Art in the Pearl #1

For the past six months I’ve been working on a condo at Tanner Place in the Pearl District. The clients are major art collectors, and have always lived in very contemporary spaces, so it was my challenge to integrate their collection of contemporary art into a space that included very traditional elements, such as dark cherry and white painted millwork.

I’ve always loved the definition of art  by Thomas Hoving, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:  “Art is when anyone in the world takes any sort of material and fashions a deliberate statement with it.”  He also emphasizes that art appreciation is subjective, and that is what this post is about.

The clients showed me photos of their art collection–one of their favorites is an original Andy Warhol silk screen of Mickey Mouse.  Their intention was to put it above the fireplace, but the scale didn’t seem right to me, so I thought it would be fun to put it in the dining room, on a red background so that the iconic black-and-white figure would pop.   Here’s my concept sketch of the space:

Kathia's concept sketch of living room and dining room

My original plan was to hang a chandelier over the dining table, which as you can see from my sketch, cuts off part of Mickey’s head.  An alternative was to use an ethereal glass sculpture by Anna Skibska, suspended from the ceiling and illuminated by the recessed ceiling cans.  These two magnificent pieces of  art now co-exist in the same space, and enhance each other (see below):

AFTER: View of living room/dining room from entry

Here’s a close up of the dining room:

Andy Warhol silk screen with Anna Skibska glass sculpture

It’s been such a fun project, that I can’t wait to share more with you. Coming soon: “Art in the Pearl #2.”

There are 2 Comments to "Art in the Pearl #1"

  • Jim says:

    I love the ethereality of Skibska juxtaposed against the down-to-earthiness of Warhol. In other dining room presentations, Mickey might overwhelm the food, but here he is well-balanced.

  • Kathia, what a wonderful solution to put both pieces of art work – one in conjunction with other – without compromising the beauty of either one, even when seen from the parlor. Brava! Keep up the instructive posts. Love ’em!

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