Gorky plus excep-
or her studio all those who are important to artsmost notoriously of cookie jarsever tional examples of Edgar Degas, Chaim Robert Storr
their lives await them therefamily, lovers, assembled. For his part Pearlstein buys folk art Soutine, Henri Matisse, Jasper Johns, and Alex Dean of the School of Art, Yale University
friends, enemies, and of course all the artists of every description and, like Rembrandt, Katz alongside archaic sculptures from Asia 2015
who haunt their memoryall those from whose mid-career pictures sometimes con- and the Americas. But nobody is more
whom they have learned something whether tained Scottish tartans and Indonesian krises, far-reaching and invigoratingly eclectic than
positive or negative, through fellow feeling or he has used them as props in his pictures, Cindy Sherman, who has delighted at playing
animosity. And, so the parable goes, as the art- prompting his fellow realist Chuck Close to the chameleon in her photos, and in her loft
ist becomes increasingly engaged in his or her quip that Pearlstein did so in order to write the has amassed the most engagingly disparate
own work, one by one these phantoms leave acquisitions off in his tax returns as a studio amalgam of works by largely little-known art-
until the artist is alone. Then, on really produc- expense. ists, a substantial portion of whom rate as out-
tive days, the artistor rather their ego or Whether thats true or notI doubt it is, siders. Ive been there and had the thrill of
active self-awarenessleaves too and only the though such a deduction would be entirely feeling as if there was no end to the surprises to
work remains. legitimateCloses motivation for collecting be found. And for as long as I was free to let my
Of course the existence of an actual work the Old Master canvases and drawings that fill glance wander there wasnt.
by another artist in an artists environment his apartment is of another order. These pic- Second come the artists who concentrate
changes everything, which is why many tures are a testament to craft and to what assid- on very specific, but not necessarily narrow,
although by no means allelect to pursue their uous attention to the possibilities still residing seams of visual culture, art emanating from
vocations in spaces utterly devoid of images or in supposedly obsolete methodologies can movements or affinity groups, or bodies of
objects other than their own works in progress. achieve. Close has no interest in aping histori- work by a select few belonging to a single cate-
Even so, Guston himself kept an impression of cal styles but every day he looks at examples of gory and sometimes by other members of their
Durers engraving Melancholia in the kitchen how high standards of illusionistic representa- generational cohort. This is true of photo-sur-
over the small table where he ate meals or had tion once were, and how marvelous the cre- realist painter Marilyn Minter, who, among
coffee when he left the studio, and no work by ations of those who met them in the past still many other things, has a chair designed by
any Old Master speaks more eloquently or are. Close has overhauled or reinvented those Mary Heilmann as well as a canvas by her, plus
more cryptically of the moody solitude in techniques but admiration for and a goofy drawing of a demonic mouselike
The seeds of this book were planted almost in almost every home, as well as a surprising dialogue about the art they own and create.
eight years ago, while I was visiting the art- number of scholars rocks. Laurie Simmons feels more comfortable
filled SoHo loft of artists John Currin and Frequently, we realized that an artist acquiring photographs, while Carroll Dunham
Rachel Feinstein. John was showing me possessed one or two items that told a specific is often drawn toward colorful, expressionist
around when I encountered, in a red lacquered story, providing true insight into what is mean- works that reflect his interest in drawing and
hallway, a small, delicate Old Master study ingful to them. For Glenn Ligon, an original printmaking. Though Joel Shapiro emphasizes
by Ludovico Carracci and a drawing from a I AM A MAN poster used by striking African his interest in both two- and three-dimensional
group of late works by Frances Picabia. The American sanitation workers in 1968 is one work, he has collected many of the museum-
pair immediately struck me, as they seemed piece that never rotates from his bedroom wall. quality sculptures in their home, while Ellen
to provide a window into Currins own paint- Ligon used the placards phrase for an early Phelan has instigated a number of their
ing: his lauded Old Masterly technique in text painting in 1988, and now Untitled (I Am important drawing and painting purchases.
combination with the almost kitschy, sexual- a Man) is in the collection of the National In fact, through this project, as weve more
ized content of Picabias later oeuvre. At the Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. directly explored the relationship of domestic
time I was working at the Whitney Museum, Pat Steirs elegant Greenwich Village space to an artists practice, Ive come to realize
and I was familiar with Currins painting, townhouse is filled with pieces by some of the that in spite of the two drawings at John Currin
but learning that he lived with these pieces most influential artists of her generation. In and Rachel Feinsteins, their homewith its
provided new, personal insight into his her second-floor parlor, Sol LeWitt conceived brass-plated columns, midcentury Italian side-
thought process. a yellow wall-size drawing with a circle of boards and light fixtures, and boldly colored
I remembered having seen the catalogue white squiggles, while across the room Richard sofas and chairsis perhaps more related to
from The Drawing Centers 1999 exhibition Tuttle installed a delicate, leaf-shaped tin the theatrical, baroque nature of Feinsteins
Drawn from Artists Collections, which show- sculpture on a light-gray wall. Yet two of the artwork than to Currins.
cased pieces owned by prominent contempo- only works she has purposefully acquired are An emphasis on form and shape, and a
rary artists. I had wondered about the stories Fire prints by John Cagean artist whose phi- highly deliberate positioning of objects, was a
behind these acquisitions. No doubt many losophy of chance greatly influenced Steir. constant throughout every home we visited.
were trades with other artists, reflecting their Will Cotton is interested in the process This book is a testament to a refined aesthetic
relationships, yet the artists lived with these of drawing, and his collection includes that comes from being totally immersed in 8
drawings and so to an extent the works must sketches by Reginald Marsh as well as images creating and living with art. These collections 9
INTRODUCTION represent their interests, perhaps even their of rocket ships from NASA. His favorite piece are largely contemplated outside the commer-
influences. is particularly illuminating: Its a drawing by cial art marketacross the board artists did
I sat with the idea, talking to friends, art- the mid-nineteenth-century illustrator Gil not intend to part with the pieces they own
ists, and others in the art world, but the format Elvgren, whose luscious depictions of pinup because they are driven principally by inspira-
did not emerge until editor and writer Sue girls inspired Cotton to put scantily clad tion, interest, or influence.
Hostetler mentioned that she thought it would women in his own candy landscape paintings. Thanks to the beautiful photography of
make a great book. The actual process of creat- In her Mercer Street loft, Michele Oka Oberto Gili and the team at Abrams, we hope
ing Artists Living with Art was set in motion Doner has amassed pre-Columbian artifacts, that the pages ahead will provide a greater
when another journalist friend, Amanda Mesopotamian seals, Egyptian amulets, and understanding of artists creative processes
Benchley, agreed to collaborate with me. Roman buttons among hundreds of other to perhaps allow the reader to see things
It is an intimate gesture to be invited into natural and manmade treasures. A seventh- through their eyesby illustrating what they
someones home, to see the backdrop of their century Khmer Buddha, which she received choose to live with so passionately.
personal life and hear stories related to how in exchange for a Cy Twombly scribble early
they live, and Amanda and I are inexpressibly in her career, remains one of her favorite Stacey Goergen
grateful to the artists who agreed to work with objects. These relics from everyday life inform
us. Though the residences we visited were Oka Doners exploration of ritual objects,
quite different in taste and appearance, each and inspire her use of organic imagery and
combined a gracious balance and consider- material.
ation between the display of art, furniture, and Cindy Shermans broad collection
objects. And while it is impossible to pigeon- includes many contemporary figurative works,
hole each artists approach to what they have frequently with marred or masked visages
chosen to live with, general categories and a twisted sense of humor. She also owns
emerged. Some artists revealed themselves to a nineteenth-century photograph of the
be actively seeking out specific pieces, genres, Comtesse de Castiglione, an aristocrat who
or historical periods, while others have almost commissioned more than four hundred
accidentally built world-class collections sim- portraits by Pierre-Louis Pierson of herself
ply due to a lifetime spent in the art world. posing in elaborate costumes, reenacting roles
Many are foraging and exploring sources like taken from theater, literature, or her own
flea markets, eBay, or nature, pursuing an imagination.
interest in objects as varied as textiles, clocks, The shared collections of artist-couples,
minerals, and fossils. We discovered ceramics built together over years, reflect their active
10
Tauba
11

auerbach

A painting by Josh Smith


that Tauba Auerbach
admires for its acrostic
wordplay hangs in the
corner of her living room
above a 2012 sculpture
by Mary Manning,
Radicchio, which rests
on a colorful lamp.
Tauba Auerbachs intimate, jewel-box apart- depicting paint on aluminum foil, hangs above who passed away in 2009. I feel super privi- particularly sentimental gift is from her father,
ment in SoHo brims with brightly colored the entrance. I like the process behind them leged to have this particular piece. She proudly a lighting designer, whom she describes as
artwork, lamps, books, puzzles, and what she and how cryptic the results are, she says of points out two collaged works by the pioneer a real tinkerer, a great engineer. Several years
describes as touchstone objects, all set the way Pearson allows for accidental results of industrial music, artist Genesis Breyer ago, while discussing a sculpture construction,
against painted white walls and floors. Like the in the darkroom by exposing the negative to P-Orridge. Sunflowers for Vincent V.G. (2002) they sketched out a diagram together on a
artist herself, the fifth-floor walk-up is quietly light, relating the underlying strategy to her is a collage of fractured photographs of a round napkin. Her father saved the napkin and
thoughtful and meticulous. Auerbach relo- own Fold paintings. traditional mealeggs, sausages, a cup of tea framed it in plastic, and it now sits on her shelf.
cated to New York from her hometown of Auerbach is interested in the process of interspersed with fragmented body parts Though small in size, Auerbachs ani-
San Francisco six years ago, a move thats been making objects, and she plainly enjoys under- over a grid of Union Jack flags, employing the mated home reflects her complex aesthetic.
nothing but positive. Im very happy here. standing how things are constructed, how form of Van Goghs iconic painting. I think that all of the objects that you live
Theres an energy I feel a kinship with here, they operate, and how they are related to the In addition to her extensive collection with, from banal things to furniture and paint-
she says. I may be one of those people who works she makes. Timepieces fill her apart- of books, Auerbachs shelves are filled with ings, are just coordinate points. They put you
never leaves. ment; in the kitchen alone, two wall clocks objects that further reflect her interest in pat- in a certain state of mind, says Auerbach, and
Considered one of todays most innovative hang above twelve watches neatly lined up terns and systems, many of which were gifts: so you cultivate a particular state of mind by
contemporary painters, Auerbach investigates in a row on her desk. I have really struggled dice, hourglasses, more clocks and lamps. One curating your space.
how we perceive visual information across a with time and with punctuality, she says.
variety of media, breaking down systems and Having these is part of my effort to become
structure. She came to prominence in the mid- friends with time. I was born late and Ive Tauba Auerbach in her
2000s with her text-based works that alter let- been late ever since. Its like an island of crazi- raised bedroom cubby,
with shelves of works
ters until they are almost unrecognizable, expos- ness in what I would like to think of as an
and gifts from friends
ing the possibilities and limitations of language. otherwise sane mind. One of the more behind her.
Auerbachs background as a formally trained unusual wall clocks has increments from
sign artist laid the foundation for her distorted one to twenty-four, observing military time.
word paintings and sculptures, and, pushing this Fascinated by its design, she later used it
further, she has created her own fonts, designed as a model for a limited-edition clock that
12 limited-edition artist books, and recently also runs from midnight to midnight.
13 launched her own open-edition imprint. Auerbach has deliberately arranged vari-
In addition to exploring language and ous bands of color throughout her home.
patterns, Auerbach addresses two- and Yellow, maroon, and green pieces of paper line
three-dimensionality. To make her acclaimed the inside panes of her kitchen cabinets, play-
Fold paintings, she twists and bends raw can- ing off her vibrant ribbon constructions on the
vas, unfurls it on the ground, and sprays an refrigerator door directly below. In the same
industrial spray gun directionally at an angle so room, above a delicate, oval wood table, is one
the creases catch the paint as they would rak- of her many light sculptures, this one by Andy
ing light. Optically, the works appear to have Coolquitt. Titled hold on to me (2008), the col-
depth, but its an illusion, as the cloth is actually orful, welded metal piece hangs above
pulled flat over the stretcher. Her Weave paint- a Memphis-style table lamp (the artist has
ings also explore dimension, as she methodi- Google alerts for any Memphis-style items that
cally entwines strips of canvas directly onto the come up for sale). The piece and lamp share
support. I just never stop thinking about pat- a similar paletteplanes of yellow, red, and
terns, she says, smiling. bluethat is also reflected in one of Auerbachs
Leaning against a desk in her kitchen is longest-held pieces, a 2005 work on paper by
a work by Norwegian artist Frederik Vrslev her friend Kamau Amu Patton that hangs
from his series of terrazzo paintings. Working nearby. Here, stenciled strips of airbrushed
to simulate terrazzos speckled and flecked pigment relate to a color strip that runs across
appearance, the artist layered paint, solvent, the top of the paper and echoes the color in the
and an anticorrosion chemical on canvases lamps and the light sculpture.
before leaving them outside for six months, In her narrow living room, works by Josh
exposing them to the wear of natural elements. Smith and Alex Hubbard hang above a cobalt-
He works on several different series often run- blue custom-made sofa. At one end is the first
ning parallel to one another, Auerbach says published image of Snoop Dogg, by photogra-
appreciatively. Theres a system within each pher Shawn Mortensen, depicting the young
series that applies to the entire sequence, and rapper kneeling behind a large dog, aiming
each sequence is distinct but in conversation a gun toward the viewer. [Mortensen] was
with the others. Theres something in that way the person who would photograph a person
of working that I really relate to. before they would become famoushe just had
An Anthony Pearson black-and-white this sense that there was something special
abstract photographknown as a solarization about them, Auerbach explains of her friend

Tauba Auerbach
14
15

Above: Auerbachs collec-


tion of watchesall of
which she occasionally
Opposite: A harmoniously wearsis lined up on her
colorful arrangement in desk in the kitchen. Im
the kitchen includes Andy not into collecting any-
Coolquitts 2008 light thing that I dont use or
sculpture hold on to me, want to look at, she says.
Kamau Amu Pattons 2005
work on paper Topological Right: Auerbach has lined
Grid of Elevations with her cabinet doors with
an Implicit Linear Surface, boldly colored paper, refer-
and a Memphis-style table encing the palette of rib-
lamp. On the right, Alex bons she has made on the
Olsons 2010 painting Plot refrigerator below and the
is hung above a work by color schemes that appear
Frederik Vrslev. throughout her kitchen.
16
17

Above: A 2002 collage by Opposite: In the living


Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, room, a 2010 abstract
Sunflowers for Vincent painting by Alex Hubbard
V.G. hangs above a variety above the custom-built
of timepieces in Auerbachs sofa is adjacent to
living room. On the shelf Shawn Mortensens 1992
below is the plastic framed photograph of Snoop
diagram that she made Dogg. I feel super
with her father while dis- privileged to have this
cussing a complicated particular piece, she
sculpture construction. says of the photograph.

Tauba Auerbach
18
Francesco
19

Clemente

Jean-Michel Basquiats
portrait of Francesco
Clemente, a Christmas
gift from Basquiat,
hangs in his dining area.
The works I make are related to the vast field metropolis. His admiration extends so far rebels have a sense of humor, thats even better.
of emotions and desires that finds no suitable that, while in India, he often employs local When they manage to be in and out at the
expression in the bland and sentimental lan- artisans to assist with some of his larger-scale same time, they show that they dont take
guage of contemporary life, says Francesco and installation pieces. themselves too seriously. Clemente found
Clemente as he walks around his Greenwich Clemente has referred to Cy Twombly and the Fuseli through a London antiquarian, and
Village townhouse, painted in the warm colors Joseph Beuys as his patron saints. In fact, on only learned later that it had been officially
of Tuscany. Both the townhouse and his paint- a Frank Lloyd Wright coffee table in his town- lost since 1905.
ing studio, formerly his home, are filled with house is a two-part cast piece by Beuys, while Large wooden sculptures from the South
art and objects that have a similar sense of mys- Twomblys green scribbles hang over the fire- Pacific and more pieces of Indian statuary
ticism: ceremonial pieces and drawings from place in his dining room. Clemente humbly and objects for worship add to the aura of soul-
India, paintings by friends like Jean-Michel recalls how he used to see Twombly in Rome: fulness and spirituality emanating throughout
Basquiat, and sculpture from Oceania. I was an aspiring young artist with not much the Clemente home. The enormous carved,
I dont think I am a collector, he says. to show. I didnt want anyone to know me, wooden, figure-like sculpture looming over
In the first half of my life I had no money, especially someone I admired so much. He the living room is in actuality a drum from the
so I made work inspired by all the things I did actually meet Beuys, whom he describes as South Pacific. Clemente explains that
couldnt buy, recounting how he and his wife, a shaman, adding that he still remembers every the drum, which his children used to call
Alba, lived in the empty studio without even word of their conversations. When asked why Grandpa when they were young, is a ritual
a bed. In the second half of my life I bought these two seemingly dissimilar artists are so image representing the voice, the last trace
things no one wanted almost out of a sense meaningful to him, Clemente matter-of-factly of the body as it dies. Objects and friends are
of duty and respect. One forgets that Twombly, replies: Twombly and Beuys talked about his- really how I get my education, says Clemente.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Mollino were, for some tory but found a way to make the past a living I have no interest in history; I am interested
stretch of time, completely overlooked. thing. In particular, Clemente admires the in human experience.
Originally part of the neo-expressionist way both artists create surfaces that appear
group that emerged in the 1980s, Clemente to be weathered by time, but alive with the
is best known for his self-portraits and his seduction of the present.
dreamlike images that showcase the human In the 1980s, Clementes studio was 20
body, often produced in large-scale watercol- across the street from Jean-Michel Basquiats 21
ors. Though born in Italy, he first started workspace, and as Clemente puts it, we both
exploring Eastern spiritual and intellectual disliked the same things and easily became
traditions in the mid-1970s, during an exten- friends. In fact, Clemente says that the paint-
sive and profoundly influential stay in India, ing Flats Fix (1981), which now lives in his stu-
a country where he often returns. Today, he dio, was the first canvas Basquiat ever painted.
retains a warehouse of Indian religious imple- One Christmas, the Clemente family and
ments and ritual objects, such as incense Basquiat were at the home of their mutual gal-
burners in the shape of heads and statuaries, lerist, Bruno Bischofberger, in Switzerland,
some of which have found their way to his and Basquiat gave out paintings to everyone
Francesco Clemente at studio, where they are displayed on top of vari- in the house, even the children. The gift for
his studio with his 2013 ous ornamental trunks as if on altars. These Clemente was the characteristic Basquiat
painting Tree of Life.
sacred objects, as he explains, are meant to portrait that now hangs in his dining room,
remind us of the fundamentals of experience, among furniture designed by Ettore Sottsass.
namely life and death, which he compares Though they were friends, Clemente main-
to similar themes in his own work. tains that it is also the literary aspect of
When it comes to the Indian pieces, Basquiats work that appeals to him. Basquiat
Clemente is particularly interested in the is the heir on one end of the great literary tradi-
symbiotic and creative relationship between tion of the Caribbean, and on the other end is
the countrys many diverse regions: The the Beat poets who continue to inspire me.
cultural wealth of India has been generated Clemente is proud of what he calls the
for millennia by the dialogue and the attrition somewhat out of fashion artists that also
between urban and rural India. He has a adorn his townhouse, alongside works by more
vast collection of richly colored, naturalistic contemporary artists like Keith Haring and
flora and fauna drawings of artists from both Eric Fischl. These include Henry Fuseli,
types of backgrounds. Lighting a candle for an eighteenth-century artist who explored
atmosphere, Clemente spreads a selection the portrayal of the supernatural, and whose
by one of his favorite tribal artists, Jangarh haunting Head of Satan (1790) presides over
Singh Shyamon, on the studio floor, noting the living room along with a portrait believed
their intricate patterning and commenting to be of surrealist poet Andr Breton by
that he finds the work from remote villages Francis Picabia. Both appeal to him because,
to be just as contemporary as that from the as he explains, I am fond of the rebels. If the

Francesco Clemente
22
23

Above: A 1985 painting


Opposite: The townhouses by Clemente is shown
living room features a over portraits of
Joseph Beuys sculpture on Clementes four chil-
a Frank Lloyd Wright table dren by Eric Fischl,
and Head of Satan (1790) the result of a trade
by Henry Fuseli. The between the two artists.
tall wooden sculpture is The bookcase is by
actually a drum from Italian architect and
the South Pacific. designer Ettore Sottsass.
24
25

Left: An Ettore Sottsass


totem presides over a
corner of the dining area
near two prints by Jasper
Johns. Sottsass was a
close friend of Clementes
and the godfather to one
of his children.

Opposite: A drawing
by Cy Twombly over the
fireplace is flanked by
a Jean-Michel Basquiat
drawing and a painting
by Clemente in the
dining area. The furni-
ture includes tables
by Isamu Noguchi
and wooden chairs by
Frank Lloyd Wright.

Francesco Clemente
26
chuck
27

close

In a corner of Chuck
Closes living room,
a seventeenth-century
copper-plate engraving by
Claude Mellan that Close
calls a technical tour-de-
force of printmaking
is placed above one of his
Gerrit Rietveld chairs.
Until relatively recently, the living room walls todays contemporary art has kept him busy
of Chuck Closes NoHo penthouse were and amused. It just turned out to be a lot of
gallery-white, a pristine backdrop for a vast fun. It became a project, he says.
collection of contemporary art that included Current favorites include Jan Jansz
several large Sol LeWitts and a Richard Westerbaens seventeenth-century Portrait
Artschwager. Now Old Master paintings in of a Lady, beautifully painted as if the paint
heavy, gilt frames adorn deep red walls. The got blown onto the canvas by some divine
change in decor is a reflection of Closes breath of air, and a seventeenth-century head
curious mind and restless aesthetic. I am of Christ by Claude Mellan that Close know-
plagued with indecision, he laughs. In fact, ingly describes as a tour de force of printmak-
the apartment almost seems like two separately ing. If youve ever tried to make an engraving,
fashioned spaces: a formal area displaying its the hardest thing in the world to do, just to
traditional Old Master religious and historical engrave a straight line, he says, detailing how
subjects and a modern foyer filled with con- Mellan started at the nose, spiraling one long
temporary art. The one constant throughout line that gets thicker and darker or thinner and
the apartment is Closes concentration on lighter as he went around.
portraits from all eras. A second-century bust of Hadrian rests
Close, who suffers from prosopagnosia next to his fireplace in the living room and
(face blindness), is world renowned for inspired Close to begin studying the Roman
reinventing the genre of portraiture with his emperors life; he now easily rattles off newly
photorealist-style paintings and for his use acquired facts, declaring Hadrian pretty
of media as varied as silkscreen, etching, much a pacifist. A Kiki Smith meat head
crayon, and even fingerprints. In the 1960s, sits near the ancient sculpture, a result of a Chuck Close, with works
by Anthony van Dyck and
he developed his trademark practice in which trade between Smith and Close. The sculpture
Jan Jansz Westerbaen
he breaks a master photographic image into is modeled from an actual flank steak that in the background.
28 a grid of incremental parts, each individually Smith cast in plaster, its bumpy finish a notable
29 painted so that, combined, they re-create the contrast with the sleek marble bust.
original image, often blown-up and oversize. Masks of all kindsanother representa-
Subjects have ranged from luminaries such as tion of the human faceare also on display
Barack Obama to fellow artists Philip Glass in Closes living room. A variety of African
and Cindy Sherman, as well as his many masks, some received in lieu of payment
self-portraits over the years. from his gallery, are lined up on a sideboard,
Close began collecting Old Master paint- including a large 1,300-year-old mask of a
ings nearly five years ago, almost by accident. womans face that reminded Close of his wife,
A friend at a European auction house had artist Sienna Shields. Another recalls one
started sending him catalogs, and Close of the faces in Picassos Les Desmoiselles
spotted the seventeenth-century Antonio dAvignon, and a third appealed because
Molinari painting of St. Bartholomew that Close thought it looked like him. A complete
now hangs over his fireplace. Close has a collection of 1940s welders masks, bought
deep background in classical art history and in one set at an antiques store because Close
remembers studying Molinari; in fact, part thought they resembled his African masks,
of the appeal of the Molinari was Closes reali- hangs in the kitchen along with a mixed
zation that he could own a piece of art that set of vintage washboards acquired at various
he had actually learned about in school. So, Hamptons tag sales.
trusting the expertise of his friend, he bought The arrangement of the more contempo- and other artists he appreciates, including Close also has most of a portrait collage that
the painting sight unseen, a move that sur- rary works on shelves in the foyer was inspired Berenice Abbott, Alex Katz, Robert he bought from Ray Johnson: When he asked
prised him. I am offended if someone buys by a 1991 exhibition that Close curated from Mapplethorpe, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de for an artists discount, Johnson took 20
one of my paintings while looking at it on the Museum of Modern Arts collection; the Kooning, Duane Michals, Irving Penn, Man percent off the purchase price but also ripped
a computer screen, [yet] here I am doing the only way he could include approximately 170 Ray, Diane Arbus, and Cindy Sherman off a chunk of the piece to compensate for
same thing I dont believe in, he says, men- chosen portraits in the designated space in the including a photograph of Sherman dressed the deduction.
tioning that he believes the frame alone is museum was to build shelves and overlap the as a nurse, a gift to Close when he was in the Close enjoys looking at the works in the
worth what he paid for the painting. frames. Now everyone does shelves, even the hospital. In addition to the unifying theme foyer while waiting for the elevator and claims
Thus started a string of purchases, includ- Gap, he says. It was sort of radical when I did of portraiture, other similarities with Closes that it all aggregated without me even know-
ing a Rembrandt self-portrait, a Van Dyck, it. But when you bring things together cheek work emerge: a Picasso consisting of finger- ing it. I would trade someone a piece, or some-
a Tintoretto, and several other Dutch mas- by jowl like I did, you are much more aware of prints; a Weegee photograph of Nikita one would draw me, and even if you are not
tersmany bought sight unseen from catalogs. relationships or the absence of relationships. Khrushchev made of incremental units; and actively looking for it, stuff makes its way to
Close explains that the relatively reason- Now his foyer is teeming with layers of a Mark Greenwold portrait of Close posi- your life, he says, reflecting on more than fifty
able price of Old Masters in comparison to photographs, paintings, and prints by friends tioned, appropriately enough, in front of a grid. years immersed in the art world.

Chuck Close
Left: Closes collection
of African masks sits on
a living room shelf next
to Gerrit Rietveld chairs
and examples from his Old
Master collection, includ-
ing Paulus Moreelses
Portrait of a Lady (1623).
The mask on the far
right reminds the artist
of himself.

Following spread:
Ancient stone pieces,
including an Egyptian
limestone bust relief of a
high official (5th6th
Dynasty ca. 24982181
BCE), sit on a Gerrit
Rietveld cabinet in Closes
living room, accompanied
by a Rembrandt still-life
drawing on the far left
and a large seventeenth-
century oil portrait of
Cleopatra by Thomas
Willeboirts Bosschaert.
Johann Tischbein the
Elders official eighteenth-
century portrait of
Frederick II hangs near
the dining table.
30
31

Chuck Close
34
35

Opposite: Antonio
Molinaris seventeenth-
century portrait of St.
Bartholomew is seen above
the fireplace in the living
room. Close traded work
with artist Kiki Smith for
the meat head sculpture
that rests on the floor to the
right, and he spotted the
second-century bust of
Hadrian at an antiquities
store. Following spread:
A close-up of one of Closes
Right: A view of Closes shelves. The portrait of
foyer, where approximately artist Lucas Samaras on the
twenty-five-foot-long bottom shelf, positioned
shelves are filled with con- next to a self-portrait by
temporary artwork, many Close, is a Polaroid shot by
of which are portraits. Close himself.
38
will
39

Cotton

A 1956 charcoal drawing by


Gil Elvgren, a midcentury
illustrator known for his
pinup girl imagery, hangs
over Will Cottons bed.
Some of the first things you see when you to win one of the drawings Cotton donated Bank bookstore when he spotted a cover with to imagine the artist I would be if I could be
enter Will Cottons light-filled TriBeCa loft are but left with the Salle instead. Salle, a leading a terrific pinup painting. I just thought, Thats any artist, Cotton says. In my fantasy self,
a sculpture of stacked, life-size plaster cakes; postmodernist known for stripping images it, he recalls with a large grin. Thats the I know I would like to be the artist whos in the
a dressmakers dummy wearing white lattice of their meaning and mixing iconography sort of feminine archetype that needs to be in studio drawing this girl.
made to look like frosting; and small tufts of from high and low culture, had a consider- my paintings: the over-the-top sweetness Sitting at his dining table, Cotton says that
cotton candy on a drafting tableall of which able impact on Cottons early work and saccharineand beauty. while his collection of drawings isnt nearly as
Cotton, a skilled ptissier, has modeled him- his formation as an artist. When Cotton He debuted his first figured landscape, valuable as other media, thats not important
self. As part of his process, Cotton bakes real- learned that Rowley and Powers had the Cotton Candy Cloud, at Mary Boone Gallery to him. My attachment does go toward draw-
life sweets before he paints them, working out Salle, he swapped one of his own drawings in 2004, a path that later led to more and more ing. My paintings are my ambassadors going
of the lofts tidy kitchen, which, like the rest for the work. The print now hangs above portraiture. Almost as a tribute, Cotton set out into the world; they are supposed to be out
of the carefully furnished apartment, is a neu- his desk, near two Reginald Marsh studies out to buy a real Elvgren for himself, and he there. On the other hand, I get very attached
tral backdrop for the vibrant props, canvases, of a woman also lifting her skirts, albeit in found this example at the online auction to drawings; my own drawings as well. I find it
and artwork on display. a more suggestive manner. house Heritage Auctions. Sometimes I like very hard to let them go.
Cotton made his name in the late 1990s Though Cotton feels passionately about
with his stylish, large-scale paintings of all the art he owns, he purchased some of it
landscapes dotted with lollipop trees, ginger- mostly works on paperfor very specific and
bread houses, and other delectable bonbons personal reasons. Among these are dozens
that reflect a world built on appetite and con- of 1960s rocket ship drawings that nasa auc-
sumption. Cotton later moved into portraiture tioned off at the Swann Galleries in New York.
as further commentary on the subject, often Cotton flips through the folder of drawings,
Will Cotton in the front of
depicting beautiful women scantily clad in pulling out various schematic and cartoonish his TriBeCa loft.
marshmallows and cake. Among his better- rocket ships rendered on drafting paper. Each
known projects is the artistic direction for nasa drawing is like a private view into the
Katy Perrys 2010 video California Gurls, engineers mind and thought process, explains
where the pop singer seductively lounges Cotton, mentioning a rocket with built-in
40 among cotton-candy clouds. escape towers that Cotton believes was drawn
41 Cotton lives with Rose Dergan, of in the late 1950s. This is not any rocket that
Gagosian Gallery, so residing here are also nasa ever made, he says, but I just love that
the big-name contemporary artists you might this is somebodys early conception of what
expect to find in the home of two people so it could possibly look like.
deeply immersed in the art world, including One of his favorite nasa sketches is from
Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and David Salle. a series that explores the various ways an astro-
But Cotton admits that he almost never actu- naut might exit the lunar module onto the sur-
ally buys art. Rather, following a centuries-old face of the moon. Pointing to one particularly
tradition, Cotton has accumulated much of the imaginative iteration, he chuckles and says,
art he lives with through friendly bartering. This one looks like a fishing pole that will pick
In 2002, Cotton started hosting a drawing up one of the astronauts and deposit him on
group with fellow artists, who would routinely the ground.
swap the works they produced in their weekly Cottons most beloved piece hangs quietly
meetings. Flat metal file cabinets in Cottons above the bed in his sparsely furnished, brick-
office area store folders thick with more than walled bedroom. It is a 1956 charcoal nude,
a decades worth of these sketches, including sitting with her legs crossed casually to the
Hilary Harknesss delicate, sinuous, barely side, by Gil Elvgren, a classically trained, mid-
recognizable nudes, as well as sensual, seduc- century illustrator known for his calendar
tive figures by E.V. Day. The artists sometimes pinup girls. If she seems familiar to those who
draw from a nude model, and what interests know Cottons portraiture, it is not by chance.
Cotton are the different interpretations of the After several years of success with
same source. I can walk around the room and confection-filled canvases, Cotton felt he
see what everyone is getting out of the same needed a human presence among his signa-
experience, he notes, going on to explain that ture candy sticks and gumdrops. I had been
the drawings represent an intimate, distinct wrestling with the question of how I could
moment in a persons thought process. integrate figures into these landscapes, he
The David Salle print of a cancan dancer reveals. Were they going to be gingerbread
kicking up her leg, revealing layers of skirt people? Were they going to be real people?
underneath, came to the loft on Harrison What would they look like?
Street through a more roundabout trade. It was around this time, on a trip to
At a New York charity event, his friends Paris, that Cotton accidently discovered
Cynthia Rowley and Bill Powers had hoped Elvgrens work. He was browsing at a Left

Will Cotton
Cottons 2010 painting of
his partner, Rose Dergan,
coexists with works by
Andy Warhol and Ryan
McGinness. Ceramics by
artist Linda Lighton, who
happens to be Dergans
mother, are on the table.

42
43

Will Cotton
Props, paintbrushes,
lighting equipment,
and paintings are all in
place on the studio side
of Cottons home.

44
45

Will Cotton
46
47

Opposite: A view of Gil Above: An array of Cottons


Elvgrens drawing from the collection of original nasa
living space, with Cottons rocket ship sketches from
2006 painting of a nude the 1960s, which he found
woman lounging in a cloud, at the Swann Galleries in
Cotton Candy Sky (Mona). New York.
48
49

Opposite: A wall of favorite Harknesss 2005 watercolor.


works on paper features A 1995 etching by David
participants in his drawing Salle is bottom middle, two
Above: Cottons 2012 large group, including a 2001 circa 1949 drawings by
plaster cake sculpture, Guy Richards Smit (top Reginald Marsh are stacked
Against Nature, awaits left), a 2002 Inka Essenhigh on the bottom right, and
visitors when they get off (middle row second a 2012 Jasper Johns litho-
the elevator. from right), above Hilary graph is on the bottom left.

Will Cotton
John
50
Currin
51

Rachel
Feinstein

A 2010 painting by John


Currin titled Flora after the
goddess of flowers and
spring. Currin and Rachel
Feinstein also named their
daughter after this goddess.
Rachel Feinstein and John Currinss SoHo The stories behind two of the couples is something that interests both Feinstein
loft manages to be at once a grand, theatrical favorite works, both installed in a glossy, and Currin and drew them to their first major
statement and a comfortable family home. red-lacquered hallway, share in this same kind acquisition, a large painting by Cornelis van
Many of the fanciful baroque elements found of theatricality. A postcard-size Old Master Haarlem. While installing the 2011 exhibition
in Feinsteins artistic practice are seen here: drawing by the early baroque painter Ludovico John Currin meets Cornelis van Haarlem at the
brass-plated columns inspired by the London Carracci was Feinsteins extravagant gift to Frans Hals Museum in the Netherlands, the
nightclub Annabels; midcentury Italian side- Currin for his fortieth birthday. At the time, couple resolved to acquire a work by the influ-
boards and light fixtures; and boldly colored they were living in a street-level apartment off ential Dutch mannerist. After this show,
sofas and chairs. Several of Currins paintings the entrance to the Holland Tunnel and just Currin was inspired by a Van Haarlem title
of Feinstein and their three children also beginning to have commercial success. for a later painting of his own: A Fool with Two
appear throughout the space, and, when asked Feinstein visited an Old Master dealer and, Young Women (2013). So it was a happy coinci-
about living with the pictures, Feinstein says knowing that Currins favorite painting was dence when this exact painting came up for
without hesitation: They are like family Carraccis The Lamentation (circa 1582) at auction two years later. It depicts a grotesque
snapshots. People have photographs of their The Metropolitan Museum of Art, was figure in the yellow costume of a fool sitting
wedding, and thats what these are for me. delighted to discover she could afford one beside two women; a long, gray sausage
Every single one is a hallmark of what was of his works. She splurged on the small, inexplicably curls under the leering mans
happening at that time in our lives. late-sixteenth-century study, borrowed an hand, gently caressed by one of the women
Like the specific associations recalled with antique frame for it, and wrapped the framed as it drapes over her arm. Feinstein reveals
each family portrait, Feinstein kept her own piece in white nesting boxes overflowing with that at one point, the lewd, clearly phallic form
white resin sculpture of the commedia dellarte paper. She presented Currin with the huge was painted over, although it has since been
figure Punchinello for its personal significance. package (At first I thought it was a large pil- restored to the original imagery. Its obscene,
Throughout her career, Feinsteins inspirations low, he says), and when he finally found the basically, concludes Currin.
for excess and indulgence have also included drawing, he believed the gift was the ornate Feinstein explains that, for an artist, own-
the Ballets Russes, rococo architecture, and frame, rather than the drawing, which he ing the works of Old Masters feels like a way
Grimms fairy tales. Punchinello, the hunch- assumed was a reproduction. I thought it of harnessing their energy. When you live
backed fool, sits poised where two walls of would be so poignant for him to have some- with something like that, you gain the artists 52
windows in their corner loft intersect. Hes thing by Carracci, Feinstein explains, strength and power, she notes. I dont look 53
a fantastical creation posing with his wife and because he was obsessed with his painting at that little drawing [the Carracci] every day
childin this case modeled on small Meissen at the Met. Currin laughs. I think the Met anymore, but every once in a while when
porcelainsdeconstructed and reimagined agrees with me: When they rehung the galler- I come home, Ill just stand in front of it and
so that the figures have strangely angled and ies, they put their Carracci at the center, see a lovely little interlude that Id forgotten.
pointed features, becoming barely recognizable he says of the painting. And thats the incredible thing about living
in the process. Feinstein created the figures On the same wall is a graphite portrait of with art; you dont get to do that in a museum.
while pregnant with her daughter, and she a woman by Francis Picabia, another artist
admits that she forced herself through the com- Currin reveres. The 1942 drawing is from a late
plicated construction, so it now serves as a body of work when the revolutionary artist
John Currin and Rachel nice reminder of that sense of accomplishment. began copying depictions of women from
Feinstein in their SoHo Feinstein thrives on work that is techni- erotic magazines, a shocking transition for an
loft with their puppy, Mr.
cally complex, and she forged a new sculptural artist known for his commitment to abstrac-
Green Jeans. Feinsteins
large white sculpture process for her widely praised 2014 public tion and the avant-garde. The piece was an
Punch and Family (2009) art exhibition Folly in New Yorks Madison impromptu gift from a friend, art dealer Aroldo
is behind them. Square Park. The installation played off Zevi, at the opening party for Currins 2003
historical notions of follies, the fanciful exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in
structures with no practical function other London. Currin still remembers the scratching
than visual indulgence that have graced parks noise of the pen on the frames cardboard
and gardens for centuries. To create the three backing as Zevi wrote hastily: To John and
sculptures, Feinstein first fashioned small Rachel and Francis, referring to their soon-to-
paper maquettes, including a rendering of be-born son, whom they planned to name
Punchinellos ship; she then enlarged and Francis in tribute to both Currins own middle Following spread: Family
constructed larger aluminum structures based name and Picabia. portraits by Currin of
on the small models. After magnifying her Taken together, these two drawingsat Feinstein and their three
children overlook the
initial drawings of each structure, she directly first glance so unrelatedprovide a window
dining room table. On the
adhered the enlarged sketches to the alumi- into Currins own figurative paintings. The bottom right, Currins
num surface, so that the resulting sculptures painter is world renowned for his carefully lay- painting of a bald woman
faithfully replicated the small models. The final ered and beautiful Old Masterstyle paint immortalizes their beloved
dog Chewy, depicted in
product was monumental in size while simul- application, a technique that seems entirely at
the background. The 2001
taneously rooted in Feinsteins distinguished odds with the provocative, sometimes por- painting is called Portrait
drawing practice. nographic, subjects of his work. This contrast of Chewy.

John Currin / Rachel Feinstein


56
57

Opposite: In Currin and


Feinsteins front hall,
Cornelis van Haarlems
A Fool with Two Women,
circa 1595. To the right is
Mr Rabbit (2003) by Sean
Landers, Currins class-
mate at Yale School of Art.
Van Haarlems title influ-
enced Currins small 2013
painting A Fool with Two
Young Women.

Right: A 1942 drawing by


Francis Picabia hangs in a
red lacquer hallway.
The couples gold baroque-
style bed complements
Currins paintings: on the
left Rachel Asleep (2012), and
on the right The Dane (2006).

58
59

John Currin / Rachel Feinstein


60
E.V.
61

Day

Bondage/Bandage (2008),
made from an unraveled
Herv Lger classic ban-
dage dress, dominates E.V.
Days live/work space in
Williamsburg. Fishing line
and steel chains connect
the pieces to the frame.
Based on her provocative work, it might come otherworldlyglamorous in the sense that school and began buying 1940s Carmen
as a surprise that sculptor and installation I felt like I was backstage at a rock show or Mirandastyle heels. Day has recently been
artist E.V. Day hand-presses flowers, collects the opera, she says of watching the gardeners exploring the sculptural possibilities of Lucite
shoes, and lovingly cultivates herbs and plants at work, adding that those same cut flowers pleasers, taking apart and putting back
in the garden of her Williamsburg apartment. in the image were the ones she later used for together the transparent, tippy stiletto heels
Day is known for her deliberate deconstruc- her Seducers series, also on display in the that she jokingly refers to as Fredericks of
tions of such laden symbols of femininity as foyer. Hollywood stripper shoes. They are the
Barbie dolls, wedding dresses, and lingerie in I loved being in Giverny so much, and I ultimate elevation, and I am into things that
order to critique issues of power and societys wanted to have things that were about that, the levitate, she says, relating her interest in the
expectations of women; in fact, in certain colors and this picture, she says of designing structure of the shoe to the way she has raised
cases she creates the illusion that some of her foyer. Day has also dedicated a small room her own sculptures up on plinths.
these objects are actually in the process of to growing indoor plants that she jokingly calls Coincidentally, back on the residential side
exploding apart. her lady cave. There, a pair of post-pop artist of the apartment, Day has an Eric Doeringer
These two seemingly contradictory sides Rob Pruitts first panda prints hangs, framed bootleg work that replicates a shoe painting by
are on display at Days live/work space in a con- in bamboo, which echoes Days collection of Marilyn Minter, another artist who explores
verted jute factory, where one of her signature bamboo furniture, tracked down in vintage the dark side of beauty. I dont really need the
Exploding Couture pieces, Bondage/Bandage stores and on eBay. Day and her husband, well- original, she says of owning the bootleg ver-
(2008), is propped up on blocks, dominating known food writer Ted Lee, wanted furniture sion. I want to look at it, I want to think about
the oversize living room. For this work, Day that didnt appear too hard-edged and angular it, but for me, I dont really need to have that
unwrapped a classic Herv Lger bandage for the formerly industrial space and happened thingits a lot of energy to hold on to.
dress; she then extended and stretched the upon the Paul Frankelstyle bamboo sofas, Work and home life consistently overlap
various mummy-like pieces with fishing line chairs, and mirrors now sprinkled throughout throughout the warm, well-nurtured space.
and steel chains within an oversize plexiglass the house. Im obsessed with bamboo; I want it In addition to being able to work at home, Day
vitrine that stands next to the sofa. Day often everywhere, she says, mentioning her desire considers living among her artwork an added
infuses humor into her other, equally dramatic to plant it in her back garden. benefit. Its the first time I have had enough
suspension pieces: for Divas Ascending (2009), Past the foyer, works by Luke Butler and space to live with art. Some things are too 62
she strung used costumes from well-known Matthew Benedict line the hallway leading powerful to have out all the time, but its fun to 63
operas across the ceiling of Lincoln Centers to the bedroom above a bench covered in fabric finally have an opportunity to live with some
opera house; and in the more recent Catfight designed by the late punk artist and fashion of my art, and its nice to share it with people
(20112014), two resin, silver-leafed, saber- designer Stephen Sprouse, who had been a who might not have seen it in a show.
toothed-tiger skeletons are poised as if to do dear friend of Days. In the bedroom, another
battle in midair. Yet an underlying sense of of Sprouses word-based works, a knockoff
beauty is inherent, especially in her series of Louis Vuitton bag, is tucked in with a water-
flower-based works: richly colored, supersize color by Will Cotton and a drawing by Elena
scans of floral reproductive organs (Seducers), del Rivero. Blown-Up Baby-Doll (1993), a Vito
and cast aluminum sculptures of water lilies Acconci screen print of a dolls face fragmented
E.V. Day in her studio. (Pollinator). Waterlily Transporter (2014) repeats into a kaleidoscope pattern, hangs over her
the theme of suspension with 3-D laser etch- bed, recalling at once the Barbie dolls that
ings of a water lily on plexiglass, layered so that Day has worked with and her methods of
they simultaneously resemble both the flower deconstruction. It is part of a larger series that
and the patterns of fishnet stockingsanother Day first discovered while working at the
loaded and emblematic Day motif. Margarete Roeder Gallery; each piece of the
Days experimentation with plantsboth kaleidoscope image has a Velcro backing so that
in her home garden and in her artemerged it can be rearranged.
from a seminal time she spent in 2010 as the Back in the living area, heavy pocket
artist-in-residence at Claude Monets Giverny doors separate the domestic space from Days
Gardens. Day evokes this experience with 1,200-square-foot studio, where one finds her
a very personal vignette in her front hallway collection of antique, handblown-glass bed-
that she calls a monument to the garden. pans, some shaped for the female anatomy,
Above a console table hangs a large-scale print while others are distinctly for males. Like
of performance artist Kembra Pfahler, who many of Days own pieces, these stylized uri-
is body-painted crimson and holding two nals are at once edgy and beguiling; one partic-
wheelbarrows filled with cut flowers. Day ularly vase-like model currently holds flowers in
collaborated with Pfahler on a series of photo- the front hall. Day has even been experiment-
graphic works at Giverny, but especially ing with incorporating them into future work.
likes this one because it offers a behind-the- Also among the art supplies and urinals
scenes look at the gardeners daily chores, piled throughout the studio is her collection of
which included deadheading flowers. It was platform shoes, started when Day was in high

E.V. Day
64
65

Opposite: A look down


the hallway toward the
entrance of Days home,
with an example from
her Seducers series and
her bamboo furniture
collection in sight.

Right: The photograph of


performance artist Kembra
Pfahler was created while
Day was the 2010 artist-
in-residence at Monets
gardens at Giverny. Living
in Monets gardens for
a summer was surreal,
she recalls. A bowl of sea-
shells silver-leafed by the
artistreminiscent of her
silver-leafed sculptures
sits below.
66
67

Opposite: Day discovered Above left: The Matthew


the chandelier over the din- Benedict still-life Untitled Above right: Rob Pruitts
ing table at a Florida thrift (Charlies Mantle) was a gift, panda prints Alone (Facing
shop. The ornate light fixture while Day found Luke East) and Alone (Facing
had previously been in a Butlers Star Trekthemed West) (2000) hang in the
hotel, so Day refashioned it Uhura (2010) at a Miami art makeshift greenhouse
in a way that resembles the fair. The bench is covered that Day calls her lady
radiating arms and concen- in Stephen Sprouse fabric. cave. The two pandas
tric circles of the suspension The late designer was a bamboo leaves create a heart
pieces shes known for. close friend. shape in the middle.
68
69

Opposite: Days studio is


connected through heavy
panel doors to her living
area. On the table is a selec-
tion of the handblown glass
urinals and platform shoes
that shes been collecting.
Ive been trying to incor-
porate them into my art-
work for years, she says of
the urinals.

Right: Vito Acconcis


Blown-Up Baby-Doll (1993)
lives over Days bed. The
piece is comprised of six
equilateral triangles that
Velcro to the wall so that
the configuration can be
changed. It reminds Day of
Flesh for Fantasy (1999), her
suspension explosion piece
with inflatable sex dolls.
Carroll
70
Dunham
71

Laurie
Simmons

The 1995 photograph


Allegory of the Arts by the
late Sarah Charlesworth,
one of Laurie Simmonss
closest friends, hangs in
the living room. Simmons
rescued the cherished
photograph from eBay.
On the table are Carl
DAlvias Egret (2012) and
a clay head by Simmons
and Carroll Dunhams
daughter Grace.
Carroll Dunham and Laurie Simmons pur- nostalgia that seemed to invoke childhood foregrounded here, but they are things that I about the art and objects they own. I think
chased their redbrick Georgian house in memory. Simmons has gone on to photograph am very interested in myself. that if you spend a lot of time looking at art and
the small town of Cornwall in northwestern three-inch plastic Japanese figurines, ventrilo- With the exception of a large David Salle being influenced or stimulated by art, its nice
Connecticut in 2007. Previously used as quist dummies, life-size sex dolls, and other canvas, most of the work they own is small to have artworks by others in your personal
administrative offices for the Marvelwood human surrogates. In one series, The Instant scale, which allows more of their extensive, space, Dunham explains. I like figuring out
School, the home has open, airy rooms and Decorator (20012004), she photographed and still growing, collection to be on display. how art should be in spaces, and I think its
a welcoming feel. I was really intimidated by an out-of-print 1974 decorating book collaged I kind of like all these different voices around, interesting to try to make art live with furniture
the scale of the house. How do you decorate with figures cut from magazines. Dunham says. A beautifully appointed guest and decorative objects. Not surprisingly,
a house? says Simmons, who is well known Throughout the home are works by room displays the wide range of work they own given their exploratory natures, Dunham and
for exploring the relationship between women friendsincluding Terry Winters, Mel where a sunset print by Richard Prince, a folded Simmons often shift their art and furniture.
and domestic spaces, most famously through Bochner, Carl DAlvia, and Jackie Saccoccio drawing by Dorothea Rockburne, an abstract Theres a fluidity and a flexibility that comes
her photographs of dolls and dollhouses. And as well as drawings and ceramics by their butterfly painting by Mark Grotjahn, and from just moving furniture around and
then I thought, maybe Im thinking about it daughters, Lena and Grace. In the living room a drawing by Dieter Roth preside among other understanding how things can change, says
the wrong way. Maybe its better to think about the couple has hung a photograph, Allegory of works. Everything is a visual decisionfor Simmons, noting that she learned about
it the way you would think about decorating the Arts (1995), by Simmonss late friend Sarah a big house we have very little wall space, says domestic space through moving small furni-
a hotel and make a motif. Charlesworth that depicts a classically sculpted Dunham, describing these installation choices. ture for her photography. There are rooms in
Simmons found black-and-white 1950s bust, painters palette, and dust-covered violin Dunham and Simmons, both accom- our house that look like they could come right
textiles designed by prominent artists such against a lush maroon wall. Simmons found Carroll Dunham and plished art writers, have countless stories out of one of my dollhouse pictures.
as Alexander Girard and Verner Panton, and the still life by accident. She was looking at a Laurie Simmons in their
sitting room in front of
decided to build the houses interiors around sellers inventory on eBay and found, for a bar-
Marilyn Minters 2003
this color scheme. We decided we were gain price, this piece. Charlesworth was one photograph Vomit.
going to put nothing but black-and-white of her best friends and Simmons consulted her
photographs in the front hall, which has got- before actually buying the photograph. I cher-
ten a little flexible, says Dunham. Finishing ish it. I feel like I rescued it, say Simmons.
his thought, Simmons says, laughing: We And, its meant to go with this house because
72 proceeded to break that rulewe break all its all about old and new. She explains that, in
73 our rules. another coincidence, Charlesworth made the
Yet, their generously proportioned front work in her Williamsburg studio located in the
hall is almost solely lined with black-and-white same building where Simmons and Dunham
photographs chosen by Simmons, including have recently moved. Its really amazing; its
an early Richard Prince; an almost doll-like, a full circle, she concludes.
distorted visage of Marlon Brando by Weegee; While Simmons has curated the ground-
a photograph by Morton Bartlett of his metic- floor entry hall, Dunham has ownership over
ulously constructed and appointed dolls; the gallery-like second-floor hall. Dunham
and other anonymous doll images given to is renowned for his bold, graphic drawings
Simmons by friends over the years. I do feel and paintings depicting bodies and forms in
an affinity to photographs, she explains, primitive shapes, often delineated with heavy
as Carroll does to painting and drawing. black strokes. His work veers between abstrac-
We both love both, but I feel more conversant tion and figuration, often with cartoonish,
with photography and better able to make surreal characters boasting accentuated sexual
those choices. Among the assortment is one organs. The artist is also a celebrated print-
of her own early black-and-white photographs maker and has explained that hes used the
that hints at the work she would later become printmaking process to push forward ideas
known for. Taken while visiting a home in in his own painting.
Connecticut in 1976, its an image of a sink A pink, abstract watercolor by Lucio
angled to appear diminutive. I think its so Fontana is at the top of the stairsa work
cool that I have a picture of a sink that I made Simmons says visitors sometimes mistake as
to look like a toy, she says. Then I began her husbandsamong drawings by Markus
taking photographs of toy sinks, and now Lpertz, Bendix Harms, and A.R. Penck. The
I live in a house in Connecticut. installations look and feel is expressive, with
Simmons began working with photogra- colorful, abstract works, including several by
phy soon after she moved to New York City twentieth-century and contemporary German
in 1973, and several years later started making artists. I like the idea that theres this other
images of miniature houses staged with Western painting culture that is very complete
1950s doll furniture, eventually inserting dolls and has a slightly different value system
to complete the domestic scene. She photo- from ours, he says, explaining his interest.
graphed these small-scale rooms, finished Drawing and printmaking have been a big
with wallpaper and lighting, with a sense of part of German art, and they tend to be less

Carroll Dunham / Laurie Simmons


In the homes generous
entry hall, Simmons has
installed primarily black-
and-white photographs
from their collection.
On the left is a 1995
photograph by the late
conceptual artist Robert
Blanchon, who often
explored gay identity by
employing cultural sym-
bols such as the black-
and-white bandana pic-
tured here.

74
75

Carroll Dunham / Laurie Simmons


76
77

Opposite: Leaning on a
mantle in the couples bed-
room is a Mel Bochner
paintinga gift to Dunham
on his fiftieth birthday
next to three African
baskets that just seem to
embody some universal
truth, says Dunham wryly.
On the right, below one of
Simmonss ventriloquist-
dummy photographs is
a self-portrait from the
early 1960s.

Right: Homespun (fancy


middle), from 1998, by
the couples close friend
John Newman, echoes
the black-and-white
squiggle theme of the
dining room. Simmons
immediately loved this
sculpture when she saw it
in his studio, despite her
fear that the patterning was
too similar to the wallpa-
per. Newman was actually
delighted when he saw the
placement. A glass work,
also featuring squiggles,
was a gift from Dunhams
German dealer.
78
79

Opposite: Drawings
selected by Dunham line
the stairway up to his stu-
dio. From left to right, the
artists represented are A. Above: Dunham selected 2007 works on paper by
R. Penck, Hans Hofmann these colorful, expressive German artist Bendix
(from his 1930s driving drawings for his installa- Harms. Id love to own a
series), Erich Wegner (from tion on the second floor: painting, says Dunham of
1925), and Terry Winters from left, a 1991 drawing by Harmss work, I think hes
(from 1982). Terry Winters and two a terrific artist.

Carroll Dunham / Laurie Simmons


80
81

Opposite: A 1980 photo-


graph by Richard Prince,
an anonymous doll image,
and a blurry photograph of
a ventriloquist dummy given
to Simmons by her husband
further the black-and-white
motif in the entry hall.

Right: An art- and memen-


to-filled cabinet in the living
room includes Kiki Smiths
photograph of the couples
late cat, Guy, next to Cindy
Shermans gift to Simmons,
inscribed: Lifelong friends!
To the right are paintings
by Samuel Colman and
Richard Allen Morris.
Porcelain lambs owned by
Simmonss mother are next
to a painting by Bobbie
Oliver on the middle row,
while the bottom row
includes a teapot painting
by Franco Mondini-Ruiz,
a multiple by Dieter Roth,
a bronze Frisbee by
Matthew Weinstein, and
a Susan Hall print.

Artist Name
Eric
82
Fischl
83

April
Gornik

An assemblage of Auguste
Rodin and Gustav Klimt
drawings found in Paris
and New York hold a place
of prominence in the sun-
strewn library of April
Gornik and Eric Fischls
Long Island home.
Eric Fischl and April Gorniks sumptuous, the master bedroom alongside traditional arm twists behind his back as a mysterious
Asian-inspired contemporary house, set Japanese prints and Fischls large, wall-size smiling face, a figure eight, and an infinity sign
among reeds and marshes in North Haven, nude painting of Gornik. Klimt often holds dance along the top border. Both Fischl and
New York, seems as if it was designed with a his pencil in such a way that can be so incredi- Gornik appreciate the drawings almost lyrical
consideration of both the exterior views and bly delicate that you get the sense hes holding imagery. I always loved his pastels and water-
the interior installations. Inside are a scholars it from the eraser; hes just sort of touching colors. Hes the greatest poet of our genera-
rock picked up in France, a glass owl sculpture the paper, tickling it, coaxing the human form tion, says Fischl. His juxtaposition of things
perched on a plinth, a life-size African wood into being, says Fischl, commenting that the is so resonant and strange; he speaks through
sculpture of a mother and child, and even an line seems minimal and unfussy. Adds the body.
Amish bonnet constructed from hundreds of Gornik, I just like the touch of this drawing, Despite the sprawling house, the artwork
white-tipped hat pins, a work that Fischl calls I think thats what hes known for; even if the feels at once intimate and personal, perhaps
terrifying and beautiful, a hard combination subject matter isnt seductive and beautiful, because theres a connection behind each
to pull off. Then there are the drawings, paint- the line itself is. piece. I look at everything all the time, says
ings, and photographs by Susan Rothenberg, Down the hall hang a series of abstract Gornik, gazing at a series of Thomas Joshua
Diane Arbus, friends such as Alex Katz and Ralph Gibson photographs of nude women Coopers photographs of the Atlantic Basin,
Sally Gall, and local Hamptons artists, not to cropped details of a folded leg or a crossed a gift from Fischl. Its necessarily accumu-
mention the works by Fischls former painting elbowone of many trades Fischl and Gibson lated; it is the accumulation of all these pres-
students at the New York Academy of Art. have made during the course of their friend- ences. I believe that in art, the artists live, so
The couple, who met forty years ago at the ship. There is work I like because it is along it is like having people and friends and spirits
April Gornik and Eric Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, work the lines of what I do, and then theres work with you. It exponentially expands our living
Fischl in their living room.
in matching studios facing the Peconic Bay and I like because I cant do it, says Fischl mod- space to have these artworks here.
seem quietly in tune with each others sensibil- estly. Ralph fits into the I cant do it category.
ities and rhythms. While many of their pieces That level of erotic and abstractthe sophisti-
were bought together or carefully selected cation is just profound.
as gifts from one to the other, there are some On the other hand, a black-and-white
distinct thematic differences within the collec- photograph of a nude sitting in a chair by 84
tion that reflect their particular artistic styles. British photographer and photojournalist 85
Gornik is a poetic landscape painter, and Bill Brandt that hangs in the dining area has
her emotive compositions include light falling served Fischls talents on at least one occasion;
through trees, moody skies merging with he incorporated the figure into his 1985 paint-
oceans, and clouds gathering over fields. Any- ing Bayonne, as well as other works on paper.
thing pantheistic is hers, Fischl says of their Ive used that figure a lot, he remarks.
collection, referencing her interest in the natu- Although art is on display on nearly every
ral, such as the Jeanette Montgomery Barron surface of the house, Fischl and Gornik, like
photographs of flowers and sea sponges that many artists, dont consider themselves for-
adorn the library. Gornik protests. Its not an mal collectors. I started off buying or trading
even divide. I like figures and abstracts too. with my peers, Fischl explains. I had gone
Fischls psychologically charged paintings to the Picasso Museum and seen Picassos
reintroduced the figure to painting and post- collection of other artists and thought, What
modern discourse in the 1980s, and he tends to a nice way of remembering your time. It
be drawn to works that address the body. Not wasnt that he collected the best of Cezanne
coincidentally, an impressive assemblage of or the best of Matisse, but he had examples.
drawings by Auguste Rodin and Gustav Klimt Thus inspired, Fischl didnt have far to look.
hang in the treehouse-like library, on a back His peers at the time included fellow art stars
wall across from large picture windows. Fischl such as David Salle, Cindy Sherman, and
speaks knowingly about the Rodins, though he Francesco Clemente, who were soaring to
is careful to explain that he looks to the nine- fame in the 1980s, the same time that Fischl
teenth-century master for insights on tech- came into prominence.
niques, rather than as direct source material. One of Clementes large-scale yellow-
Rodin was pretty much the last great and-red watercolors hangs on a long living
sculptor of the body, and he actually believed room wall among other works. A visit with the
that even a small part could express emotions, Clementes in St. Barths led to a trade: portraits
he says. You could cut his sculptures into little of the Clemente family painted by Fischl in
pieces and [still] feel the passion and the tor- return for this work, a mystical supine figure
ment, and so I go back to him over and over floating under grape leaves.
again, he says. A semierotic nude drawing A smaller Clemente watercolor with a
by Klimt, an artist equally admired by Fischl similar palette shows a man bowing his head
for his inimitable drawing skills, hangs in and holding a hat in one arm while the other

Eric Fischl / April Gornik


86
87

Opposite: In the glass- Francesco Clemente,


walled, double-height liv- among other works. The
ing room, Gornik and bonnet on the top shelf,
Above: Two photographs by something, if something is Fischl display, from left to by artist Angela Ellsworth,
Jeanette Montgomery Barron mysterious in some way, and right, a drawing by Richard is constructed of hundreds
lean on a cabinet in the sitting I cant get to the bottom of it, Diebenkorn, a charcoal of hatpins and is a riff
room above a work by Paul thats when I find it really by Susan Rothenberg, and on the bonnets worn by
Rosin. If I fall in love with compelling, says Gornik. a large watercolor by Amish women.

Eric Fischl / April Gornik


88
89

Above: In the dining room,


a nude photograph by Bill
Brandt completes a deli-
cate vignette with a Laurie Right: Gornik and Fischl
Lambrecht photograph bought this African sculp-
and a glass sculpture by ture of a mother and
Fischl. Fischl has incorpo- her son in Victoria Falls,
rated Brandts nude figure Zimbabwe. I love this
in some of his own work, piece, Fischl says. The
most notably in his 1985 tenderness on both of their
painting Bayonne. faces is just phenomenal.

Eric Fischl / April Gornik


90
91

Opposite: Looking out


from the inner courtyard of
Fischl and Gorniks Asian-
inspired home emphasizes
the inside and outside
views. A watercolor by Above: The elevated walk-
Francesco Clemente is way leading toward the
visible on the second-floor treehouselike library on
walkway. the second floor.
Timothy
92
93

Greenfield-
Sanders

A collection of works over


a large farmhouse sink
in Timothy Greenfield-
Sanderss kitchen
includes, from top left,
Elaine Sturtevants Warhols
Flowers; Joop Sanderss
1955 portrait of his wife,
Isca; and Elaine de
Koonings 1945 portrait
of Joop Sanders. A 1977
painting by Milton
Resnicka wedding gift to
the Greenfield-Sanderses
is on the right.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and his wife, generation of artists, a project that resulted in Isca Greenfield-Sanders, who had breakout
Karin, purchased the former rectory of the the widely traveled show NY Artists of the success in her twenties, appear throughout the
German Roman Catholic Church of St. 50s in the 80s. Greenfield-Sanders eventually house. Isca scans found vintage photographs,
Nicholas in 1978 when its still-quiet East expanded his scope, and set out to record the often of generic summer settings or family
Village location was not yet in vogue. In the broader art worlddealers, collectors, curators, trips, and creates small, reworked watercolors.
nearly forty years since, the historic red-brick and critics. Twenty years later, in 1999, he She then grids the watercolors and transforms
building has served as his home and studio exhibited seven hundred portraits of art world them into larger-scale oil paintings that seem
and has witnessed a parade of some of todays luminaries at Mary Boone Gallery, an entire set at once immediately recognizable while not
most luminous figures in the worlds of of which was later purchased by the Museum familiar. Isca became an artist because it was
fashion, culture, and politics. The building of Modern Art. in her dna, notes Greenfield-Sanders. But
itself was special, observes Greenfield- Soon Greenfield-Sanderss artist friends a part of it was that she grew up around artists
Sanders. Artists knew of the other artists sought to trade their own work for his por- and maybe saw that it could be a profession for
who came here before them, there was art on traits. Early on I realized that works on paper her. It was really a privilege growing up with
the walls, and a sort of self-fulfilling snowball were expensive to frame; I quickly preferred great art, always meeting interesting people.
effect occured. As a result, the house serves [having] a small piece on canvas that I could He recalls with a chuckle how on a typical day
as a warm homage to this art world, a world just hang on the wall, he recounts with a laugh, at the rectory, his younger daughter, Liliana
that also includes the family of artists who surveying the many unframed paintings hung now a filmmakercame home from second
grew up here. salon style on his walls or leaning against grade dressed in her formal school uniform
The East Village exploded right in surfaces throughout the home. On the parlor and entered the studio as he was photograph-
front of us; we found ourselves living in what floor, examples include Andy Warhols small ing the drag-queen star of Paris Is Burning,
became the hottest art scene in years, he yellow poppy painting hung above a shelf piece Dorian Corey. Shes this nearly seven-foot-tall
explains of the location. Starting in 1983 or by Haim Steinbach, a crosshatched Jasper drag queen in nothing but pasties, and Lily
1984 there were seven galleries that opened Johns work on paper, a Richard Prince joke just shakes her hand and says, Its a pleasure
up in the neighborhood, including Gracie painting, and a black-and-white-dot pumpkin to meet you.
Mansion, Fun Gallery, Piezo Electric, and painting by Yayoi Kusama. But not all the work In the parlor, Greenfield-Sanders has built
Civilian Warfare. We would take the kids to is instantly recognizable or as prominently dis- an impromptu shrine to his close friend, the 94
the galleries in strollers on Sundays. Wed meet played. When making their way up the stairs to legendary music icon Lou Reed. A stylized 95
the dealers, who were our age or younger, the second floor, visitors are greeted by a black portrait of Reed by Iscas husband, artist and
and then we started to meet the artists. They painted figure lurking in an airshaft overlook- musician Sebastian Blanck, flanked by candles,
became close friends with many of the local ing the landing; the installation is by Richard leans above an issue of New York magazine
crowd, including Doug and Mike Starn, Hambleton, who was at one time well known in opened to Greenfield-Sanderss full-page pho-
Annette Lemieux, Peter Halley, and Francesco the neighborhood for his haunting graffiti. tograph of the artist; its the last portrait taken
Clemente; work by each of these artists is I think this is a historically important col- of the musician before his death. Next to this
now represented in their home. lection because there are works here by most installation, Greenfield-Sanders has arranged
Greenfield-Sanders is today recognized of the key people in the eighties and into the the Grammy Award for his documentary Lou
internationally as a top portrait photographer nineties, says Greenfield-Sanders. I think at Reed: Rock and Roll Heart perched on an ebony
Timothy Greenfield- and filmmaker, who often shoots in his a certain point artists wanted me to have a and zirconium plinth by artist Toland Grinnell.
Sanders in his studio ground-floor rectory studio using a large- good piece because they knew it was going to As the neighborhood and art scene have
at the rectory.
format camera. His award-winning documen- be in a good place, he continues, referring continued to change, so have the walls of
tariesincluding The Black List, The Latino to the rectory and adding that hes never sold Greenfield-Sanderss home, accumulating
List, and The Out List are living portraits of any of the pieces hes received. more works by family and friends. It enhances
prominent and diverse individuals. He began The Greenfield-Sanderses artistic legacy [my living space] enormously, he says about
taking still portraits in the mid-1970s while in is seen throughout the home, and works living with artworks. I have such admiration
graduate school at the American Film Institute they already owned by Joop and by Karins for these artists. And the house is already
in Los Angeles. The organization needed to brother, the sculptor John Sanders, gave their inspiring the next generation: Just to the left
document for the school archive the Hollywood collection a head start. A dark, thickly textured of Lou Reeds shrine sits a charming painting
legends coming through to lecture, and abstract paintinga wedding gift from Joops of the rectory by Hudson Blanck, Isca and
Greenfield-Sanders happily volunteered to contemporary Milton Resnickhangs above Sebastians seven-year-old son.
take the photographs, unknowingly setting the large farmhouse sink in their skylighted
the course of his future career. kitchen. It lives beside Joops portrait of his
Greenfield-Sanders moved with Karin wife, Isca (known as Big Isca to differentiate
from Los Angeles to New York after graduate her from granddaughter Isca), done in broad
school, and Karins father, first-generation brushstrokes. Another wedding gift, a fine-
abstract expressionist Joop Sanders, began lined portrait of Joop by Elaine de Kooning,
introducing his new son-in-law to his peers, resides below.
including Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, The artistic tradition continues into the
and Robert Motherwell. The following year third generation. Several large figurative can-
Greenfield-Sanders began photographing this vases by Timothy and Karins daughter, painter

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
96
97

Above: Paintings fill a corner Greenfield-Sanderss 1999


of the back parlor, including, Grammy Award; and an
from left, a 1988 Ross impromptu shrine to the
Bleckner and a 1986 Peter late Lou Reed with a por-
Halley. A Gustav Stickley trait by Sebastian Blanck. Opposite: Outside the chairs designed by Le
sideboard displays, from left, Hanging above is a 1986 ground-floor studio, Corbusier, a bench coffee
a drawing of the rectory by work by Mike and Doug Francesco Clementes por- table by George Nelson,
Greenfield-Sanderss seven- Starn. On the right, a 1964 traits of the family include, and a rare Hans Wegner
year-old grandson, Hudson Andy Warhol lives above from left, Karin, Isca with swivel chair are arranged in
Blanck; a plinth by Toland a 1991 Haim Steinbach her baby sister Liliana, and front. On the left is a side
Grinnell designed for shelf piece. Greenfield-Sanders. Two table by Joseph Kosuth.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
100
101

Previous spread: An
arrangement inside the
first-floor parlor includes
Andy Warhols 1969 flower
print beside Cecily Browns Above left: A large tondo Opposite: In the main
2003 monoprint. A 2001 painting from 1979 by Joop sitting area is Isca
portrait of Greenfield- Sanders hangs above chairs Greenfield-Sanders s 2003
Sanders by Mimmo and tables by Gustav painting Alice and Stinky
Paladino is below. On the Stickley in the dining area. (Silver Beach). On the left is
sideboard, from left, are Isamu Noguchi designed Richard Princes small
two works by Christian the hanging lamp. 1989 joke painting Hows
Haub, Charles Spurriers Mom, and below is John
gum painting, Isca Above: A drawing of a Sanderss 1990 forged and
Greenfield-Sanderss A shadowy figure, by graffiti flame-carved steel sculp-
Walk with Daddy (2004), artist Richard Hambleton, ture. On the floor is a rare
and a small painting by haunts the airshaft outside 1920s Chinese art deco rug,
Julian Lethbridge. the third-floor landing. a gift from Joop Sanders.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
102
Mary
103

Heilmann

A living room wall in Mary


Heilmanns Bridgehampton
farmhouse exemplifies
the color themes apparent
throughout her collection.
Here, a large Roy Fowler
painting of a wave anchors
the other pieces, including
Don Christensens painting
on the top left and two oval
canvases by Heilmanns
studio assistant, Sarah
McDouglas Kohn. The
round disc underneath the
Fowler is a painting by Paul
Gabrielli, and two watercol-
ors on the top right are by
Stephen Mueller. I always
like work that looks like
mine, says Heilmann.
At seventy-five years old, Mary Heilmann is friend, a memory process that she clearly friend Marilyn Minter, depicting a cropped Californian Roy Fowler. Heilmann was show-
still a young bohemian at heart. The ground- enjoys. You do sort of sit and listen and think close-up of luminous pearls spilling out of ing the work to a collector on Fowlers behalf,
breaking painter, furniture maker, and cerami- of the stories and some of the people who heavily painted lips and inscribed Happy but when the collector turned it down, she
cist has crossed paths with some of the most arent there anymore, she muses. The decors Birthday 2009. Nearby hangs a small Cory bought it. It now resides among decorated
legendary twentieth-century artists: She stud- overall effect conjures a scrapbook come to life, Arcangel print of a road, which was a gift for ceramic plates by Teresita Fernndez, April
ied with David Hockney at UC Berkeley and albeit one with eye-catching art by major art- a weekend visit. We bonded because he does Gornik, and Heilmann.
was friends with Bruce Nauman, Robert ists in lieu of family photos. these road paintings and I do road paintings. Back in her freestanding studio, exam-
Smithson, and Philip Glass in the rollicking In the living room, a large John Waters I like how it relates to space in a very basic ples of her own road paintings and new
downtown New York art scene of the 1970s. collageHes genius; I love Johnfeaturing childlike type of way. ceramic wall pieces in vibrant olives and
We all knew each other. It was a very small, enlarged returned-to-sender envelopes Heilmann admits that she hangs by intu- rusty reds are installed among even more
cliquish, closed scene, she says. But twenty stamped and addressed to celebrities such as ition, a talent she attributes to her mothers mementos. There are also Heilmann-designed
years ago, the California native decided to set- Andy Warhol and Diana Ross is paired next to home-decorating style. Another vignette chairs and tables sprinkled among the
tle down and bought her first home: a circa a similarly themed, much smaller framed post- features a painting by Minter, rows of paintbrushes and palettes. Like the arrange-
1910 farmhouse bordering a field in a quiet card, a classic piece of mail art from the early rosy-colored, uncapped lipsticks, graffitied ment of paintings in her home, its another
section of Bridgehampton, New York, just pop artist Ray Johnson. Heilmann has deliber- with slashes of white. Above the lipsticks considered scene, one more example of
miles from the beach. It was only at this point ately placed these two mail-based pieces side piece hangs a large painting of a curling, the artist thinking and creating on many
that she felt that she had a proper place to by side to invite a dialogue. I like that about surfer-ready wave by her friend and fellow levels and dimensions.
display her collection of art, which she has curating, how curators know how to make art
arranged in meaningfully curated vignettes out of other peoples art, she explains.
throughout her home. On an adjacent wall, a pen-and-ink draw-
Mary Heilmann in the field
Fellow artist Ross Bleckner describes ing by her great friend and Bridgehampton of her farmhouse.
Heilmann as a painters painter, commenting neighbor Billy Sullivan is based on a photo
that her paintings contain a joy so contagious, of her with friends at a wedding and brings her
one smiles upon seeing them. Heilmann back to that memorable day. The drawing
trained as a ceramicist in the late 1960s, and is arranged among other Sullivan works,
104 her use of brilliant, saturated colors evolved including a sketch of artist Jack Pierson, also
105 from this background. Her abstract paintings a Heilmann peer. As suggested by the care with
are often playful, sometimes composed on which she titles her pieces, Heilmann is inter-
multiple canvases to create an irregular shape. ested in stories, and writing is a crucial part of
And though she uses a geometric vocabulary, her artistic practice. Looking at the wedding
her line is loose, with distorted edges and drips sketch, Heilmann describes how she reads it:
of paint. The poetic titles of her works, such like a story, like a narrative, and that happens
as Save the Last Dance for Me (1979) or The Kiss here with my own story. This leads her to
(Saturday Night) (1986), imbue them with mention her desire to make a film of her life as
larger, evocative meanings, often referring to a follow-up to her 1999 memoir, The All Night
songs or significant places and experiences Movie, which she illustrated with her own paint-
in Heilmanns colorful past. ings. The book is yet another mingling of the
Maintaining a dialogue between artists many media she is so comfortably working in.
and art is important to Heilmann, and the Standing solidly on her living room floor
furniture she craftssimilarly colored and is a knee-high Peter Voulkos pot. Heilmann
reminiscent of the forms seen in her can- went to Berkeley in the 1960s to study sculp-
vasesemphasizes her desire to engage in ture and ceramics. There was a big scene
conversation. Her woven-back, ribboned around the pot shop, she explains, recalling
chairs invite visitors to sit and address the how she learned to throw pots under the tute-
art and environment, and in fact, she often lage of Voulkos, the seminal abstract-expres-
positions one next to her paintings as part of sionist ceramicist. The large, heavy, brown
the overall installation. Voulkos piece, with its swirls of white and
Until Heilmann found her house in 1995 black glaze, looks more contemporary than
originally built from a Sears kit, the parts of midcentury. One can see the influence of its
which were sent out by train in boxesshe form and patina in the brightly glazed plates,
primarily lived and worked in a one-room cups, and saucers that Heilmann still creates
TriBeCa studio, which, she admits, wasnt the today, examples of which line her living room
most suitable setting to show art. But once she bookshelves. Heilmann recently exhibited
decided to spend more time in the country, some of her cups arranged on shelves to delib-
her walls began to fill up with work by friends, erately evoke the way Donald Judd would
neighbors, and fellow artists. install objects.
Theres little on display that Heilmann Above the Voulkos vase is an especially
cant trace back as a gift or a trade from a memorable gift, a skateboard painted by her

Mary Heilmann
106
107 Left: A corner of
Heilmanns living room,
with a large collage by
John Waters, comprised
of returned letters on the
far left. John Waterss
personality is such a part
of his art, says Heilmann.
A small Ray Johnson mail-
art piece that the artist sent
to Heilmann is paired to
the bottom right of the
Waters piece. A variety of
Billy Sullivans drawings
hang to the left of the win-
dow, while Cory Arcangels
road painting hangs high to
the windows right. The
pale, aqua-hued octagonal
table is by Heilmann.

Following spread: A knee-


high vase by Peter Voulkos
sits underneath a grouping
that features two paintings
by Marilyn Minter, includ-
ing a skateboard deck on
the top right inscribed
Happy Birthday 2009.
Rick Lisss colorful square-
shape grid and
an untitled painting by
Candace Hill-Montgomery
on the top left are among
other works by friends.
To the right, Joanne
Greenbaums ceramic
sculpture sits on top of
the green Heilmann-
designed table.

Mary Heilmann
110
111

Left: A carefully curated


corner in Heilmanns
kitchen includes a diptych
by Jan Hashey (next
to the skull) with a small
painting by Elizabeth
Cannon below. Heilmann
has elegantly draped a bag
designed by James Nares
in 2012 over the back door.

Opposite: A peek into


Heilmanns back studio
reveals some of her newer
ceramic wall pieces as well
as chairs shes designed.
Leaning on a bench is a
collage shes assembling
in honor of her friend, the
late music manager and
producer Chris Stamp.

Mary Heilmann
112
Rashid
113

Johnson

A 2010 puddle painting


by Swiss artist John
Armleder in Rashid
Johnsons second-floor
living room is installed
above Margaret Lees
Tangerines and Bench
sculpture from 2013.
A painting of hard-edged diagonal stripes by adorned with a Mercedes hood ornament mirror can be related to his growing interest in incredibly important artist of the last fifty
Sam Gilliam hangs in Rashid Johnsons spa- by Johnsons friend Djordje Ozbolt. In the ceramics. Its not dissimilar to what happens years. Johnsons dealer gave him a second
cious kitchen. Gilliams colored bands of flat library, a recently purchased collage by Ellen with ceramics, he says of his process. You work by Roth for his birthday, which he shares
paint are washed in light from the tall first-floor Gallagher is hung above an entire vintage set have only so much time and opportunity to with his sona drawing of a cat that now
garden windows of Johnsons elegant, well- of Transition Magazine, the East African jour- gesture the wax and move it, and then it hard- hangs in the library.
appointed townhouse in the Kips Bay neigh- nal founded in 1961 for intellectual discourse ens and you are left with these firm gestures. While Johnson may be intrigued by the
borhood of Manhattan. Johnson had long surrounding postcolonial politics. Though he Johnson is an expansive thinker, engaged past, he is also sharply focused on the present.
admired the color-field painter when he also owns complete sets of the Black Panther in contemporary art discourse and concerned Some of the artists Im working around today
approached him in 2012 about organizing a solo newspaper and October magazine, Johnson about what he terms the rituals of a now have a lot of influence on the way that I work,
show of his work. During a subsequent studio emphasizes: These are not decorations. I sit space. Its fitting that his first significant pur- he says. And, as his collection illustrates,
visit, Johnson discovered early paintings never here and read them. chase, from Hauser & Wirth, the gallery that its important to Johnson that he surrounds
before exhibited, including this important The idea of history also seeps into also represents him, is by Swiss artist Dieter himself with works by his friends and other
example. I thought it was particularly interest- Johnsons thoughtfully assembled art and Roth. Part of a long-term series composed of artists for reasons larger than the sentimental.
ing because [Gilliam] was in Washington, dc, furniture collection. A wall-size Matthew cardboard sheets that Roth used to cover his Honestly, their influence is not so much on
in 1964, says Johnson, when you had the Day Jackson from his Burned Cities sequence worktables, the piece shows the markings, the aesthetic concerns of my current project,
march on Washington, the civil rights move- dominates the entrance hall. In the series, doodles, and scratchings of everyday work in but more on the concept of being a working
ment, civil unrest. And you have an African Jackson takes a birds-eye view of a cityin the studio, creating a palimpsest of the artists artist today, he says. How you live, how
American making these straight-edged color this case Hamburgbuilds a faithful model life. I have a real appreciation for his project you work, the things that are happening
paintings, emphasizing the nonpolitical sub- in wood and lead, and then chars it, leaving a and the way he lived his art. He really lived it, around you in the art world, as well as the
Rashid Johnson in the
ject matter. To have that time in my house, blackened bas-relief. This work is titled August second-floor front parlor admires Johnson. I just really like his aes- larger identity you have as you locate yourself
Johnson continues, makes me feel as if I am 6, 1945 (2011), the date the atomic bomb was of his Kips Bay home. thetic and his approach, and I think hes an in this world.
witnessing a bit of history, an essential aspect dropped on Hiroshima. I love the association
to how he approaches collecting. with history, the way he intervenes in history,
Though originally trained as a photogra- says Johnson of his friends work. It lives with
pher, Johnson has increasingly become recog- such a logical topography and historical notes
114 nized for his painting, sculpture, and installa- that are born of this postwar European imag-
115 tions. He came to prominence when Harlems ining. This work was part of a trade that
Studio Museum director, Thelma Golden, included a self-portrait by Jackson of himself
included him in her seminal 2001 Freestyle lying dead in a coffin, an unsettling work that
exhibition, delineating a new generation Johnsons wife will not allow in the main
of post-black artists interested in, but not rooms of their house.
defined by, the color of their skin. His more Johnsons broader interest in materials
recent postminimalist, wall-hung shelf instal- and process is also evidenced in a darkly toned,
lations combine disparate objectsphoto- textured puddle painting by Swiss artist
graphs, record albums, soaps, and bookson John Armleder, installed in the living room.
structural boards to create dialogues about Armleders performance-based process and
black cultural identity. Johnson credits the role of chance are important elements of
these explorations to his upbringing in an the work; the artist pours paint from above
Afrocentric 1970s household in Chicago where onto a canvas, while laying a second canvas on
Kwanzaa was celebrated and his mother, who the ground beneath the first to collect the paint
has a PhD in African history, regularly wore that puddles as he works, creating two fin-
an African headscarf. His parents would later ished products. The piece was also Johnsons
unceremoniously abandon these traditions, first major trade with a more established artist,
a decision that led him to openly question his a major career milestone, and came about
own notions of American black identity. when they were exhibiting in the same Milan-
Unsurprisingly, works by artists that based gallery.
address identity head-on are also found Recently Johnson has been interested in
throughout the home, where Johnson lives ceramic work, and hes acquired a columnar
with his wife, artist Sheree Hovsepian, and 1997 pot by ceramicist John Mason and a 1959
their young son. A work on paper by Tony Peter Voulkos plate that rests on a large, low
Lewis with People of Color written at the table in his floor-through living room. Once
top hangs in the first-floor parlor adjacent to Johnson becomes interested in a genre, whether
a white-neon Glenn Ligon piece that spells its historical publications or ceramics, he is a
negro sunshine in a lowercase font. A draw- comprehensive researcher. In fact, he fluently
ing by William Pope.L that reads Black People pinpoints the place in Voulkoss career when
are Needy lives across from the Gilliam. the revolutionary ceramicist made this specific
On the second floor, a staircase nook holds piece. Johnsons own mark-making in melted
a mass-produced wooden African figure wax on various supports of wood, flooring, and

Rashid Johnson
116
117

Opposite: A view of the designers Fernando and Above left: Placed in an


living room showcases two Humberto Campana, who alcove on the staircase Above right: Johnson
1954 loose-mantle arm- also designed the wicker is Djordje Ozbolts 2013 researched California
chairs by Joaquim chair in the foreground. Fetish sculpture 2, a mass- ceramicists extensively
Tenreiroa pioneer of Peter Voulkoss ceramic produced wooden African before purchasing Large
modernist Brazilian plate and John Masons figure adorned with a Plate (1959) by the seminal
designin front of Racket Small Triangular Torque, Mercedes hood ornament abstract expressionist
Screen 1 by Brazilian Red (1997), sit on the table. and rubber tires. potter Peter Voulkos.
118
119

Opposite: Sam Gilliams


Helles (1965) was purchased
from a show Johnson
curated of the artists early
work at David Kordansky
Gallery in Los Angeles.
This is a piece Im very
proud of owning, Johnson
says, adding that he studied
the artist and followed his
work for years before meet-
ing him.

Right: Tony Lewiss 2012


work on paper People ad
roloc foo is paired with
Glenn Ligons 2005 neon
piece Untitled (negro sun-
shine) above the fireplace
in a first-floor parlor.
120
121

Opposite: In the kitchen,


from left, a 2012 work by
Anthony Pearson, a 2010
drawing by William
Pope.L, and Djordje
Ozbolts 2012 painting
Gentlemen of Ngongo.
The framed piece on
the far right was a gift
to Johnson from Swiss
artist Pipilotti Rist.

Above: In the library,


Mai-Thu Perrets hand-
woven wool tapestry from
2014 is flanked by Ellen
Gallaghers 2005 Abu
Simbel collage and Thilo Right: An example from
Heinzmanns 2014 O.T., the Dieter Roth series
which consists of cotton in which the artist saved
on panel under plexiglass. workspace tablemats
The Kiss, Angel Oteros 2013 with the notes, scraps,
ceramic sculpture, is on and markings of his daily
the sideboard, and in the life. Here, the tablemat
foreground, Johnsons is framed and installed
round brass sculpture is on above the fireplace in the
a table of his own design. living room.
122
Joan
123

Jonas

A self-portrait by Richard
Serra hangs on the
wall above drawings by
Lawrence Weiner in
Joan Jonass living room.
Shelves hold paintings
of dogs, as well as objects,
photographs, and relics
picked up in her travels.
Props from the seminal performance and video outsider art, she explains, but Im interested they are natural. Some also have intricate
artist Joan Jonass groundbreaking works in people who arent trained and the art they designs, but ultimately its the forms that she
live on equal footing with drawings from her make. I am interested in how they draw, how responds to.
celebrated friends in the SoHo loft where she they work. Jonas began collecting teapots while living
has lived and worked since 1974. Jonas is inter- Her taste runs from a primitive black ele- in Dresden, Germany, and she was drawn to
ested in art by both trained and untrained art- phant sculpture that she admires for the them for similar reasons. I find them to be
ists. I like many things; my taste is very broad, strange shape of its trunk to a pair of realisti- beautiful shapes, and the colors are also amaz-
she explains. To this point, she loves the work cally rendered oil paintings of dogs against ing . Other relics from the artists constant
of nineteenth-century still-life painter Jean- sky-blue backgrounds that border on kitsch. travels are also displayed throughout the loft,
Baptiste-Simon Chardin, but also treasures Its a certain kind of expression, because including a group of belts by Native Americans
her collection of Canadian folk art. its not based on a tradition, she says of these of the Great Plains and a Japanese kite; she
Jonass work has been equally broad in seemingly unsophisticated works, but its admires both for their beautiful abstract
scope. In the 1960s, she transitioned from always based on some very personal obsession designs. Explaining that she later made kites
a sculpture-based practice to revolutionize the that I think artists have. So there are similar for a performance based on this particular
burgeoning medium of performance art by tendencies that are always involved with mak- kites shape, but not its design, she says: I just
experimenting with objects, drawing, medi- ing art. One of them is being obsessed with look at it because it gives me pleasure.
ated imagery, and music in live and recorded one image or one word. I mean, I dont think As an artist who incorporates a wide vari-
work. Beginning with her earliest pieces, she any of these things are great works of art, but ety of subjects and media in her storytelling,
incorporated recurring motifs, such as mirrors, I like them because theyre strange. Jonas has far-reaching interests that are
to reflect and alter perception, and began trans- Many of the objects Jonas acquires play reflected in the diversity of the works in her
forming herself with masks and costumes. roles in her later performances, especially her home. Whether its a Sol LeWitt line drawing
In later pieces, video monitors took the place mirrors and her large assortment of masks. or a wooden seagull decoy, ultimately what
of mirrors, reflecting the cameras view. Two animal masks are displayed side by side she responds to is her own visual interpreta-
Jonass performances have been set in on top of a tall cabinet in the studio area. One tion of each object. I do also buy things that
locations as varied as the shore of the Tiber is an orange, fang-toothed wolf head that shes inspire me, she adds, but mostly its because
River in Rome, Jones Beach, and empty lots on used in several performances; the other she I like the shapes and forms. 124
the Lower West Side of Manhattan, with the purchased recently in Philadelphia, a flecked 125
idea of exploring space and the viewers rela- hyena head that she admits she may never end
tionship to it. Borrowing from traditions and up using. Its very weird to wear, very strange,
myths as diverse as the Hopi Indian Snake she explains. But the orange one is easy.
Dance, Japanese Noh theater, and rituals wit- Her interest in artists on the margin
nessed while living for a year in a small town extends to art made by children. I think I iden-
in Crete, she fluidly reinterprets the past and tify with it in some way; its unrefined and
translates it to the present. Jonass influence slightly awkward, but very particular. The pio-
on younger artists cannot be overstated, and it neering artist seems to relate with those work-
continues to endure: Shes recently been cho- ing on the outside. I have books about folk
Joan Jonas in her Mercer sen to represent the United States in the 2015 art and art by the mentally unstable. I am inter-
Street loft. Venice Biennale. ested in all these forms on the edge, she says.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Jonas was Its not the only thing I am interested in, but
entrenched with a group of young, experi- thats what I actually collect in relation to my
mental artists in the small downtown New own work.
York art scene. A signed self-portrait by Drawing is essential to her practice, and
Richard Serra that was a birthday gift hangs she regularly makes the act of drawing an inte-
on a brick wall near works by Sol LeWitt, Pat gral part of her performances. Aside from
Steir, and Lawrence Weinerall friends since these performative gestures, she often draws
that time. Leaning against her file cabinets variations of dogs, and she has dozens of dog
is a portrait of Jonas made by her close friend sketches throughout her home. I became
June Leaf, whose artistic talent she greatly obsessed about how you draw a dog, and I keep
admires; Leaf also made another portrait of drawing them, she says simply.
her, this one in tin, the only artwork by a con- Jonas has been spending her summers in
temporary that Jonas has actually purchased. Nova Scotia since the 1970s. During her daily
Despite her strong associations with the beach walks with her standard poodle, Ozu, she
established art world, Jonas is drawn to paint- looks for rocks of unusual size and shapea
ings and sculptures found outside the main- passion she thinks she inherited from her
stream community, especially folk art. I think mother, who also collected stones. A tiered
there is a thin line between what things look shelf near the front entrance hall holds some of
like when artists are trained or untrained, and the more striking examples; a few are so large
I dont like any of the labels that go with it, like and strangely shaped that its hard to believe

Joan Jonas
126
127

A wide view of Jonass


open working loft and
home, where she was
preparing to represent
the United States in the
2015 Venice Biennale.

Joan Jonas
128
129

Opposite: Works by Jonas,


her friends, and untrained
artists lean against stairs
leading to the second floor.
Her poodle, Ozu, is seated
in front.

Right: A close-up of Jonass


unusually shaped or formed
stones, which populate
shelves in her living area.
She often finds the rocks
while walking on the beach
during summer trips to
Nova Scotia.
130
131

Left: Above a white, flat


work cabinet, Jonas has
arranged her dog drawings
among other finds.

Opposite: A stuffed coyote


that Jonas has used as a prop
in performances such as
The Shape, the Scent, the Feel
of Things at Dia:Beacon in
2005 sits on a top shelf. The
artist has also performed
in the fanged, orange wolf
head on the right.

Joan Jonas
132
Glenn
133

ligon

A tableau of works pro-


vides a colorful backdrop
to Glenn Ligons living
room. Ellsworth Kellys
print Red/Blue (1964)
stands out at left of center,
and Chris Ofilis print The
Healer (2009) hangs on the
far left. Christopher Wools
silkscreen My House III
(2000) is on the far bottom
right, with an untitled
David Wojnarowicz work
from 2012 to its left. A pair
of Hans Wegner chairs is
positioned across from
the sofa. Its just a matter
of wanting to live among
things that are by artists
that have some importance
to my work, Ligon says.
A visibly aged framed poster declaring i am an assemblage of works by Christopher Wool, while working as an intern at the Studio
a man in crisp black capital letters hangs Byron Kim, Paul Pfeiffer, Bruce Nauman, and Museum in Harlem, hangs over his desk with
prominently among works by Richard Prince, Chris Ofili on his living room wallsome a music score from a collaboration with Jason
Roni Horn, and Zoe Leonard in the bedroom bought at auctions, others traded for. Of partic- Moran. Ligon also curates exhibitions of
of artist Glenn Ligons Lower Manhattan ular significance to Ligon is one of Kims well- fellow artists, including one currently with
apartment. Though Ligon rotates much of his known Sunday paintings, a small skyscape Cady Noland, whose silver cardboard piece is
sizable personal art collection, this placard with a handwritten caption underneath. on a wall opposite the desk. A rich, graphic
stays on the wall across from his bed. He writes a kind of diary of whats going Australian Aboriginal painting by an artist
Its meaning runs deep, in both American on that day on the bottom of his paintings, Ligon first saw at the 2012 Documenta Kassel
history and to Ligon, one of todays foremost says Ligon. Kim, a close friend, painted this art fair adorns an adjacent wall.
contemporary artists. The poster is an original white-ground work on the day that Ligons Theres no unifying theme to the work he
from a 1968 Memphis sanitation workers father died, an event actually noted at the bot- owns, says Ligon, but he is always searching
strike that came to be part of the larger civil tom of the canvas. But other factors interested for the best examples from his wish list of art-
rights struggle at the time; giving the poster Ligon as well. I always admire an investigation ists. Acknowledging that his interests have and
further historic resonance, Martin Luther King that is consistent, he says of Kims approach. will likely continue to change, he mentions
Jr. addressed the striking black workers the And I like having a system where you can find a recent museum show of Chris Ofili that got
night before he was assassinated. I am a infinite variety in the same action, that you can him thinking more about the possibilities of
man is also a variant of the first line of Ralph find an emotional power in something thats figurative painting. Perhaps, one day, another
Ellisons 1952 groundbreaking novel Invisible actually very simple. Ofili will end up on one of his walls: Nothing
Man, and Ligons powerful 1988 painting, Ligon had the Japanese conceptual artist here is super-precious, but I get ideas by look-
Untitled: (I Am a Man), with the letters realized On Kawara on his wish list for similar reasons. ing at things, so its nice to switch things up.
in rich black enamel, replicates the evocative Famous for Today (19662013), his series of
words and is now part of the National Gallery date paintings, On Kawaras installation from
of Arts permanent collection. November 22, 1978, hangs on a separate wall
Untitled: (I Am a Man) is representative of in the living room, an austere painting repre-
Ligons interest in history as source material, senting the date that On Kawara created it, 134
using words and images as means of storytell- accompanied by a cardboard box containing 135
ing. His Warm Broad Glow series of neon newspaper clippings from the day before. The
sculptures use the phrase negro sunshine parallels with Kims approach are apparent, as
from a Gertrude Stein novel, while brightly Ligon points out: Its the same idea, a very
lettered joke paintings take lines directly from small set of parameters about how to make a
Richard Pryors stand-up routines. But hes best painting, but with very large implications,
known for his black-and-white text paintings, adding that Byron or On Kawara are sort of
hand-stenciled with thick oil-stick that he reminders of how far one can go in very differ-
intentionally smudges as he travels down the ent waysByron is figurative, and On Kawara
canvas. Quoting phrases from writers as is much more abstract, but they are still about
Glenn Ligon in his study, varied as James Baldwin and Walt Whitman, language, they are still about time, human
standing in front of a work he explores the historical and cultural layers relations.
by an Australian Aboriginal
of black society and identity in todays America. Yet Ligon does not feel that his own
artist he first admired at the
Documenta Kassel art fair He has also addressed the legacy of slavery, workwhich also deals with history and lan-
in 2012. exhibiting original texts written in the language guagehas a related, underpinning structure
of slave narratives, as well as To Disembark in the way that Byron Kims or On Kawaras
(1993), an installation that included a set of does. I dont have any work that has a system
boxes referring to a nineteenth-century slave that can sustain itself for that length of time.
who mailed himself to the North in a crate. I just admire the rigor of it. I am always trying
Ligon is equally clear and deliberate to boil things down to whats the least one can
when it comes to the art he lives with, do. At the same time, other works he owns do
attracted to works that both challenge and connect back to his oeuvre: Ligon mentions
inspire him. Several years ago he even drew that the densely painted black background of a
up a wish list of artists whose work he wanted painting by a friend, Los Angeles artist Steven
to own. I had had some big shows and had Hull, is akin to something I would make in my
sold some work, and I thought, Okay, whats own work, while he credits a piece by artist
the end goal here, what will be interesting for David Wojnarowicz for inspiring him to think
me as an artist? he explains. And I thought about how one uses text and image together.
it would be interesting for me to be around The small study offers another intimate
the work that I admire. glimpse of Ligons interests and personal his-
Artists hes accumulated include Ellsworth tory. A black-and-white portrait by photogra-
Kelly, whose print Red/Blue (1964) lives among pher Roy DeCarava, whom Ligon first admired

Glenn Ligon
136
137

Left: One of On Kawaras


date paintings resides
between the oversize win-
dows in Ligons living
room. The box below, also
part of the installation,
contains newspaper clip-
pings from the day before.

Opposite: The other half of


Ligons living area, includ-
ing chairs by Franz West.
I am interested in decora-
tive arts, says Ligon. But
objects that are artworks.

Glenn Ligon
138
139

Opposite: A look at
Cady Nolands 1996 card-
board work, (Not Yet
Titled), on the right wall
of Ligons study.

Right: Beauford Delaneys


1967 watercolor Untitled
(Cannes) brightens a corner
of Ligons bedroom. A
David Hammons untitled
work from 1972 leans
against the wall at left,
and a 2006 drawing by
Lawrence Weiner, untitled
(crossing the line),
stands near another Franz
West chair.
In Ligons bedroom, a 1999
Alighiero Boetti framed
embroidery sits on top of
the bookshelf on the left,
while Zoe Leonards photo-
graph Two Windows
(2005/2010) and Richard
Princes Untitled (Couple)
(197778) are propped
against the wall. To the
right is the i am a man
posterboard used in the
1968 Memphis sanitation
workers strike.

140
141

Glenn Ligon
Helen
142
Marden
143

Brice
Marden

A view into the sitting


room displays two works
by Helen Marden; on
the left, Holi Indian (1997),
made with paint from
India, and through the
doorway, Untitled (2010),
made with resin and spice.
A selection of textiles
from around the world
contributes to the overall
warmth of the house.
Painters Helen and Brice Marden bought
Rose Hill estate, perched above the Hudson
River in Tivoli, New York, shortly after
September 11, 2001. When they began looking
for an escape close to Manhattan, it was a
natural choice, as Mr. Marden was raised far-
ther down the river in Briarcliff Manor. He
grew up to inherit his fathers fascination with
the tributary and was drawn to the location.
The whole place is so still, says Mr. Marden
of the home. You get up here and theres
this whole thing about it being quiet. You
can listen to the river, you can hear it going
byits amazing.
The Italianate-style house came with
a fanciful historybuilt by John Watts de
Peyster in 1843, it became an orphanage after
his death and was later purchased by Dorothy
Day, who ran it as a communal farm for the
Catholic Worker Movement. There was noth-
ing here, says Ms. Marden, recalling their Helen and Brice Marden in
the dining room of their
first visit to what resembled a rabbit warren, home in Tivoli, New York.
just one hanging lightbulb. [The house] that comes to life in the evening light, and distinguished by stone and brick walls and
looked like it was about to slide into the river. a medieval sculpture of a woman playing with then filled with art and objects. Its my
Now, after a meticulous four-year renovation, a ball made to hang in a dining room. museum of things that are mine that no one
144 the home stands out as a work of art in its Mr. Mardens comprehensive collection else could want but me, jokes Mr. Marden as
145 own rightthe stylish consummation of a life- of scholars rocks also appears throughout he enters an orderly room where one of his
time of inventive design, artistic interests, the nineteenth-century manor. Considered drawings seems to reflect the lines of the
and worldly travels. one of the foremost abstract painters of scholars rock below.
In the sunlit living room, elegant white his generation, Mr. Marden first emerged in The walls of these rooms feature works
plaster walls endow a sense of age and perma- the 1960s with his matte, monochromatic by the Mardens and other artists, including
nence to the architecture, while the dynamic panels. A master with color, he imbued friends Robert Rauschenberg (Mr. Marden
Indian sculptures, African figures, and Berber his paintings with emotional and sensual was his studio assistant for four years), Jasper
carpets add a distinctly lively touch. You can resonance through nuanced hues and Johns, and Richard Diebenkorn. Additional
tell the difference, who bought what, says textured surfaces that included wax. In the works by friends are upstairs, including a work
Ms. Marden, pointing out that her husband mid-1980s his work underwent a dramatic on paper by Francesco Clemente, a drawing
purchased the more understated, gently curved shift as, inspired by Chinese calligraphy, collaged with glitter by Kiki Smith, and a small
ivory sofa, but she selected the colorful textiles he began to draw gestural, looping bands of abstract painting by Cecily Brown.
draped over it, as well as the pillow-strewn color, often using long-handled brushes, The Mardens are born collectors, and in
Burmese daybed in the same room. on single-colored backgrounds. addition to an inn they own on the island
Her vibrant taste permeates the home, It was around this time that he began of Nevis in the West Indies, they have recently
where objects are as likely to come from a collecting scholars rocks. Prized in China for purchased and renovated a small boutique
small shop in nearby Hudson as they are from their aesthetic and meditative qualities, the hotel located near their house in Tivoli.
her frequent trips to Greece or Morocco. Four naturally eroded stones articulate natures Designed with Ms. Mardens impeccable eye,
of Ms. Mardens own small peach, pink, and dynamic impact over time, and for centuries its aesthetic is a pared-down version of their
rose-colored abstract canvases hang above Chinese scholars have kept them in their home and provides another destination for
the fireplacetheir vivid, all-over composi- libraries or gardens. Theres the whole their large art and furniture collection that is
tions pulling out the pops of color in the Taoist thought around [these stones], and displayed throughout the rooms and hallways.
rooms cool, clean design. I just like to build I had been reading a lot of Chinese poetry, They also own property in Pennsylvania, a
an atmosphere for myself; I dont care what which was a big influence on my work, Mr. townhouse in Manhattan, and a vacation home
anyone else thinks, she says, explaining that Marden explains as he runs his hands over in the Greek islands.
shes drawn to more eclectic and beautiful one of the rugged objects. Hes placed some Rose Hill offers a window on two contem-
objects in general. I am not interested in the of his favorite rocks upstairs in his office, a porary artists whose use of color and line is very
history of the piece at all. Im not an academic; serene room located just beyond the dramatic different but equally important: Mr. Mardens
Im interested in the form. Ms. Marden two-story library. careful meditations and Ms. Mardens daring
has also been visiting India for decades, and More scholars rocks are installed in the splashes complement one another in this
she has prime examples of Indian sculpture, restored basement, which was transformed lovingly crafted home. As Ms. Marden puts
including a large seventh-century stone figure into a series of charismatic rooms it, The only unifying theme is us.

Helen Marden / Brice Marden


In the living room, Helen
Mardens Eagles Mere
(2011) hovers above the
English fireplace, accentu-
ating color from nearby
textiles. In the corner is a
medieval Indian sculpture
of a woman playing ball
from a Durbar Hall, and
on the right, tribal African
sculptures fill a side
table next to Bambara
fertility sculptures.

146
147

Helen Marden / Brice Marden


148
149

Opposite: In the living


room, Brice Mardens
4 (Bone) (198788) hangs
above an elegant, curved
cream sofa strewn with
colorful Turkish textiles.
To the left is a Fon Power
Figure from the Republic
of Benin. Helen Marden
selected the textiles, while
her husband chose the
sofa. You can tell the dif-
ference, who bought what,
she says of these choices.

Right: A corner vignette


includes a 1973 work
by Robert Rauschenberg
leaning against a wall
in the dining room next
to a fourteenth-century
relic from Palawa, India.
On the table is a large
terra-cotta Hopi stor-
age bowl from the mid-
nineteenth century.
150
151

Above left: A 1997 work


by Francesco Clemente
leans against a wall in the Opposite: Brice Mardens
sitting room. Nevis Letter 1 (20078)
appears on the first-floor
Above: Cecily Brown gave landing along with a
the Mardens this small seventh-century lingam
2014 paintingnow nestled stone from Cambodia,
in the dining room wet one of more than thirty
baras a house present. that Helen Marden owns.

Helen Marden / Brice Marden


152
153

Opposite: A look through


the Mardens double-
height library into the
serene chamber where
Brice Marden keeps many
of his best scholars rocks.
Helen Marden travels to
Morocco several times a
year, often bringing back
Berber carpets like the
ones in these rooms. Two
of Brice Mardens early
works hang in the library:
Untitled (1966) on the left,
and Arizona (1963) on the
right.

Right: In the brick-


walled basement, Brice
Mardens ink drawing
Japanese Rock (20028)
seems to reflect the lines of
the scholars rocks below.
On the left wall is Brice
Mardens multicolored
drawing Helens Reminder
(20026), and on the right
is his painting Return II
(196465).
154
Marilyn
155

Minter

Under the stairs in the


front hall, one of Mary
Heilmanns first club
chairs, from 2004, wel-
comes guests to Marilyn
Minters home; visiting
children have been known
to hide under the seat. A
2005 pink screen print with
graphic black lines by Sue
Williamsa wedding gift to
Minter and her husband
is installed on Bing
Wrights 2012 wallpaper
Silver on Mirror (For Ron).
The whole house is a trapezoid; there are her most prized possession. The image is portfolio of photographs for the Lily Sarah
no squares in it! Marilyn Minter exclaims challenginga cut-out silhouette of a floating, Grace Fund, a nonprofit that promotes and
as she describes her recently renovated, con- axe-wielding woman ready to strike between funds art in public elementary schools. Minter
temporary home in Putnam County, New the scissored legs of a naked, inverted, hooded asked five of her artist friends to participate
York. Collaborating with Stan Allen, the figure. Its a difficult work, but I find I like art with her. The set of six photographs also
former dean of Princeton Universitys School that other artists would find hard to sell to includes work by Heilmann, Anne Collier, Jack
of Architecture, Minter and her husband, collectors; theres a little shock value to it, she Pierson, Sherman, and Laurie Simmons. An
Bill Miller, connected their existing house says. Minter had originally taken the star edition now hangs proudly in her living room.
to what had been her freestanding studio. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez to see When Minter decided to purchase a coun-
The new construction, which they refer to Walkers show while they were visiting Chelsea try home, she and Miller drew a circle around
as the link, creates a loft-like space ideal galleries. I thought A-Rod might buy it, she Manhattan. The circumference included loca-
for showcasing their carefully chosen art and explains, because I didnt think I could afford tions within a ninety-minute drive from the
furniture collection. to. But I could; I paid it off over two years. city, where she has lived for thirty years. They
Internationally renowned for her paint- Minter likes to curate small vignettes, eventually settled on Cold Spring. When
ings and photography, Minter is a master which she calls corners, throughout her we moved up here, we just said to ourselves,
in the photorealist tradition. She stages pho- home upstate, as well as in her SoHo loft. The We dont want to put anything in this house,
tographsoften close-up, fragmented views Walker hangs on a light pink wall beside David not a pot, nothing, unless its really beautiful.
of women dripping with glittery makeup, Bakers checkered black-and-white oil paint- Minter recalls. We didnt even buy a spoon
fake jewels, and stilettos viewed through a ing. The small Baker canvas is inset in a space unless it was beautiful; we just didnt get any-
pane of wet glassmanipulates the images in almost exactly the size of Mary Heilmanns thing that didnt hold up.
Photoshop, and then faithfully paints the glossy black ceramic piece beneath it.
resulting composition. The cropped images Occasionally when Minter acquires a
depict glimpses of debauched glamour, sug- piece, she already has a location for it in mind,
gesting the seedy side of sexualized female but if not, she weighs different display options,
fashion. Her practice is laborious, often taking moving work around until she finds the perfect
six months to a year to create a single large- placement. Here, its not so much about the 156
scale oil painting. specific piece, but about the artist and whether 157
Im not interested in collecting realist the work fits in the house. She explains,
paintings, she notes. I like things that I cant Whats important is how it looks in reference
do. Sculpture, ceramics, things that are ges- to how the room looks, how the house looks.
tural, because I dont have that mark. Minter is Its much more important than saying, I love
a natural collector, and she began buying art as this piece; lets find a home for it. We create
soon as she started selling pieces in the 1970s. moments here.
Nicholas Krushenick, now widely considered In one bookshelf nook, shes paired a
an important forerunner of the pop art move- painted foam rabbit head by her good friend
ment, was her neighbor at the time and bought Mike Ballou with Joyce Pensatos cartoon-like
Marilyn Minter stands her a drink to celebrate her first gallery show. rabbit charcoal drawing and small sculpture.
against wallpaper of her She later purchased a work by Krushenick that Insisting that she put them together simply
own design in a corner of
now hangs on a double-height wall beside a because she likes the way they look, she also
the new link that connects
her studio to her existing Gerhard Richter print of Mao Tse-tung and mentions that Ballou and Pensato are close.
home. Installed on the wall works by two of her former students, the in- Like all of her arrangements , the installation
is Sarah Szes 2008 paper demand painters Jeff Elrod and Austin Lee. is visually appealing but also reflects her web
construction Notepad.
Whenever I sold something, I bought of relationships.
something, she says with her trademark Heilmann, who introduced Minter to
enthusiasm, mischievous grin, and ready her husband, is well represented in the home. Following spread: An archi-
laugh. Even when I had no money, I bought In the front entry hall Minter has placed tectural bookcase holds two
art. Her trained eye and instinct have served one of Heilmanns first chairs, which she ceramic works by Takuro
Kuwata on bottom shelves,
her well; many of her pieces were purchased purchased soon after it was built. The boxy,
a Murano glass vase, and
before the artists realized commercial success. pastel-colored piece is perfectly situated in Cady Nolands Grenade
On one wall alone, Cady Nolands sculpture front of a large wall covered with Bing Wrights Embedment from 1986.
of a grenade encased in plexiglass (bought silver leaf on glass wallpaper. To complete Above the purple sofa on
the left is Laurie Simmonss
for $600) resides next to Cindy Shermans this corner, Minter has hung a pink print
2010 photograph Love Doll
self-portrait (purchased for $125). Both are given to her by Sue Williams as a wedding gift. Day 1/Day 27 (New in Box),
now worth far more. Minters relationships with all the artists give and on the right, above two
Like many practiced collectors, Minter her collection a very personal dimension. Kueng Caputo stools from
2012, is a 2010 painting
finds her favorite work is usually the most It makes my day, every day, living with the
by Kenny Scharf. Another
recently acquired, but with a little prodding she works of my friends, she says. small work by Kuwata rests
admits that a 2009 Kara Walker is currently Recently, she organized an editioned on one of the stools.

Marilyn Minter
160
161

Left: A striped blue Mary


Heilmann print from 1998
hangs in the living area,
near two of her ceramic
tilesone square and one
ovalover the fireplace. On
the mantle are Jeff Koonss
1998 ceramic Puppy Vase
and Richard Artschwagers
Table (wannabe) sculpture
from 2009.

Opposite: Minter recently


installed this 2009 Kara
Walker collage of cut paper
to the left of a small black-
and-white oil by David
Baker, Mary Heilmanns
black square ceramic, and
a Murano vase.

Marilyn Minter
Mary Heilmanns 1990
painting Seam accompanies
a photography portfolio
organized by Minter to
benefit the Lily Sarah Grace
Fund that includes works
by (clockwise from top
left) Jack Pierson, Cindy
Sherman, Heilmann,
Anne Collier, Minter, and
Laurie Simmons.

162
163

Marilyn Minter
164
165

Left: In a bookshelf cubby,


Joyce Pensatos drawing
(Mouse) from 1993 sits
between Mike Ballous 2013
Bunny sculpture and
Pensatos small sculpture
(Ball) from 2013.

Opposite: In Minters
entrance hall, the 2012 can-
vas Nobody Sees Like Us
by her former student
Jeff Elrod hangs above
Mao, Gerhard Richters
1968 print. Another former
student, Austin Lee, is
represented by Mr. Worry,
a neon-hued portrait from
2013 installed below a 1970
collage by abstract pop
artist Nicholas Krushenick.

Marilyn Minter
Michele
166
167

Oka
D oner

A large drawing in Michele


Oka Doners loft is a study
for a scrim commissioned
by Doha sheikhs who made
their fortune in pearls.
The artist was inspired by
a book on the history of
pearls.
Presiding over Michele Oka Doners expansive, the altar of passion, instinct, of things born, not continues, explaining how the library is
light-filled SoHo loft is a prized seventh- made, things that came out of you, she says. important to her practice. The common
century Khmer Buddha. He looks over carefully McGee also owned the beloved Buddha, denominator is the ideas. Im synthesizing
curated objects as varied as a preserved cicada and when he admired her Twombly drawing, what Im thinking about, trying to crunch
discovered in Japan and a witch doctors amulet she happily traded for it. I can still feel it, that it down. A metaphor would be if we call the
from Mozambique. Gazing over the tabletop moment when I saw the Buddha, says the art- library a garden that is consistently weeded,
arrangement, Oka Doner carefully adjusts sev- ist. It is a choice that may have surprised peers fertilized, and new sections planted. It feeds
eral artifacts, moving one or the other slightly who might have kept the Twombly, but its one me in some way.
left or right until her eye is satisfied. she still feels passionately about today. Her home is a reflection of that meta-
Oka Doners vast collection of objects, The Buddha is at home among dozens of phoric library garden, rife with intelligence,
both organic and manmade, has heavily pre-Columbian artifacts, Mesopotamian seals, ideas, and inquiry. It is the knowledge and
informed her prolific body of work, which Egyptian amulets, Roman buttons, fossils texture of the objects in her home that reso-
ranges from large-scale public installations, found on digs, and other collected treasures nate. We could call the opus a meadow with
drawings, paintings, and sculpture to books, from her travels. The number of objects lots of wildflowerswriting, making public
jewelry, and furniture. Im a hunter-gatherer, displayed on nearly every surface might feel art, making small objects that are ceremonial
she says with a laugh, reminiscing about overwhelming if not for the fact that each for the home. When you mix a perfume, you
her childhood spent combing beaches and piece feels specifically chosen. Even the larger distill the many ingredients into drops, and
streets for shells and other natural treasures items, such as her six Bugatti chairsfour of thats what poetry iswhat art is.
Michele Oka Doner in in Miami Beach. Indeed one of her most which used to be in Andy Warhols studioand
front of a door she made
celebrated installations, A Walk on the Beach the bronze dining tables that she cast herself,
from casting carved wax
in bronze. (19951999), inlays more than eight thousand all work elegantly together.
cast bronze and mother-of-pearl celestial Ancient fertility goddesses, arrowheads,
constellations and sea forms in a terrazzo and fossils collected with her sons adorn many
floor covering more than a mile of walkways of the bookshelves in her overflowing library,
in Miami International Airport, welcoming which is raised several steps off the living
visitors to her hometown in the most per- room, as if to suggest its importance. The 168
sonal of ways. library is truly the heart of the loft, she says. 169
The story of the Khmer Buddha is simi- I have always had a library, even when I was
larly intertwined with Oka Doners personal a child. Here I wanted to re-create the tension
artistic development. She had her first of the graduate stacks in college; that moment
exhibition in 1971 at Detroits Gertrude Kasle when you feel all the knowledge of the world,
Gallery, which was exhibiting the foremost she says.
contemporary artists of the time, primarily The library includes rows of National
New Yorkbased men, in a stark white-box Geographic magazines dating from the late
type space. In lieu of payment for the 1800s, five generations of family books, and
sold-out show, she accepted art, including her own personal collection. The artist works
a drawingjust a scribble she saysby Cy fluidly with her volumes and often peruses the
Twombly, who also showed with the gallery. stacks, pulling out a book to illustrate a point.
Down the hall from Kasle was Gallery 7, Oka Doner is currently designing several
a black-artist collective run by Charles McGee. poetry carts, which resemble library restock-
It was the most interesting space in Detroit, ing gurneys, out of scraps from her foundry.
she explains. He showed African trade beads, This is a working loft, she explains, and its
masks, Yoruba twins. There was so much tex- a reference library. Fittingly for an artist who
ture, physically. All these things, they seemed draws so deeply from organic forms, many
like magic, and I used to gravitate there. of the books reflect her interest in nature, but
By 1975, she chose to show with McGee there are also philosophy, poetry, and history Following spread: A cast-
instead of with Kasle, a move that freed her in publications that all intersect with her practice. bronze table of her own
design is filled with
many ways; for the first time she exhibited her In fact, the large, lacy, sea fanlike draw-
prototypes from the
burial pieces directly on the floor instead of ing covering the lofts back wall, a study for Reef Collection, her 2005
displaying them on pedestals. I never could a scrim commissioned by Doha sheiks, was collaboration with Steuben.
have done that with Gertrude Kasle, says inspired by a book on the history of pearls. A cast-glass radiant disk
holding tropical seeds sits
Oka Doner. She continued to work with more There was an early microscopic photograph
in the center. Fossils, petri-
organic themes, such as germination, sculpt- of what nacre looks like as its put down fied insects, Mesopotamian
ing thousands of clay seeds and pods for later in layers by the mollusk, Oka Doner says. seals, Egyptian amulets,
museum exhibitions in Detroit and New York. It shows how mother-of-pearl becomes Roman buttons, and other
natural-history treasures
What I loved about Charles McGee is that opalescent, and why it has the luster it does,
are carefully arranged on
we worshipped at the same altar. I didnt wor- by catching the light in a very particular way. other tabletops throughout
ship at the altar of making art. I worshipped at My art is the extension of ideas, she the loft.

Michele Oka Doner


Ed ut ipsam rest quam
fugitatem. Epreius eturem
volupta ecuptatur aut occae
intibus aut laut aut
quatiscipsus et, que in
nobitio rehenie niaernam
aped maio blant harum id
quodiaspit quam quam
doluptur re des.
172
173

Opposite: Oka Doner


describes her working
library as truly the heart
of the loft. Designed by
Erich Theophile in 1990,
it holds five generations of
books from both sides of
her family. Yellow spines
of National Geographic
magazines dating back to
the 1890s are visible on
multiple shelves.

Right: On the top shelf of


a library cabinet are three
pre-Columbian bowls from
Ecuador with delicate
paintings of birds and fish
on the interiors. On the
middle shelf, an ancient
white Greek figure is sur-
rounded by Egyptian ala-
baster cups on the left and
an assortment of ancient
beads and amulets on the
right. Animal skulls that
Oka Doner gathered with
her family in Michigan
are on the bottom shelf.
The large example from
a tortoise in the back left,
found in the Yucatn in
1973, began her collection
of skulls.
Oka Doners Khmer
Buddha resides at the cen-
ter of an arrangement
including, on the left, a
goddess from the Caspian
region of Iran flanked by
two silver Japanese parrot
cups. In front of the god-
dess are torso-like coral
and stone forms that she
found on the beach. Several
objects discovered at a
witch doctors market in
Mozambique are on the
right, along with a chunk
of amberevoking the
shape of a handthat is an
ancient tribal piece from
the Baltic region.

174
175

Michele Oka Doner


176
Roxy
177

Paine

A print in Roxy Paines


living area illustrates
various species of coral.
The artist is interested in
its dendritic nature.
Roxy Paine has lived in the Williamsburg Alchemys power of transformation interests mind-altering aspects of mushrooms that is also a smaller, delicate drawing of two
neighborhood of Brooklyn for twenty-five Paine: the way elements are distilled and iso- interested me, says Paine. But its also the mushrooms, and Paine explains that he and
years, but he feels much more at home in the lated and then recombined to create a new regenerative aspects; the transformative, his wife, Sofia, have a larger collection of
rugged outdoors of the American West. My material, such as sulfurs essential role in the transforming aspects. Its about transforming mushroom-themed material at their Upstate
natural habitat would be in the desert, he says, production of gunpowder and gasoline. dead matter into something that is part of life New York residence.
looking toward an open-shelved cabinet in the While in the Dendroid series Paine alters again. Since the late 1990s, Paine has cast Whether mushrooms or rocks, the trans-
living room of his garden-level duplex, which industrial material into what appears to be a lifelike toxic or hallucinogenic fungi and formational elements of what Paine collects
holds his collection of minerals, rocks, and natural form, he has also used natural materials plants in various materials and installed them seem to directly translate to his own practice.
dendritic material. Although his grandfather and altered them with machines. These inven- in fields on the floor or vitrines, work known Thinking about the diversity of ways that
was a trained geologist, Paine was first drawn tions allow him to control the operating system as his Replicant series. these things are formed relates to my work,
to these organic materials at the age of sixteen while leaving the apparatus to make the physi- In a narrow hallway on the garden level, he says, standing next to the shelves that
when he left home and traveled west. First cal, unique objects. For Erosion Machine (2005), Paine, who is also an avid cook, has sev- showcase so many various organic creations.
it was the landscape, and then that drew me to he programmed the instrument to etch sand- eral examples from his large collection of I bring a lot of different kinds of strategies
trying to understand the formation of these stone, resulting in marks that vary based on the mushroom-themed artwork. I always found of formation to bear in different materials.
rocks, he says, explaining his interest in the innate characteristics of the samples density, the Czech educational prints and posters the Its completely different having a computer-
dynamics of earths history. permeability, and age. With this clear reference most graphically beautiful and just stunning generated machine build something, and
Resonating throughout his innovative and to human impact on the environment, Paine is in their composition and detail, he says, then to also build something where everything
expansive practice is the interplay between also questioning the relationship between art- explaining the origin of two large prints hang- is about the fingertip and how it meets a
human activity and natural elements. Focusing ist, machine, and natural elementsa theme Roxy Paine stands beside his ing across from each other. In this room there malleable material in a really meticulous way.
portrait by friend Bruce
on systems of transformation, collision, and that underlies much of his work.
Pearson in the entry hall of
control, Paine has built machines that create A large piece of sandstone that Paine used his Williamsburg townhouse.
unique drawings and, most recently, sculpted in early tests of the Erosion Machine sits next to
a meticulous life-size diorama of an airport a weathered piece of petrified wood on the liv-
security checkpoint from maple wood. He is ing room shelves. He came upon the sandstone
widely known for his tree-like sculptures cre- in the Escalante Desert in southwestern Utah
178 ated from stainless steel rods, pipes, and plates while developing the instrument and later used
179 that have been welded and fashioned into it for tests; the experimental furrows are clearly
branches. Maelstrom, his 2009 installation on inscribed on its surface. In the back garden,
the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hes kept another stone also used to test the
included 10,000 conjoined elements and machine, and here on the denser surface, the
stretched 130 feet long by 50 feet wide. In this etchings are subtler. I wanted to test the differ-
series, titled Dendroids, the works do resemble ent hardnesses of rocks to see what kind of
trees, but the title also refers to a myriad of erosionary forms would develop in them and
natural branch-like or dendritic forms, includ- how quickly, he explains.
ing respiratory systems, neural networks, and Paines shelves also hold examples of
even river formations. meteorite, conglomerate, and volcanic rocks.
Among the materials collected on his I like that each of them comes from a particu-
cabinet shelves is a group of coral pieces that lar place, and I can remember finding and get-
he discovered in Cook Island, New Zealand. ting it from that place, he says. Theyre each
I havent used coral at all in my work, but my a geologic expression of the earth and come
interest in dendritic structures follows through from different ways of formation. Paine goes
to coral, he confirms, pointing to a print on on to explain various geological phenomena in
a nearby wall that illustrates several different detail; sulfurs genesis in volcanically active
coral branching structures. In fact, Paines areas, sandstones compression through heat
Dendroid sculptures sometimes resemble and time, and a conglomerate rocks formation
these marine invertebratesslightly awkward from different stones pressurized with various
tubular forms with jaunty outgrowthsas mineral deposits. The petrified wood is the
much as natural trees. completely other way of being created, he
Also on these shelves is one of Paines explains with the perspective of someone fas-
favorite objects, a large chunk of sulfur that he cinated by how things are made, through an
found for sale tucked away in the corner of an organic material that is slowly replaced mole-
outdoor rock garden in Utah. Im drawn to cule by molecule by minerals, so its a kind of
it partly because of its elemental quality and creation by replacement.
partly because Im thinking about history; the Paine is also interested in the multi-
potential of this element and how its been dimensionality of mushrooms, whose under-
used through history. The alchemists are an ground mycelium networks decompose organic
important component of that for me. Sulfur is material, allowing it to regenerate. Early on
a contained element, but it has this potential. it was the hallucinogenic, psychoactive, and

Roxy Paine
180
181

Left: One of Paines many


examples of mushroom-
themed drawings and
prints in a downstairs
hallway. Im interested
in the idea of something
that has all these poten-
tials for physical, but also
mental, reconstruction
or regeneration, he says
of the transformational
aspects of mushrooms.

Opposite: Shelves in
Paines living room hold
sulfur, sandstone, meteor-
ite, conglomerate, and
volcanic rock from his
collection. The artist is
interested in geologic for-
mation and the role of
different organic materials
in natural processes.

Roxy Paine
182
183

Opposite: Paine has placed


a vertebra removed from
a twenty-five-foot whale
that washed up on a Rhode
Island beach on top of a
rock composition in his
back garden. Surprised
by how strongly it was
attached to the backbone,
he had to use a hacksaw Right: A grouping of works
and machete to extract it. by Paines friends, including
a large gouache using psy-
Above: An example of chedelic text by Bruce
a mushroom print from Pearson, a watercolor and
a Czech educational guide gouache by David Brody,
hangs next to a quick and a text piece by Joe
sketch by former Knicks Amrhein, the cofounder of
coach Jeff Van Gundy Williamsburgs Pierogi
illustrating game plays Gallery. Paine and Amrhein
to his team. Paine, a long- are among four Brooklyn-
time Knicks fan, grabbed based artists recently
the frenetically drawn invited to create labels for
pages while sitting in the a special-edition beer cele-
front row at Madison brating Brooklyn Lagers
Square Garden. twenty-fifth anniversary.

Roxy Paine
Ellen
184
Phelan
185

Joel
Shapiro

Bras de Spectre (1925)a


favorite collage by Jean
Arpand a canvas by
Stephen Mueller join an
early-tenth-century gray
sandstone Khmer torso
next to the fireplace in
the living room of Ellen
Phelan and Joel Shapiros
Manhattan duplex.
I think artists tend to be less interested in sub- especially when it comes to drawings. Im a it has an intense, brilliant vitality that is radi- foregrounded, almost expressionless in a suit
ject matter per se and more interested in struc- big [Arshile] Gorky fan, so most of the Gorkys cal and yet so simple, and also profoundly and tie, against a nightscape of illuminated city
ture and content, says Joel Shapiro. His case were my instigations, says Phelan of the many human and engaging. buildings. As in much of Katzs work, the paint-
in point: the gory and flaccid still life of a Gorky pieces displayed throughout the apart- Many of the couples friends are repre- ings simple lines and composition seem to
rabbit carcass by French expressionist Chaim ment. When asked about their appeal, Phelan, sented in their vast collection, an assembly of capture the subjects essence with ease. Phelan
Soutine that is centered over the fireplace in the former director of visual arts at Harvard some of the most important artists of the late admires the paintings flatness and organiza-
the bedroom he shares with his wife, painter University, quickly recalls de Koonings famous twentieth century. A Jasper Johns grisaille tion and the way Katz can visually describe
Ellen Phelan. Like many of the works that quote about his historic meeting with the crosshatched silkscreen from 1977 greets visi- a person and place with a sparse, minimalist
blanket the grand, double-height duplex apart- painter who would greatly influence his work: tors in the entryway, and several Elizabeth style. Shapiro agrees: It has a simplicity and at
ment (including a Lucian Freud drawing of a I met a lot of artists, and then I met Gorky. Murray watercolors line the study. Two major the same time complexity; its not elaborately
horses head that hangs over the couples bed), But still, it comes back to the line. Shapiro works by Richard Artschwagera large oil fussed with. Hes just so modern.
the painting is defined by an intense and finds a verso drawing, the profile of a womans painting and a wooden-cross sculpture that This is a home for artists who are inter-
dynamic line. head that Gorky drew on the front and back Phelan appreciates for the artists use of illu- ested in what other artists have to say and think
When I saw Le Lapin at the show [at sides of a piece of paper, more interesting than sionary spacehang in the second-floor hall- and who dont take the subject lightly. In fact,
New Yorks Gallery Bellman in the late 1970s], the marks in Khorkom, a better-known Gorky way. And in the dining room, a sizable Julian Shapiro could be talking about the Soutine
I thought it was the most interesting picture. drawing that the couple also owns. Shapiro Schnabel collage is juxtaposed with two other or the profound Jean Arp collage in the living
I would say that in most work, I care more explains that the two iterations in the profile Gorkys, including a brush, pen, and ink drawing room when he says, Artists tend to collect
about the content: the fervor and the attitude are an example of Gorky truly questioning his from 1932 to 1934 titled Column with Objects. work that is essential regarding the under-
of the artist and how that manifests itself in use of line or, as he puts it, a real manifestation An oversize portrait of their friend, silk- standing of the entire process. That it be a mas-
the material. Then you have a real sense of of the search. Khorkom and another Gorky screen printer Hiroshi Kawanishi, painted by terpiece or not, beautiful or not, does not seem
the artist, he says, citing the thick, restless drawing of Leonora Portnoff are interspersed another friend, Alex Katz, commands over like relevant criteria as long as the work is
brushstrokes in Soutines painting. among works by Henri Matisse and Axel Salto the dining table. In the image, Kawanishi is about discovery. Its a privilege to live with art.
Shapiro is one of todays leading sculp- in the red-toned library, a gallery of masterful
tors. His postminimalist works range from works that would be at home in any museum.
early cast-iron miniature houses and chairs, One of the first pieces Shapiro owned is
186 solid and dense with emotional impact, to a small Ashanti sculpture that now sits in the
187 abstracted anthropomorphic forms to his front hall, a gift from his father when Shapiro
more recent monumental hanging assem- was a child. Shapiro would later develop an
blages comprised of simple, colorful rectangu- interest in Southeast Asian art during two
lar shapes exploding through space. His years spent in India with the Peace Corps in Ellen Phelan and Joel
admired public commissions include more the mid-1960s, a time when he decided to Shapiro in their dining
room, in front of a 1981
than thirty sculptures worldwide, including become an artist rather than pursue medicine. collage by Julian Schnabel.
Loss and Regeneration (1993) at the United His interest persists today, and there are sev-
States Holocaust Memorial Museum in eral fine examples of Southeast Asian sculp-
Washington, DC. tures throughout the apartment, such as an
Over the course of her extensive career, eleventh-century statue from Uttar Pradesh
Ellen Phelan has produced paintings of of a Buddhist deva intertwined with a Hindu
plein-air landscapes, still lifes, portraits, deity, as well as a prized tenth-century North
photographic-based work, and doll studies, Indian sandstone sculpture of a male figure
all distinguished visually by their misty focus that sits in the dining room. Shapiro says that
and technical fluidity. The portraits of dolls it was the emotive powers of these types of
are among her more recognized work and sculptures that he then tried to channel into his
are laden with a dramatic psychological own sculpture to convey the intensity of the
quality. Her own antique dolls, some used psychological states.
as models for the works, now reside in Shapiro has recently been spending time
a separate room of the apartment, with her studying a Joan Mir etching from his 1938
Staffordshire figures, dried sea fans, and Black and Red series that hangs over his
other ephemeral collectibles. desk next to an equally compelling Robert
In spite of their acclaim, the couple has Rauschenberg collage and a Lucian Freud
chosen not to live with their own work. Its etching of a mans head. Made in reference to
nice to live with stuff that takes you outside of the Spanish Civil War, the Mir is an energetic
yourself or informs your own work in a more display of red and black biomorphic figures
interesting way. The nice thing about living accented by crescents and calligraphic swirls.
with art is that its slow and it reveals itself over Shapiro, who is also an accomplished print-
time, says Shapiro thoughtfully. maker, marvels at the work, describing in
Though Shapiro tends to gravitate more technical detail how Mir superimposed two
toward three-dimensional work, the couple platesone red, one blackto create a final
agrees that they largely have the same taste, piece that is greater than its parts, adding that

Ellen Phelan / Joel Shapiro


The duplexs red-toned
library. Khorkom (193336)
by Arshile Gorky holds
a place of honor over the
fireplace, flanked by Henri
Matisses drawing Portrait
de Femme (192127) to
the right and Gorkys
Portrait of Leonora Portnoff
(193840) on an adjoining
wall. A 1979 charcoal
drawing by Elizabeth
Murray is on the wall to
the left of the fireplace.
Ceramic works by Axel
Salto appear on either side
of the fireplace.

188
189

Ellen Phelan / Joel Shapiro


190
191

Left: Dutch Wives I, a 1977


Jasper Johns silkscreen,
stands in the entryway.

Right: Edgar Degass


Study of Dancers, circa
1896, lies propped on
a bedroom sofa. Above is
a 1943 untitled oil painting
by Arshile Gorky centered
among works by Martha
Diamond on the top left,
John Torreano on the
bottom left, and a Walter
Gay watercolor.

Ellen Phelan / Joel Shapiro


Alex Katzs 1981 portrait of
silkscreen printer and pub-
lisher Hiroshi Kawanishi
dominates the dining room.
To the left is a 1936 untitled
Gorky ink drawing, and to
the right is a tenth-century
North Indian sandstone
male figure.

192
193

Ellen Phelan / Joel Shapiro


194
195

Above: Near the fireplace,


a 1998 gouache by Sol
LeWitt plays off the
shapes of a sculpture from
New Guinea. Several Opposite: Chaim Soutines
hand axes from Shapiros Le Lapin (1926), mounted
collection are visible on above the fireplace in the
the mantelpiece. couples bedroom.

Ellen Phelan / Joel Shapiro


196
Ugo
197

Rondinone

A stained-glass window,
designed by Urs Fischer
in 2001, faces the living room
on one side and the bath-
room on the other in Ugo
Rondinones Harlem apart-
ment. To the left is Coronation,
Verne Dawsons 2004 small
landscape painting. The chair
is also by Fischer.
Ugo Rondinone lives on the second floor he also owns approximately twenty paintings human condition. He always made a juxtaposi-
of a former Baptist church in Harlem, an by the landscape artist Louis Eilshemius, tion between hard-edged forms and very soft
apartment resplendent with stained-glass a nineteenth- to twentieth-century painter. forms to represent masculinity and feminin-
windows, fleur-de-lis ornamentation, and Hes really the only American romanticthat ity. Two early abstract metallic sculptures
ornate, filigreed chandeliers dangling from is a sweet spot for me, Rondinone says. by Gironcoli are prominently displayed and
forty-foot ceilings. Rondinone is friends with many of the also directly reflect this pointa silvered, con-
The 15,500-square-foot church, which artists he collects and trades with and has cave ovoid hangs near the dining table, while
Rondinone bought and restored in 2011, is an a curators eye for display. In fact, he has orga- a golden pipe-shaped form protrudes over
appropriately imaginative milieu for an artist nized several internationally acclaimed exhibi- the fireplace, the works deliberately placed
as renowned for his fantastical artworks as tions and also curates an ongoing window to relate to each other. In his bedroom,
he is for his productivity. And the church is gallery near his former downtown studio Rondinone continues this gender exploration
more than a home: Rondinone has dedicated where he highlights artists in his collection. with rows of nude drawings by such stellar
the double-height, former congregational One artist hes included is Latifa Echakhch, twentieth-century draftsmen as John Currin,
space to his private studio, while the basement a Moroccan artist whose rug with its center Karen Kilimnik, John Copeland, Joe Brainard,
houses smaller studios for a rotating cast of disemboweled so that only the outline remains and Andy Warhol. There is no pattern to this
visiting artists. hangs near the fireplace and creates an empti- arrangement, he admits, apart from how the
Rondinone works in nearly every form of ness around that resonates with Rondinone. simple aesthetics of the various figures play
media imaginable, producing subjects ranging And while he acknowledges that he finds a off one another.
in size, shape, and subject matter from oversize connection with Swiss artists, there are other Rondinone maintains that every piece he
neon rainbow signs (with tongue-in-cheek, elements Rondinone seeks when trading or owns is of equal importance, emphasizing
Ugo Rondinone in his studio. bubble-lettered mottos such as Hell, Yes (2007) buying art. that he has no intention of selling any of his
on the roof of New Yorks New Museum of Most of these artists create their own artwork. It is always uplifting to live with
Contemporary Art) to small, delicate bronze little world; they create their own iconogra- these worksthey radiate this magical divide
birds; life-size painted-aluminum olive trees; phy, he explains. And most of these artists are between the here and the other side, he says,
round paintings of multicolored target circles; not studio artists; they do not have a big opera- standing in the middle of his own magical
mystical face masks; and even a set of 30,000- tion. Thats what I like. space. It is almost as if Rondinone sees the 198
pound primitive stone figures that once pre- Upon closer inspection, a green and potential in every form, perhaps because he is 199
sided over Rockefeller Center. Though the white stained-glass paneechoing not only so comfortable working in so many media; he
aesthetics of his work vary greatly, there is an the rooms stained-glass windows but also is presently toying with the idea of incorporat-
underlying sense of fantasy that is also felt the stained-glass clocks that Rondinone has ing a preexisting archway in his home into
the moment one enters the monumental lime- installed next to the door of his bedroom a sculpture of a sunrise. In a way, the church
stone church. reveals a toilet and sink in the foreground. itself has provided Rondinone with enough
Its important for me to have art around Designed by fellow Swiss artist and friend space for his ever-expanding artistic pursuits.
me. I consider artists a magical tool, so they Urs Fischer, the image is an exact replica of
empower me, says Rondinone, who began Rondinones bathroom in his former apart-
collecting Swiss artists in the early 1990s ment and Rondinone thought it only appropri-
before broadening his focus. ate to move it uptown. Rondinone also owns
Among an edition of Paul Thek etchings a Fischer sculpture of two rabbits being pulled
framed in individual yellow plexiglass boxes, out of matching top hats by a pair of suspended
Cady Noland aluminum silkscreens, and an hands, as well as several Parkett book editions
early black fiberglass wall relief by Peter Halley Fischer designed that sit on the coffee table.
are some of his own works with particular per- Rondinone has explored the masculine/
sonal significance. Rondinone has kept the feminine divide in his work, a dichotomy that
first works from several of his series; his first has also informed the art he has collected.
olive tree, this one in polyester, stands in the When asked to explain how, he says with a
living room, while his first mask and first bird smile, Just in the Freudian stuff, indicating
sculpture appear in his bedroom. Cady Nolands rubber tire penetrated by a steel
Brightly painted rocks, models for future pole sitting beside Sarah Lucass provocative
larger sculptures, dot the dining table that he pink rubber phallus, Obodaddy II. Theres
himself crafted. I use all the romantic symbols also a little landscape by Verne Dawson that
of nature. Nature is a big part of my work, says Rondinone admires for its fairy-tale aspects,
Rondinone, whose first works were land- pointing out the crux of the story: A prince
scape drawings. I like the force of nature. is depicted copulating with his horse so that he
To that point, he has lined an entire bookshelf can be coronated.
in the kitchen with his collection of scholars Rondinone is deeply indebted to the
rocks that have also inspired some of his own teaching of the Austrian sculptor Bruno
sculpture. And though they are not currently Gironcoli, explaining that Gironcoli was
hanging (Rondinone loves to adjust his art), interested in similar questions about the

Ugo Rondinone
200
201

Opposite: Latifa Echakhchs


cutout rug Frame (2012) is in Following spread: Paul
full view above Rondinones Theks series of etchings
desk. Painted rocksmodels that Rondinone framed
for larger sculpturesdot in yellow plexiglass is lined
the dining table, while the up under the oversize
first olive tree Rondinone stained-glass windows of
Above: Sigh, Sigh, Sherlock!, ever cast, in 1997, is in the the living room. The chairs
a 2004 piece by Urs Fischer, foreground. A sculpture by are by Franz West, while
sits on a table directly inside Bruno Gironcoli protrudes Rondinone himself made
the apartments front door. from the fireplace. the dining table.

Ugo Rondinone
204
205

Opposite: A different view


of the living room. The
chairs are by Gerrit Rietveld.
The space turned out better
than I envisioned it, says
Rondinone. It is almost
a square space; it is very easy
to install in a square space.

Right: The exterior of the


15,500-square-foot church
in Harlem.
206
207

Above left: Cady Nolands Opposite: A 2006 Valentin


tire sculpture (199798) is Carron cross, which
coupled with Sarah Lucass Rondinone calls a bit of a
pink phallus, Obodaddy II Above: A kitchen book- mock, hangs above his bed,
(2010). On the left is Peter shelf houses a selection while a montage of nudes,
Halleys 1990 wall relief of Rondinones scholars including work by John
Stacked Rocks, alongside rocks. They inspire me, Currin, Karen Kilimnik,
two aluminum newsprints says Rondinone, who and Andy Warhol, fills the
by Noland from 1989 and enlarged seventeen into adjacent wall. You see the
1990. Sarah Lucass sculp- sculptures, five of which masculine and the feminine
ture Michael (1999) is the were shown outside the here, explains Rondinone
arm that appears to spring Art Institute of Chicago in about his considered
out of the wall. 201314. arrangement.

Ugo Rondinone
208
Andres
209

Serrano

A seventeenth-century
Spanish sculpture of the
head of St. John the Baptist
lies on a fifteenth-century
Alpine cabinet in the entry-
way of Andres Serranos
Greenwich Village
apartment.
A standard-issue, plain gray metal door greets eventually turned his focus to the medieval you see where people have touched them the
visitors at the entrance to photographer and Renaissance periodsnothing later than most, like Christs feet, says Serrano.
Andres Serranos Greenwich Village home. the seventeenth century, because, as he Serrano spotted the seventeenth-century
But the other side of the door has a decidedly explains, this era pleases him aesthetically. walnut cassapanca partly hidden under a
different look: Serrano has meticulously The Renaissance is the period of highest rug at the home of neighborhood dealer
veneered a seventeenth-century carved oak achievement and civilization in terms of art Maurice Margolis; legend has it that Mikhail
door onto the inside door facing his living and culture, so I feel like you cant go wrong. Baryshnikov had originally been interested but
rooma fitting introduction to a home It feels right to me. they couldnt agree on the price. Stories are
that showcases his extensive collection of A large, wooden crucified Christ, which, behind many of Serranos pieces, such as the
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European according to Serrano, is sixteenth-century throne-like chair that he bought in southern
religious art, furniture, and icons. FrenchI have to trust the auction house England when on assignment photographing
I felt like I had a collection that had a cer- research, he laughsdominates one living Alexander McQueen, or the full-length gilt
tain amount of age, and I wanted to renovate room wall. The figure is hung high, as if over an mirror in the upstairs bathroom, unearthed the
in order to bring in that age, he says of the altar, opposite a seventeenth-century Gothic- last time Serrano was in Belgium for a gallery
broader aesthetic of the home. So Serrano style bishops chair. The tall chair back is indic- show. I never know what I am going to find.
lined the interior walls with pearly Jerusalem ative of the bishops importance, says Serrano, Sometimes I think, Oh, I know why I came to
limestone, installed heavy oak paneling and and he has installed a neo-Gothic carved can- this placeit wasnt for this show, it was to find
floors, and covered arched doorways with opy on top, simply because he thinks that this so I feel like I have a piece of that place.
Spanish and Portuguese tiles so that the apart- the two pieces complement each other. Next Serrano sleeps in an enormous Charles I
ment perfectly reflects a very distinct, Old to the canopied chair, a seventeenth-century four-poster canopy bed that he bought, sight
World aesthetic. The result is a peaceful, serene Spanish provincial giltwood Madonna and unseen, through Christies auction house
space, not unlike the churches he likes to visit Child sculpture is mounted, also above eye in London three years ago, after a heated
on his frequent trips to Europe. levelone of many Madonna and Child icons and competitive auction. Despite a figure of
Serranos palpable love of and interest in Serrano has displayed in the apartment. a Spanish monk that peers out from the wall
religious objects may come as a surprise to Serrano doesnt limit himself solely to next to the bed, the basement bedroom is,
those who remember the controversy and pro- religious objects, however. Secular furniture, like the rest of the home, still and tranquil. 210
tests surrounding his 1987 photograph Piss which he admires for its masculine look and In fact, Serrano describes sleeping in the 211
Christ, a color-infused display of a plastic cru- well-patinaed wood, has also caught his eye seventeenth- century bed like being in your
cifix submerged in urine. The work became over the years and integrates easily with own private box.
a rallying point for conservatives opposing the religious pieces. Curated groupings of As a friend once commented to Serrano
what they saw as the desecration of religious objects appear on the surfaces of this furniture after visiting the apartment, Your aesthetic is
iconography in contemporary art. throughout the apartment. One oak cabinet complete, referring to the quiet dignity of his
The juxtaposition of beautiful imagery features seventeenth-century French real home as well as to how he treats the subject
with controversial subjects is central to estate ledgers, their ruffled pages full of hand- matter in his photographs. I try to make work
Serranos work, and his graceful, even exqui- written notations, set among antique skulls, that feels like you are there with the person [in
site, rendering of troubling motifs, such as the while a French iron box and giant heavy brass the photograph], the way you can almost hear
Andres Serrano at home. anonymous dead bodies in his 1992 Morgue candlesticks top another oak cabinet. a pin drop, like in a church. Work that I feel has
series, can be disquieting. Yet Serrano explains Toward the back window of the living longevity and a classical elementthat is why
and defends his long-held Christian beliefs. room, four antique 4x5 and 8x10 large- I feel at home with these objects, because they
The religious in my work is an homage to format cameras sit atop the photographers give me that very traditional feeling.
the church, and its using the aesthetics and seventeenth-century Italian cassone (or trunk)
language of the church. Because I am an artist intricately carved with flowers. Ive actually Following spread:
who is not that simple, the work has to be been thinking about trying to use them, The main living area of
layered, it has to have the edge and uncertainty he notes of the cameras. Serrano can discuss Serranos apartment,
which he repaneled with
of great art. You dont know what it really with authority how, over time, the cassone salvaged wood from a
means. Ive always said that my work is a evolved into the cassapanca, a bench-like form, nineteenth-century church
mirror and you see what you want to see in which then developed into the modern-day in New Jersey. Among the
objects are a fifteenth-
it. In fact, his 1990 series of the Ku Klux sofaa perfect example of which stands
century English throne
Klan stems from an interest in the transfor- under the sixteenth-century Christ figure. chair (against the left wall),
mative ritual of wearing a robe, whether on Both furniture forms traditionally hide stor- an early-seventeenth-
a Klansman, nun, or priest. age space underneath, which Serrano utilizes, century English oak draw
leaf table, and an early-
A self-described obsessive collector, so the apartment remains clean and nearly
sixteenth-century Franco-
Serrano travels constantly, visiting local empty, allowing the grandeur of his pieces to Flemish marriage chest
auction houses and antiques stores and will fill the room. (against the back wall).
even scour basements and track down elusive The collection is meant to be used, and Anything that I put here
usually does not look out of
owners of seldom-opened shops in search I use everything, even sculptures. If you buy it,
place, because it belongs to
of new treasures. Though he started collecting you can touch it. Dealers explained to me that around the same period,
art deco pieces twenty-five years ago, he these sculptures were touched, and sometimes says Serrano.

Andres Serrano
214
215

Opposite: A seventeenth-
century Italian bench,
known as a cassapanca,
serves as extra seating for
large gatherings. The sus-
pended Christ figure is
sixteenth-century French
and looks over a fifteenth-
century Spanish sculpture
of St. John the Baptist hold-
ing a lamb (on the right)
and a fifteenth-century
religious painting.

Above: A seventeenth-
century bust of a female
saint sits on the mar-
riage chest, among four
seventeenth-century
French real estate
ledgers, accompanied
by eighteenth-century
skulls whose origins are
unknown to Serrano.

Andres Serrano
216
217

Left: A Charles I oak


tester bed from the early
seventeenth-century that
Serrano bought at a com-
petitive auction. He says
sleeping in it is like being
in your own private box.

Opposite: The reverse view


of Serranos living space,
with a row of antique cam-
eras visible on top of
the seventeenth-century
Italian trunk, or cassone,
in front of the window.

Andres Serrano
218
Cindy
219

sherman

An arrangement of works
by Ukrainian artist Sergey
Zarva, originally discov-
ered at a Moscow gallery,
is installed in Cindy
Shermans dining area.
To the left is a ceramic
by Matthew Solomon.
Entering Cindy Shermans duplex penthouse Stockholm-based artist Klara Kristalova sits disgusting but humorous too. Like a horror of magazine covers from Ogoniok, the long-
through her studio, where she tidily stores on a table in the hall under three mummified movie that you just want to laugh at, but its running Russian publication.
decades worth of the clothing, wigs, and masks Barbies by E.V. Day. Its a delicately glazed, also disgusting. Shermans collection also extends into less
shes used to transform herself in photographs, expertly rendered piece of a disturbingly over- Ukrainian artist Sergey Zarva is one of conventional work, including shelves of chil-
you immediately notice that she enjoys living size and misshapen form. Sherman began Shermans favorite finds, and she has a wall of drens toys, an installation of voodoo art, and
with the work of other artists. While her props collecting ceramics about five years ago, ini- his paintings installed in the dining area. She many pieces by outsider artists. The materiality
fill the studio, its the work of friendsSarah tially with the work of Chicago-based Chris was introduced to his work while visiting a and humor in the work and a focus on altered
Charlesworth, Robert Longo, Lisa Yuskavage Garofalo, whom she discovered through a Moscow gallery and later bought additional bodies, no matter the medium, unite the
as well as outsider artists, ceramicists, and blurb in the New York Times. Garofalos porce- pieces at a New York art fair. When she pur- wide-ranging collection. Weird body parts,
younger artists she admires, that fill her walls. lain pieces resemble colorful sea anemones but chased the work, she knew nothing about weird faces, weird hair portraits, weird charac-
I try to support smaller galleries and are, in fact, creations of her own imagination. the artist, and she emphasizes that she knows ters, weird mixing up and mash-ups of the
young, lesser-known artists. Its about how I Their slightly surreal quality is enhanced by little more now. Zarva paints over photo- body are what interest Sherman in art, a fitting
relate to myself as a young artist, she explains, a visual fragility that contrasts with their sharp, graphic images, distorting facial features with draw for an artist who transforms herself so
feeling so excited when Chuck Close came to spiky outgrowths. Once Sherman discovered garish colors and expressions. Shermans completely and convincingly in her own work.
see an early show, or when someone bought them, she explains, I ended up buying about arrangement includes one from his series
something at a really early time. It just meant twenty of them and putting them all over
so much to me. In fact, a characteristic grid- the house. I always feel as if I want to touch
ded self-portrait by Close, now a friend, hangs them and move them around. They are just so
above a worktable in the studio. beautiful. Like sea creatures themselves,
Cindy Sherman in her
Connected to the studio, a hall holds the works are installed on walls and surfaces,
studio among props and
rows of shelves stacked with drawings and spilling out into the space around them. costumes from her work.
photographs. Describing the commonality of Sherman has gone on to buy the work of
the works, Sherman notes: Theres texture, other ceramicists, including both abstract and
a mix of media. For a while I collected a lot of figurative works from the influential teacher
photography, which I tend to do more than Ken Tisa. One characteristic example depicts
220 painting. I relate to photographic images and the head and upstretched arms of a white
221 recognizable things like that. Here, the work figure with a frightened expression, seemingly
is primarily figurative but almost always dis- trapped in a delicate pot. Shes also commis-
torted. A small de Kooning figure is arranged sioned Matthew Solomon, whose botanical-
beside a prized nineteenth-century photo- inspired ceramics she owns, to make a new
graph of Comtesse de Castiglione, an aristo- work for the fireplace in her bedroom.
crat who commissioned more than four In Shermans bedroom, in front of a
hundred portraits by Pierre-Louis Pierson of floor-to-ceiling window, a sculpture by Olaf
herself posing in elaborate costumes, reenact- Breuning takes center stage. Depending on the
ing roles taken from theater, literature, or her reading, its either an angry-faced man walking
own imagination. Below, a 1976 black-and- a submissive, frightened dog, or two figures
white photograph by Laurie Simmons depicts engaged in a sexual act. Constructed entirely
Following spread: An instal-
the blurred face of a doll. Again, the figure of musical instruments purchased from the lation in Shermans living
is present but transformed. discount Chinatown store Pearl River, it room consists of, from
This could be expected from an artist who employs bells, harmonicas, and guitar picks to top left, a work by John
Hiltunen next to a small
has helped define the medium of photography depict the facial expressions of each character. painting by Esther Pearl
and postmodernism by taking on various Breunings subtle manipulations clearly relay Watson, with James
disguised and altered roles in her own images. each characters divergent emotions, an effect Wellings 2010 photograph
Photographys exploration of the line between that is both humorous and disturbing. below. To the right, a large
black-and-white drawing
reality and fiction, and its ability to blur this In certain cases, Sherman follows an artist of a buried man by Dana
separation, is central to Shermans work, for years before she purchases a work. By the Schutz, (Untitled) Dead Guy,
in which she plays the roles of set designer, time she visited a Nicole Eisenman exhibition, from 2003; Michele Abeless
print of an outstretched
costume director, makeup artist, model, and she wasnt able to buy one of the large can-
hand; and an exploding
director. Beginning in 1977 with the immea- vases. I have a bad habit of seeing things the thread piece by Megan
surably influential Untitled Film Stills, her day they are closing, or going the last week of Whitmarsh. Another small
appropriated personas probe questions of the show, she comments ruefully. The portrait Watson lives beside Martin
Kippenbergers 1994 OPreis
collective identity and culture. Diverse depic- she eventually purchased depicts a man who
painting. On the far right,
tions of an array of 1940 to 1950s female film has been blinded by pieces of what Sherman the 1990 fabric piece
archetypesa hitchhiker, femme fatale, describes as flowery things coming out of his Double Flaccid Cat by Mike
and career womanseem almost recogniz- eyeballs. The grassy pieces neutralize the por- Kelley sits above a second
Welling photograph. On
able from their specific narratives but are traits frightening statement. Sherman contin-
the top shelf are Chris
not derived from existing motion pictures. ues: Its kind of funny. Its like my sense of Garofalos ceramics, and on
A newly purchased ceramic head by the humor, a mash-up of things that are gross and the left a piece by Ken Tisa.

Cindy Sherman
224
225

Left: A misshapen ceramic


head by Klara Kristalova,
Nosey (2011), and the legs of
three barely visible mum-
mified Barbies by E.V. Day.
To the left is Morton
Bartletts doll photograph,
and to the right, an Urs
Fischer table holding a Brie
Ruais ceramic.

Opposite: Betsy Bernes


1996 painting Dong
Song next to Otto Pienes
2011 glazed clay piece
The Golden Idaho. Berne,
a longtime friend of
Shermans, is now primar-
ily a writer. Sherman
bought the Piene at a
benefit auction.

Cindy Sherman
226
227

Opposite: Leaning on
shelves among dozens
of works in Shermans
hall is a small sketch by
Willem de Kooning next
to a Pierre-Louis Pierson
photograph of Virginia
Oldoini, Comtesse de
Castiglione. An aristocrat
who commissioned more
than four hundred por-
traits by Pierson, Oldoini
would pose for photo-
graphs in elaborate cos-
tumes, assuming roles
taken from theater, litera-
ture, and her own imagi-
nation. Below at left is
Laurie Simmonss Untitled
(Womans Head) from 1976.

Right: Olaf Breunings We


Only Play Around (2005) is
constructed from musical
instruments purchased
at the Chinatown store
Pearl River.
Sherman has arranged an
assemblage in her bedroom
including, from left, a draw-
ing of houses by her studio
manager, Margaret Lee, and
works by Alexander Ross,
Paulina Olowska, Charles
Long, and Wayne White.
On the bottom row, from
left, shes included artists
Bruce Lieberman, Martha
Rich, M. Henry Jones, and
John Lurie. The sculpture
of the vase with flowers is
by Matthew Solomon.

228
229

Cindy Sherman
230
pat
231

steir

Hanging prominently
above the fireplace in Pat
Steirs living area is John
Cages Fire (1985). Steirs
studio assistant, Alexis
Myre, is represented on
the mantle with Fall (2011)
and, above, Chorus (2009),
the sculpture of upstretched
legs. There are also exam-
ples of cubic pyrite from
Spain that were once rear-
ranged by sculptor Joel
Shapiro during a dinner
party.
Pat Steir, the revered painter of large, lumi- ground. Sometimes I lie on the couch, and important aspects in her practice.
nous, abstract canvases, lives in a handsome I try to figure out where he started, she says of One of Cages prints hangs above a fire-
townhouse overlooking a communal garden the work. I just like the way it looks. place ledge that is lined with objects, including
with her husband, the publisher Joost Elffers. Richard Tuttle also has a site-specific pyrite cubes that Joel Shapiro once rearranged
I dont really collect, she says modestly. work in this room, a delicate tin piece resem- while at a dinner party, a large meteorite, and
I dont like to have too many things. Yet her bling a leaf installed on a light-gray painted works by her studio assistant Alexis Myre and
Greenwich Village home is full of beautiful wall. Its an intimate gesture of thanks from John Newman.
objects and artwork, a testament to both her Tuttle, who stayed with his wife at the town- Across the room, a Frank Gehry cardboard
visual acuity and her five-decade-long career house when they moved to New York. In the table holds sculptures from Japan and China,
as a painter very much at the forefront of same room, a glossy red contoured ceramic and ceramics by friends Mary Heilmann and
her profession. by Lynda Benglis sits among natural artifacts Betty Woodman sit on other tabletops. Above
Best known for her waterfall paintings, and a Kiki Smith twig sculpture on a table the well-used sculptural sideboard hangs a
a series of works begun in the late 1980s where positioned below a painting by Steirs former tableau of works on paper, including an etching
she pours and drips paint onto a canvas from student Ross Bleckner. by Anish Kapoor, an early Josef Albers wood-
a stepladder above, Steir combines a concep- Steir refers to the special works of art that cut, a Robert Mangold collage, and a Stephen
tual approach with painterly gesture. I picture have been given to her as love giftssuch as Mueller painting. There is also an etching by
it in my mind. I figure out my colors, the size Smiths etching of birds flying around a rising her friend of fifty-four years, fellow abstract
of my pouring, my layers, and then I do it. I figure, which she discovered one day rolled up painter Brice Marden. I was like the girl who
visualize and control it. The paint moves down in her mailboxand typically these offerings had a smart older brother with her, she says
the canvas, interacting with existing layers have stories, sometimes simple, sometimes with a mischievous smile, recalling when she
of paint and creating intentional and uninten- dramatic. In her kitchen, several early Bernd first socialized with Marden in college. Now I
tional results. and Hilla Becher photographs of industrial think that my painting hanging with Brices
The role of chance has played an important landscapes recall a 1978 trip to visit the couple in the MoMA is like a feminist statement. But
part in Steirs life, just as it has in her work. in Dsseldorf. Steir was driving late at night, just as important, its also an art statement; art
In 1968 an unexpected meeting led to a sponta- and, as she remembers: I drove up on the is art.
neous but monumental change of course. wrong side of the autobahn, and Sol was 232
I was at a party with Bruce Nauman, she screaming so loud, it was like white noise. A 233
recounts. Bruce said, Im having a retrospec- truck stopped this far away [she gestures about
tive in Pasadena; do you want to come? The a foot] from us, facing us, and the police came,
next day I packed up the car and left. and they let us back onto the other side, and
What was intended to be a short visit was they didnt arrest me or even give me a ticket;
extended when John Baldessari invited her they gave me a lecture. They continued on
to speak at CalArts. John had signs all over to their destination, and when Steir arrived,
the building that said somewhat famous artist the couple gave her the photographs in an
giving a lecture, says Steir. The lecture was attempt to calm her down.
a success, and the school hired her to teach Steir notes that the groundbreaking
Pat Steir in her second-floor painting. She then agreed to housesit for the composer, writer, and artist John Cage has
parlor in front of Sol Naumans, where, she was told, another artist had an immense impact on her work and
LeWitts wall drawing from
was also staying: Sol LeWitt, the influential became a close friend over time. Two of the
August 1994.
conceptual artist, with whom she would have only works she has purchased include his
a lifelong friendship. Fire prints, prime examples of Cages method
As a result, dozens of LeWitts works of indeterminacy. To create these pieces,
from various points in his career appear the artist set fire to papers on a printing press
throughout Steirs townhouse, including a in a method dictated by the I Ching, an
very early piece from the late 1960s in her ancient Chinese method of divination, which
entryway: a triangle-shaped drawing with sin- Steir describes as similar to dice throwing.
uous graphite lines framed by the artist him- This theory of randomness also greatly influ-
self. When Steir moved to the townhouse in enced Steir when she began her method
1993, LeWitt conceived one of his signature of pouring paint.
wall-size works as a gifta large circle of I was always interested in Chinese land-
tightly drawn white crayon scribbles on a scape and brushstroke painting, where the
bright yellow basethat now dominates her calligrapher would meditate on his poem and
second-floor parlor, diffusing a warm light his brushstroke, and he would just sit until he
throughout the room. was ready, Steir says. He would eat and drink
Hanging on a nearby wall is another large- and sit and look at the paper, and suddenly he
scale work by LeWitt that Steir admits is would get up and do his work. I emulate that
one of her favorites, a work on paper depicting process. She also credits Cage with her inter-
dense white undulating lines on a dark blue est in Buddhism and meditation, both still

Pat Steir
234
235

Opposite: Sol LeWitts


White Crayon Scribble Lines
on a Yellow Wall installed
Above: A 1988 print by August 1994, was created
Anish Kapoor overlooks a meteorite, and mud balls as a gift when Steir moved
pot made by Hojin, a Zen made by James Lee Byars, to her townhouse. In front
monastic, a George Ohr Tom McEvilley, and Eric is an array of fossil stones,
ceramic, stones (including Orr in Egypt. On the far and on the left wall is a
gifts from Joan Jonas), two right is a 2003 sculpture by wooden Dogon elephant
Indian lingams, a piece of Kiki Smith. mask.

Pat Steir
238
239

Left: A close-up of Richard


Tuttles Peace and Time
#3 (1993), composed of
a delicate tin sculpture
installed on a gray wall.
Previous spread: Above a
Frank Gehrydesigned Opposite: A view of the
cardboard table filled with second-floor parlor shows
Japanese and Chinese Richard Tuttles installa-
pottery, Steir has arranged tion and Betty Woodmans
a grouping that includes large ceramic Winged Vase
her 1974 print The Burial (198990) on the window-
Mound, and below from sill. A small, ceramic Mary
left, an Anish Kapoor etch- Heilmann tile is to the left
ing, a Josef Albers wood- of the mirror. Navajo rugs
cut, a 1986 Brice Marden are thrown over the sofa,
etching, a 1977 Robert next to wooden furniture
Mangold collage, and a pieces from India, China,
Stephen Mueller painting. and Guatemala.

Pat Steir
240
241

Opposite: A view of the Above: In the second-floor


living area includes Kiki parlor, a 1993 painting by
Smiths large etching Mid Steirs former student Ross
Heaven (2007). Mary Bleckner hangs over a table
Heilmanns teacup and holding Lynda Bengliss
saucer share the table with 2013 ceramic wong-ge.
Betty Woodmans ceramic Also on the table are snail
plates. The piano holds fossils, ancient arrow-
another work by Woodman heads, a tree fossil, and a
and a framed drawing by tree twig sculpture made
Elizabeth Murray. by Kiki Smith.
242
Mickalene
243

Thomas

An untitled 2010 collage by


Dani Leventhal hangs over
a pair of desks in Mickalene
Thomass living room.
What I appreciate about
Danis work is the sense
of the freedom and intu-
itiveness she has with the
element of chance, says
Thomas. Her work comes
out of the formal aspects
of collage makingvery
organic but direct.
I am always looking at people who work areits a personal relationship with who they three-dimensional, playful portrait. He just Afro set against a bright blue background,
out of collage, at how they pull these forms are when you bring art into your home. has a way of bringing political aspects to his which sits on the mantelpiece and reinforces
together and how they exist in the world. In a corner of her dining room hangs work that are powerful with a sense of humor, the identification Thomas feels with Taylor.
How they bring the forms back to their a small Huma Bhabha work on paper, a photo- but really allow the viewer to come into the A lot of people dont realize that I started
practice and what they make of them, says graph of a sphinx collaged over a washed-pen- work without feeling like you are getting hit as a prolific painter painter like Henry, so when
Mickalene Thomas during a tour of her and-ink drawing. Thomas discovered Bhabha over the head. But then again, he is hitting I look at artists, its a part of who I am as an
colorful, art-filled Brooklyn brownstone. early in the Pakistani artists career and pur- you over the head to make you think about the artist anyway, she says.
As she discusses the many collaged works chased this drawing at a gallery show. She just complexity of his work. While collage specifically allows her to
she owns, predominantly by her friends and has a great sense of her materials and how A panoply of richly colored artworks tackle complicated questions and explore the
peers, she continues, Its like we are all to use them. They are just smart and viscerally rotate on the walls of her daughter Junyas bed- concept of identity, Thomas also feels that the
different cooks, and we have the same recipe, phenomenal. I could look at them forever, room. Among Kiki Smiths print of a blue bird idea of collage is universal. Were all related
but its how we execute it. Mickalene Thomas in front
she says, revealing that she would someday like and collage pieces by Thomass former assis- to collage; were sourcing from a world that is
of a Huma Bhabha 2010
Thomas often uses the aesthetic of collage to own one of Bhabhas much-sought-after ink-on-color photograph.
tants are two of Thomass own early works, very complex and amalgamated, and it doesnt
in the large-scale photographs, paintings, sculptures. I love that its a photo- small oil paintings of featureless black women. make sense, but we are all different people,
prints, and mixed-media pieces she fashions On a nearby wall is a small Leslie Hewitt graphic work and the The works play off another, smaller Henry and we have to find ways of fitting together.
collage painted on. From
in her nearby studio. Her work often confronts photograph, from her Riffs on Real Time Taylor painting of a featureless woman with an We are collage.
a distance it looks like a
the traditional objectification of women series. A photo of a blurred landscape sits atop beautifully painted water-
throughout popular culture: female subjects a red book cover that is then placed on top of a color, she says. Humas
will boast large Afros, gold hoop earrings, and grainy wood surface, creating a collage with an work inspires me and
makes me want to be
halter tops and are carefully posed in clothes illusion of three-dimensionality that Thomas
a better artist. Its every-
and settings that allude to sources as varied as admires. I love the presentation of her photo- thing I love about art.
blaxploitation films and classical art history graphs. Shes a fantastic conceptual artist. Her
scenes. Her elaborate backgrounds are often work is beyond photographyits sculptural, its
riotously colored and patterned, and then tex- painting, its poetic and complex. Its literature,
tured with applied enamel and her signature its site specific, says Thomas.
244 dazzling glitter, crystal, and rhinestones, fur- On the other side of the dining room fire-
245 ther pushing the viewer to explore the many place is a portrait of a standing female figure
layers of beauty depicted. in profile, one stilettoed leg bent and propped
I think there are political aspects in my on a ball, her hair in a tight knot. Its a collage
work, especially with the paintings of women by Wangechi Mutu, a Kenyan artist who is also
with the Afros; it was the black womans stance one of Thomass closest friends. Thomas has
and prowess, Look at me, take all of me, this is positioned the work so that sunlight stream-
who I am, she explains. ing in from the window illuminates the globu-
Similar themes of identity also appear lar spheres of white light that float within
throughout her collection. A delicate Olaf the lines of the subjects body. In Thomass
Breuning drawing of a womans head with an opinion, Mutu is the best artist out there
oversize Afro lives next to her bed, and three today who works with these elements of col-
card-size portraits by the Malian photographer lage and form and the figure. Directly under-
Seydou Keita, known as the father of African neath Mutus work, Thomas has arranged
photography, are installed over the water a shrine, the center of which is the urn for
cooler in her kitchen. The photographs, her beloved mother, Sandra Bush, who
Thomas explains, date from the 1950s and often served as a model in her work, further
represent one of the first times that an African adorned with a vase for incense and orange
photographeras opposed to a colonial pho- prayer beads Thomas bought in Beijing.
tographerdocumented his own community. A large painting by her friend Henry
The photographs were then used for passports, Taylor hangs in her living room. It reveals
as well as for family records. a human form, seen from behind, in a some-
Thomas began collecting early in her what awkward position, and in a room that
career, mostly buying works on paper. And vaguely resembles a bathroom; Thomas
while it is meaningful to her to collect African explains that she bought the piece because
American artists, she says it is the work itself she liked its very layered and gestural painting
that is of paramount importance. She now reg- technique as well as its humor, reminiscent
ularly visits other artists studios and exhibits of Taylors distinct powerhouse personality.
and looks for art that draws her into conversa- Taylors humor is further evidenced in
tion and dialogue. I collect artists I respond a white Kleenex box that he designed
to and think, I wish I made that, adding that with an O-shaped hole open to the letters
I look for things that I havent necessarily b-a-m-a insidein combination, they
seen out there, and it tells me a bit of who they spell the name of the president in a clever,

Mickalene Thomas
246
247

Left: To the Left, a


2006 collage on Mylar
by Thomass friend
Wangechi Mutu, rests
over an arrangement
of objects in honor of
Thomass late mother
and muse, Sandra Bush.

Opposite: A view of
Thomass living room.

Mickalene Thomas
249
249

Opposite: Another collage


by Dani Leventhal, Squirrel
and Oval (2010), adorns a
bedroom wall.

Above: We Need More Than


Luck (2010) by Thomass
friend Henry Taylor anchors
the seating area of the living
room. Underneath is his
constructed Kleenex box,
Obama, a playful 3-D repre-
sentation of the presidents
name. He just has a way
of bringing political aspects
to his work that are powerful
with a sense of humor, but
really allowing the viewer
to come into the work
without feeling like you are
getting hit over the headbut
then again, he is hitting you
over the head to make you
think about the complexity
of his work.
250 250
251 251

Above: A montage in the


bedroom of Thomass
daughter includes Kiki
Smiths Dead Blue Bird print
with glitter from 2010 and
several works by Benjamin
Lindquist. Two of Thomass
early paintings from 2000,
women without facial fea-
tures, bookend the middle
row. Jake, a painting by Sam
Messer, Thomass professor
at the Yale School of Art, is
on the bottom right.

Opposite: Olaf Breunings


2008 drawing resides next
to Thomass bed.

Mickalene Thomas
252
leo
253

Villareal

On a coffee table in Leo


Villareals loft, Rachel
Feinsteins wood sculpture
of a knight on horseback
stands on a base carved in
the shape of the number
4in honor of Villareals
son. Adam McEwens
glow-in-the-dark painting
Dresden (Phosphorbrandbombe)
II (200612), made with
phosphorescent paint and
chewing gum on aluminum,
radiates in the background.
Among the most spectacular public art instal- fantasy world she creates, merging her history when the invisible becomes visible. Its some-
lations in recent memory is The Bay Lights and art history, he says of Feinsteins work. thing I think a lot about with my work, he
in San Francisco. The work, which debuted in Large canvases by other important con- says.
2013, features twenty-five thousand sequenced temporary artists line the walls of their Villareals first purchases were an early
white led lights that illuminate the San expansive, brick-walled West SoHo loft. Lisa drawing and photograph by Matthew Barney,
FranciscoOakland Bay Bridges western Yuskavages iconic triptych, Blonde, Brunette, who studied art at Yale University at the same
span from dusk to dawn, a dazzling animation Redhead (1995), anchors the dining area where time as Villareal. An example of Barneys guil-
of the Golden Gates often-overlooked sister Villareal knowingly deconstructs Yuskavages lotine series from 1993, a set of seven small
bridge. Designed by Leo Villareal, the creator use of geometric forms as bases for each mod- color photographs of two wrestling satyrsone
of other light-based works, such as Multiverse els depiction. A triangle is used for the blonde, of the artists first experiments with costumes
(2008), an underground concourse at the a cylinder for the brunette, and a circle for the and mythologyis suspended in a row directly
National Gallery, and the honeycomb-shaped redhead, he explains, revealing how the artist over the couples bed. Ive had this since
Hive (2012) at the Bleecker Street subway borrowed the color palette from the classically before I was married, and its always been
station in New York City, The Bay Lights is feminine British designer Laura Ashley. above my bed, because I feel that Matthew
the largest light sculpture in the world and Yuskavage is another close friend of the couple, works on this dreamy, deeply psychological
a dynamic offering to the areas residents. who also own another yellow-palette work level, and whenever I see one of his films, it
It seems like its a golden age for public art from the same series, as well as smaller draw- affects my dreams intensely, says Villareal.
right now, says Villareal. In order to compose ings and paintings, several, in fact, of Force. Despite the mix, as Villareal describes
the San Francisco projects design, the artist Yuskavage even sculpted the figures that their collection, an overall aesthetic cohesive-
first did a cable walk of the bridge to study the adorned the couples wedding cake. ness emerges in the predominance of boldly
bay and then set out to invent a piece whose A bronze floor sculpture of a pair of mon- painted canvases. As Villareal puts it,
lights reflect the energy and oscillation of the keys by another friend, Sean Landers, is situ- We have a lot of work that is very different
water below. I see technology as an artists tool ated under Villareals own Big Bang (2008) from what I would make, but I dont see it as
for art making, explains Villareal, comparing spiral light sculpture. The kids love to climb that different. I think my work is very painterly
his use of custom-programmed computer on it, laughs Villareal, and its a pairing and deals with a lot of classical issues of
algorithms to control light movement to the that, to him, invokes associations with the abstraction so I see all the connections. 254
intuitive way one plays a musical instrument. classic sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. 255
You can almost play the software. He also appreciates Landerss humor in The
The Villareal household has contrib- Insomniac, a 1997 painting of a bird-nosed,
uted to public art in other important ways: feather-necked creature against a background
Villareals wife, Yvonne Force, is the of neatly printed, stream-of-consciousness
cofounder of Art Production Fund, which phrases. I am interested in humor and some
commissions and produces large-scale public bad-boy artist stuff, he says, which perhaps
art projects throughout the country. The explains why Landerss painting resides in
two first met at A/D Gallery, where they dis- the foyer with a Dash Snow found photograph
covered they had each bought an oversize of a young girl collaged with a campaign but-
Leo Villareal sitting with John Chamberlain carved-foam sofa. Forces ton (it reminds Villareal of the old-fashioned
the family dog, Puffbaby, in was covered in parachute material, Villareals portraits he grew up with in Texas but with
front of Rachel Feinsteins
in brown suede; Forces still holds a place a little edge), as well as a Dan Colen triptych
Rhoda mirror painting
from 2008. of honor in the center of the living room. of bird-shit paintings.
Art has intertwined into our story very Two works by Alex Katzone a drawing
deeply, says Villareal. of the couple on their wedding day, and the
As a result, the couples artwork, which other a large oil portrait of the couple against
they often rotate and loan out to exhibitions, a rose-colored backgroundfurther reveal the
reflects both their deep art-world friendships pairs intimate connection with their art. Katz
and backgrounds. Its one big mix, says has called the portrait a real meatball, accord-
Villareal, adding, I think thats the really excit- ing to Villareal, meaning that Katz was pleased
ing part: When you put art together with other with its outcome. Next to the flat rendering
art, it then becomes the ultimate material. is a silkscreen by Nate Lowman and Adam
Noting their friendship with artist Rachel McEwan; a Carol Bove peacock piece; and two
Feinstein, he points to a wood sculpture of paintings by Rudolf Stingel, one a large red
a knight on horseback resting on a base carved textured abstract, the other a small self-por-
into the shape of the number four. This sculp- trait. On the opposite wall hangs a large-scale
ture was a gift for their son, Leo IV, known as Adam McEwen glow-in-the-dark painting,
Cuarto (which means fourth in Spanish). with affixed pieces of gum. Though Force dis-
It sits on a coffee table in the living room, near covered the piece, its in tune with Villareals
Feinsteins oval mirror painting of an elderly light-artist sensibility. I love experiential work
woman holding a parasol. I love the whole and things that deal with illumination and

Leo Villareal
256
257

Lisa Yuskavages triptych


Blonde, Brunette, Redhead
(1995) hangs to the left of the
piano. John Chamberlains
oversize carved-foam
couch from 1969, swathed
in parachute material,
is positioned in the center
of the living area.

Leo Villareal
258
259

Opposite: Villareals circu-


lar light sculpture Big
Bang (2008) hangs above a
sculpture by Sean Landers,
Singerie: Le Sculpteur
(1995). On the right wall
is an untitled 1997 painting
by Alexander Ross.

Right: Altima Bomber


Harris (2006), a gum and
silkscreen ink on canvas,
a collaboration by Nate
Lowman and Adam
McEwen, hangs to the left
of a portrait by Alex Katz
of Villareal and his wife,
Yvonne.
Matthew Barneys photo-
graphs Envelopa: Drawing
Restraint 7 (Guillotine)
(1993) are suspended above
Villareals bed. Ive had
this since before I was mar-
ried, and its always been
above my bed, because
I feel that Matthew works
on this dreamy, deeply
psychological level, he says.

260
261

Leo Villareal
Ursula
262
263

von
Rydingsvard

A close-up of African
knives and teapots from
China and Japan coexist
on a bookshelf in Ursula
von Rydingsvards
Manhattan apartment.
When Ursula von Rydingsvard explains why craftsmanship and cultural purpose, and she smoke still emanating from the mask that is so
she loves the distressed look and feel of one often labels the insides of her possessions with resonant of Africa.
her many African masks, cast-iron Chinese the country of origin. Rows of hundred-year- The soft-spoken, elegant sculptor has been
teapots, or woven market baskets, she could old teapots line shelves in a guest bedroom, known to follow one of her favorite Nigerian
be describing the very physical appeal of her organized by their size and shape rather than dealers from the Twenty-Fifth Street flea mar-
own world-renowned, large-scale wood by nationality. The smaller, more delicate mod- ket to a rented storage unit just to examine
or cast sculptures. A small crew of assistants els tend to be Japanese, while the squatter ones and buy more of his imported gemsa Gabon
helps her piece together these massive works, are Chinese, and the smallest are Japanese sake tribal mask or a set of small figurines from
while she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and pots. Though von Rydingsvard has never used the Nandi tribewhich have found sanctuary
laminates, finally rubbing powdered graphite any as utilitarian objects, the sculptor in her among her possessions.
into the works textured faceted surfaces. clearly enjoys examining their construction. Though the objects and materials in her
The resulting piecesoften on display in pub- Cradling one pot in a loving but almost clinical apartment hail from many corners of the globe,
lic forums as varied as the Storm King Art manner, she reveals an undercarriage designed a tangible feeling of age and substance unites
Center and Brooklyns Barclays Center for a fire so that sake could be reheated when them. Von Rydingsvard is always searching for
feature tactile surfaces distinguished by a one was traveling; another has sweet hinges something indescribable yet specific to her
handmade appearance. In fact, her chiseled shaped like hands to grasp its top; and a third sensibilities. And she only knows it when she
cedar sculptures, covered with surface texture features coin decorations used to bring the sees it. When I bring something home, I cant
and often partially blackened with graphite, drinker good luck. wait to hang it up or live with it or see how it
Ursula von Rydingsvard in naturally age and evolve over time, an effect Perched carefully among the teapots are feels to live with, so I think the joy is not in how
front of one of her beloved
heightened in the outdoor work. two particularly prized African knives. Again, it gets here or even the history of that, but its
textiles hung over her bed-
room door. Similarly, von Rydingsvard is attracted to von Rydingsvard admires what she calls their something else. It makes me feel like I have
objects made from organic material with a beaten-down appearance and functionality, a greater support in my own home, that it is
well-worn patina and a definite sense of grav- especially the scythe-shaped cutter, made more welcoming, that it is more interesting.
ity and purpose, an appreciation perhaps born to spiral through the air as it is thrown at its
out of a childhood spent in postWorld War II desired target. And though she demonstrates
German refugee camps. She forages flea mar- by fake-tossing the knife, she sees in its design 264
kets around the world, from Manhattans and dilapidated edges an object of beauty 265
famed scrum on West Twenty-Fifth Street to rather than menace. Theres something that
the crowded stalls in Beijing, which she first happens to the surfacesit had to be pounded
visited twenty years ago. That was the best; in [to] the shape, its so full of honor and full
the flea markets were loaded. I went again of want, she comments, caressing the undulat-
maybe ten years later, and they were already ing wave of its steely surface.
depleted, and recently there wasnt anything Back in the dining room, among a Dogon
that you would want to get your hands on, she monkey mask peeking out from a wall and
says with a sigh. Though the pieces shes cho- a large mother-and-child sculpture from
sen may seem primitive to the untrained eye, the Makonde tribe in Tanzania, are a dozen
von Rydingsvard quietly asserts that these square-shaped Tibetan sticks of various
craftsmen were as talented as any of us. lengths, meticulously lined up and hung over
Von Rydingsvard is also drawn to textiles, the sideboard. Appropriately enough, the
admiring their handmade intricacy. Pulling sticks were used in temples for stamping
out a delicate kimono from a stack stored in symbols on the surfaces of food during certain
a high chest in her living room, she points out holy days. Von Rydingsvard bought them all
its worn structure, remarking: Things like this at the same time in Beijing, attracted to the
teach me about my own surfaces, the kind of repetition of their inscribed symbols, which
wear that has credibility and gives the objects reminds her of how she would count Hail
this kind of history. In an almost ritualistic Marys on rosary beads during her Catholic
routine, von Rydingsvard likes to practice upbringing in Poland. As a young girl, von
folding and unfolding her textiles, especially Rydingsvard had wanted to be a nun. Now,
the black funeral kimonos adorned with family though she is no longer a practicing Catholic,
insignias, in an attempt to re-create how she is still attracted to and collects religious
the Japanese have performed this similar icons, displayed both in her bedroom and in
ceremony for centuries; only when she has a shrine-like arrangement in the front hall.
achieved the perfect fold is she satisfied Von Rydingsvard is particularly intrigued
that the fabrics are now at rest in the positions by the design of her deeply grooved, wooden
for which they were originally designed. African masks, showing on one how the carver
And yet von Rydingsvard is not particu- used the same line for the eyebrows to con-
larly interested in the backstories of the objects tinue down the face for the beard. She savors
she collects. Rather, what fascinates her is their these little moments, like the faint smell of

Ursula von Rydingsvard


A row of carved wooden
sticks used in Tibetan tem-
ples for stamping symbols
on food during holy days
are neatly lined up over
a sideboard in the dining
room.

266
267

Ursula von Rydingsvard


268
269

Opposite: Von Rydingsvard


has paired Russian icons
with an African bellow from
Gabon (on the right wall)
and wooden spoons and
bowls from Africa to form
a shrine-like tableau in the
apartments entryway.

Right: A Turkish rug is


draped over a leather chair,
in front of a cabinet that
houses Von Rydingsvards
collection of Kuba cloths,
antique Japanese kimonos,
and other neatly folded
textiles from Japan, China,
and India. Dolls from
Tanzania and China also
appear on the shelves.
270
271

Opposite: Von Rydingsvards Rydingsvard has arranged on top of the suitcase are
friend, Puerto Rican sculptor a colorful beaded African U.S. Army blankets she
Charles Juhasz-Alvarado, cap (top shelf, center) with used while staying at
designed the cabinetry Japanese cast-iron teapots German refugee camps
using a variety of rare woods. below, next to an Ashanti after leaving Poland. The
Above: A Kuba cloth hangs Among a white clay box stool from Ghana on the cardboard suitcase and
next to a wooden mask and the plaster-cast hands far right. On the bottom books are also remnants
from Gabon on the right. made by her daughter, Von row, the folded blankets from that time.

Ursula von Rydingsvard


Image Credits Acknowledgments Editors: Andrea Danese and David Cashion
Designer: Jeanette Abbink, Rational Beauty
pp. 1017, Courtesy of Josh Smith and Luhring Augustine, New York; We would like to thank the countless people Production Manager: Denise LaCongo
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