What We Can Learn From Art Collectors
Be courageous and focus on works that make you happy to achieve a personable and liveable home with art in its heart
Bettina Deda
11 March 2015
Houzz Australia Contributor. Design and copy writer, designer & stylist, collector of beautiful things, passionate about colour, interiors and art. Beauty and gratitude are my top personal values. The Art Gallery of NSW is a second home. The perfect weekend is browsing flea markets and antique shops. I love green tea. I am the proud mum of two lovely (wild) boys. Yoga and meditation have helped me step out of my comfort zone and experience new things.
Houzz Australia Contributor. Design and copy writer, designer & stylist, collector... More
One of my favourite exhibitions during Art Month (running until March 29) is Collectors’ Space, a celebration of private art collections with works that have not been seen in public before.
Being an Art Month Ambassador, I was privileged to visit a couple of art collectors’ private homes in Sydney last year. As part of the Harry Seidler exhibition, Painting Toward Architecture, I also attended a tour through Penelope Seidler’s apartment in The Rocks. Each home had a very different style, but they had one thing in common: they were personal and liveable homes; homes with heART. They were colourful, layered with texture, and fascinated the visitor with an unpredictable placement of artwork throughout the home. Three-dimensional objects stuck out on living room walls, sculptures decorated side tables, shelves, and windowsills, and a video installation, almost randomly placed on the floor, had meditative effects on the viewer. The juxtaposition of kitsch objects, unknown painters and famous artists’ works next to each other made the arrangements even more intriguing.
You don’t need a huge budget to create a personal and liveable home with heART. Courage and creativity will help you come a long way. And, as the American neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin writes in his new book, The Organized Mind, “The engagement with art as either creator or consumer helps us by hitting the reset button in our brains. Time stops. We contemplate. We reimagine our relationship with the world.”
During the opening of Collectors’ Space, I had the chance to talk to Gaibrielle and Max Germanos, whose pieces are shown in this year’s exhibition. Follow their advice below on how to live with heART.
Being an Art Month Ambassador, I was privileged to visit a couple of art collectors’ private homes in Sydney last year. As part of the Harry Seidler exhibition, Painting Toward Architecture, I also attended a tour through Penelope Seidler’s apartment in The Rocks. Each home had a very different style, but they had one thing in common: they were personal and liveable homes; homes with heART. They were colourful, layered with texture, and fascinated the visitor with an unpredictable placement of artwork throughout the home. Three-dimensional objects stuck out on living room walls, sculptures decorated side tables, shelves, and windowsills, and a video installation, almost randomly placed on the floor, had meditative effects on the viewer. The juxtaposition of kitsch objects, unknown painters and famous artists’ works next to each other made the arrangements even more intriguing.
You don’t need a huge budget to create a personal and liveable home with heART. Courage and creativity will help you come a long way. And, as the American neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin writes in his new book, The Organized Mind, “The engagement with art as either creator or consumer helps us by hitting the reset button in our brains. Time stops. We contemplate. We reimagine our relationship with the world.”
During the opening of Collectors’ Space, I had the chance to talk to Gaibrielle and Max Germanos, whose pieces are shown in this year’s exhibition. Follow their advice below on how to live with heART.
Use the power of colour
Colour is the most powerful tool when it comes to interior decorating and can make a space come alive. It impacts on our wellbeing, behaviour and health. “Our works are very colourful. Art doesn’t have to match your interior. For us, art is the feature that stands out. And the more you hang, the more it works,” explains Gaibrielle at the opening of Collectors’ Space. “As our artworks are very colourful, our furniture and floors are rather neutral,” says Gaibrielle on the way they decorate their home. Choose artworks that attract you and make you happy every time you look at them. Don’t worry too much about potentially clashing colours – just go with the colours you like to give your space a unique stamp. “Art can definitely change the mood of a room,” adds Max.
Colour is the most powerful tool when it comes to interior decorating and can make a space come alive. It impacts on our wellbeing, behaviour and health. “Our works are very colourful. Art doesn’t have to match your interior. For us, art is the feature that stands out. And the more you hang, the more it works,” explains Gaibrielle at the opening of Collectors’ Space. “As our artworks are very colourful, our furniture and floors are rather neutral,” says Gaibrielle on the way they decorate their home. Choose artworks that attract you and make you happy every time you look at them. Don’t worry too much about potentially clashing colours – just go with the colours you like to give your space a unique stamp. “Art can definitely change the mood of a room,” adds Max.
Mix and match
“Every room should at least have one antique,” emphasises interior designer Brooke Giannetti from Giannetti Home in the book Be Your Own Decorator by Susanna Salk. Mix old and new, expensive and low-cost items, different styles and textures. Be courageous and confident that your interior will work if you only buy things you love. One art collector explained, while showing us around his home, that he and his wife only buy works they absolutely love. Get emotionally involved, and don’t worry about different styles of artworks. “The most important thing is that all our artworks make me happy,” confirms Max.
“Every room should at least have one antique,” emphasises interior designer Brooke Giannetti from Giannetti Home in the book Be Your Own Decorator by Susanna Salk. Mix old and new, expensive and low-cost items, different styles and textures. Be courageous and confident that your interior will work if you only buy things you love. One art collector explained, while showing us around his home, that he and his wife only buy works they absolutely love. Get emotionally involved, and don’t worry about different styles of artworks. “The most important thing is that all our artworks make me happy,” confirms Max.
Add a touch of whimsy
Browse antique centres and design emporiums to discover the unexpected. Often, it is bargain finds that have the most impact in a display. And whimsy can be achieved in several ways: through colour, arrangement, and form. Think of busts, antlers, natural elements, random hung textiles, and irregular finds that you can place around the room. The aim is to create something exciting! Something that makes you happy every time you see it. Art collector Clinton Bradley, also featured in Collectors’ Space, focusses on collecting works relating to animals: “The way I have placed things is also intrinsic to my daily patterns, so that when I come home I have several of Koji Ryui’s works that glance up to me from the floor and welcome me home. I love to be surrounded by beautiful and thoughtful things.”
Take a look around the rest of this family cottage
Browse antique centres and design emporiums to discover the unexpected. Often, it is bargain finds that have the most impact in a display. And whimsy can be achieved in several ways: through colour, arrangement, and form. Think of busts, antlers, natural elements, random hung textiles, and irregular finds that you can place around the room. The aim is to create something exciting! Something that makes you happy every time you see it. Art collector Clinton Bradley, also featured in Collectors’ Space, focusses on collecting works relating to animals: “The way I have placed things is also intrinsic to my daily patterns, so that when I come home I have several of Koji Ryui’s works that glance up to me from the floor and welcome me home. I love to be surrounded by beautiful and thoughtful things.”
Take a look around the rest of this family cottage
Use accessories as the ‘icing on the cake’
To add the final touch of your personality, choose the right accessories. Compare accessorising your rooms with choosing the right jewellery for your outfit. You can use single accessories, like a colourful curtain or artistic rug, to create impact. Or, gather an entire collection of fabulous finds in one area of your room, around the fireplace or above, on top, and below a console, for example. To make a statement, think about the placement of your artwork. Display a sculpture on your coffee table or hang it on a wall. Find unexpected places for your favourite art: above kitchen cupboards or doorways, framing the entrance of a room, or textile works that decorate a bathroom or artistically drape down a wall and flow onto the floor. “The energy in our house comes from our artworks. There is always a way to add some accessories later,” says Gaibrielle.
Step inside this global-meets-The Hamptons pad
To add the final touch of your personality, choose the right accessories. Compare accessorising your rooms with choosing the right jewellery for your outfit. You can use single accessories, like a colourful curtain or artistic rug, to create impact. Or, gather an entire collection of fabulous finds in one area of your room, around the fireplace or above, on top, and below a console, for example. To make a statement, think about the placement of your artwork. Display a sculpture on your coffee table or hang it on a wall. Find unexpected places for your favourite art: above kitchen cupboards or doorways, framing the entrance of a room, or textile works that decorate a bathroom or artistically drape down a wall and flow onto the floor. “The energy in our house comes from our artworks. There is always a way to add some accessories later,” says Gaibrielle.
Step inside this global-meets-The Hamptons pad
Break the rules
One thing I realised when walking through the art collectors’ homes is that they placed their favourite pieces everywhere around the house – not worrying if this is how it should be done according to any design rules. Art collectors decorate fearlessly and without effort. And the results are striking: all three homes are very different in style and size, but they reflect the personality of the owners in every corner. They are inviting and liveable. So be courageous and only choose art or objects that spark joy and happiness and then place them where it feels right for you. Collector Max is convinced that “artworks hung well, work beautifully.” Overcoming the fear of making a (decorating) mistake is the first step to creating a home with heART and personality.
One thing I realised when walking through the art collectors’ homes is that they placed their favourite pieces everywhere around the house – not worrying if this is how it should be done according to any design rules. Art collectors decorate fearlessly and without effort. And the results are striking: all three homes are very different in style and size, but they reflect the personality of the owners in every corner. They are inviting and liveable. So be courageous and only choose art or objects that spark joy and happiness and then place them where it feels right for you. Collector Max is convinced that “artworks hung well, work beautifully.” Overcoming the fear of making a (decorating) mistake is the first step to creating a home with heART and personality.
TELL US
Do you love art? How do you incorporate art in your home? What are your challenges?
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I think they just left a few inches inbetween and then hung another set facing in the opposite direction.
Makes sense...double use of air space!
even more sense double the art!