The Art-Full Home
Stacey Williams-Ng
Mil­wau­kee Home & Fine Liv­ing Mag­a­zine
July 2010
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It is truly the ulti­mate art cliché to buy “art to match the couch.” In fact, just the mere asso­ci­a­tion of the word sofa with the word paint­ing (“sofa-sized paint­ings,” any­one?) and you have deval­ued the artist’s work ten­fold. Or so the say­ing goes. So if the art afi­ciona­dos out there don’t want you think­ing about your home décor when you acquire a work of art, how are you sup­posed to rec­on­cile it as an object in your liv­ing space? Con­sider these two house­holds, whose art pieces and dec­o­ra­tive pieces live in per­fect har­mony, and decide for yourself.

Karen Chris­tiansen is an inte­rior designer and archi­tect whose home reflects a steady bal­ance of antiques, art, fab­rics and dec­o­ra­tive accents; noth­ing is out of place and no one cat­e­gory of objects over­shad­ows another. How­ever, if you or her clients ask her where to begin when design­ing an inte­rior space, she will advise as fol­lows: start with the anchors. “I like to begin with the antiques or the art — pre­cious objects that peo­ple have attach­ments to. It anchors a place.” In her own home, for exam­ple, Karen and her hus­band inher­ited a num­ber of beau­ti­ful paint­ings and col­lectibles from her in-laws’ col­lec­tion, includ­ing a limited-edition print by Sal­vador Dalì, and a few draw­ings by French post-impressionist Henri Matisse. The mere name recog­ni­tion of these artists notwith­stand­ing, these small pieces were thought­fully framed and even more care­fully placed in the home where they best belonged: small spaces. Dalì, for exam­ple, hangs in the guest pow­der room. It’s a “pub­lic” place where friends can enjoy the piece, but it’s on an inti­mate scale where it can best be appreciated.

The shin­ing stars of the inher­ited works, how­ever, are still-life paint­ings by Hun­gar­ian artist Romek Árpád (born 1833). These tra­di­tional oil paint­ings are exe­cuted in a painstak­ingly real­ist style with del­i­cate reflec­tions in the glass and fab­rics, rem­i­nis­cent of Ital­ian Renais­sance painters like Car­avag­gio. Other paint­ings in her col­lec­tion include a snow scene by Emile Gruppe (born 1896) and a land­scape by P. Morrò (Ger­man, born 1925).

Because of the tra­di­tional nature of these paint­ings, Karen chose to design her front rooms in a Euro­pean tra­di­tional style, using fab­rics and fur­ni­ture to enhance the set­ting. Pale but­ter yel­lows bring out the high­lights in her still lifes and the warm clouds in her land­scapes, and the room seam­lessly inte­grates all objects in an atmos­phere of soft­ness and sophis­ti­ca­tion. Shiny taffeta pil­lows and over­stuffed chairs invite the vis­i­tor to have a seat and enjoy the space. Despite the impres­sive num­ber of orig­i­nal works, the Chris­tiansens do not think of them­selves as “art col­lec­tors” per se. “These are fam­ily trea­sures, cer­tainly,” she smiles. “Hav­ing these things on dis­play helps the kids to know their grand­par­ents. It’s a way to keep some­one in your heart; to keep them near you.”

Karen’s pro­fes­sional advice: “Look beyond name recog­ni­tion and brands, and instead look for per­sonal mean­ing when you design with art. That works with every bud­get, and gives you per­sonal sat­is­fac­tion in your own space.”
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