The design of the living space of an art professional often directly depends on his own collection and personal preferences in art. We talk about the daily environment chosen by five famous world collectors and art dealers – Chara Schreyer, Axel Vervoordt, Kamel Mennour, Massimo de Carlo, and Hubert Bonnet.
Chara Shreyer’s House
California
Each home of collector Chara Schreyer, who passed away in February 2023, is like an art gallery: the owner regularly conducted open tours of them for students, museum employees and cultural institutions. While her four residences across California highlight a particular movement or movement in art, the Tiburon space provides an overview of Schreyer’s extensive collection, which includes more than 600 works. Over the years, she collaborated with designer Gary Sutton, who helped her successfully integrate works by Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Gobert and other world-famous artists into her design. As Chara Shrier herself often noted, the cozy atmosphere in her home is largely designed to soften the sharpness of bright canvases and art objects in order to feel comfortable in the vicinity of contemporary art.
Axel Vervoordt’s house
suburb of Antwerp
The interior of the 12th-century Gravenwezel castle in the village of the same name, where the Belgian designer, collector and art dealer Axel Vervoordt lives with his wife, is an example of carefully crafted art. In the author’s design, he reflected his favorite philosophy of wabi-sabi, which runs like a red thread in many of his projects. It was important for the designer to preserve the spirit of the historical place: he emphasized it with a mix of historical elements, vintage items and modern art objects. The interior of the castle reveals a continuous dialogue between past and present, Eastern and Western worlds: for example, a 17th-century Japanese screen in the couple’s house organically coexists with the works of contemporary avant-garde artists from the German association Zero.
House of Kamel Mennur
Paris
Parisian gallerist Kamel Mennour designed his family apartment in an 18th-century Parisian building on his own, even though he worked closely with Pierre Jovanovic and other designers who helped him create the gallery interiors. The rich history of the space, located in a house on a quiet street in the 6th arrondissement, is emphasized by numerous art objects, some of which were made especially for it. For example, at the entrance to the apartment, there was an installation by the famous French artist Daniel Buren: Kamel Mennour wanted an object that would be in dialogue with historical architecture. Other works in Mennur’s home include a large-scale canvas by Sam Francis and a silk-screen print by Ugo Rondinone—these and other works sit alongside pieces from established designers including Florence Knoll and Pierre Paulin.
House of Massimo de Carlo
Milan
At the Milan home of one of Europe’s leading contemporary art dealers, art extends beyond individual canvases and objects to walls and ceilings. Among others, the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset and the artist Rudolf Stingel, an adaptation of one of whose works was placed in the living room, left their creative mark on the space, directly or indirectly. Massimo de Carlo’s home is filled with unexpected artifacts and designer objects: the kitchen table, which the art dealer moved from his previous apartment, was hand-fired by Maarten Baas, while ceramics from the 1920s and 1930s bear witness to their iconic era.
House of Hubert Bonnet
outskirts of Geneva
The collector Hubert Bonnet entrusted the decoration of his villa Les Ailes on the outskirts of Geneva to the Parisian designer India Madavi. Built in 1932, the three-story mansion has been carefully restored to preserve much of the original finishes and architectural features. The restored furnishings provided the perfect backdrop for Madavi’s handpicked furniture and artwork by Swiss artists selected from Bonnet’s personal collection. Thus, a massive sculpture on the terrace of the villa emphasizes the picturesque view of the lake and the historical architecture of the building, while the canvases on the walls of the living rooms act as accents of the space.
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