6 minute read
HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS
The secret to enjoying your collection at home is awareness, expert help – and keeping the most vulnerable pieces out of reach of children’s sticky fingers
Words by Anny Shaw
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ART IS MADE TO BE lived with. However, there are myriad issues to contend with when installing and caring for a work in the home, from framing, security and insurance to those moments when you need to call in the specialists – to repair a torn canvas, perhaps, or remove cornflakes from your Jean-Michel Basquiat painting.
According to Pandora Mather-Lees, an art historian and conservator, the first thing a collector should do is create and maintain a catalogue of their collection. “If a work is catalogued from the outset, with all the data and images that go with it, you are starting off on the right foot. And if something gets damaged or stolen, having good records means insurance companies will look more favourably on you.” It’s also vital when it comes to knowing where your inventory
Previous spread: Valeria Napoleone rebuilt her Kensington home around her art collection, creating a white gallery-like entrance filled with contemporary sculpture
Left: a double-height reception room by Stonefox provides the perfect backdrop for statement artworks
is, especially if a collection is kept across several homes and partly in storage. The trend among contemporary artists to label their works simply “Untitled” can also create confusion.
For some collectors, such as Valeria Napoleone, living with art is paramount. Since she began collecting 25 years ago, Napoleone has amassed 450 works, chiefly by women artists, many of which are now installed in her seven-storey Georgian townhouse in Kensington. It took nine years to gut and rebuild the property, in a renovation primarily intended to create the perfect blank canvas to showcase her collection. The end result is superb.
“I was looking at how to elevate a domestic setting into a space to exhibit art without losing that sense of warmth and feeling of being at home,” Napoleone says. She started with the lighting, keeping it soft, and chose pietra serena, a grey sandstone widely used in Renaissance Florence, for the grand staircase. The artist Mika Tajima came up with the idea of building alcoves into the walls. “We’ve installed works of various sizes into these niches, which are lit,” Napoleone says. “As you walk up the stairs, you have intimate encounters with the works, without exposing them to being scratched or damaged.”
Lobbies and hallways are obvious spaces to display statement pieces. Napoleone has taken this one step further, turning the entrance to her house into a white cube-shaped gallery, devoid of furniture. “It sets the tone that this is the home of an art collector,” she says. Much of her contemporary sculpture is installed on the floor instead of on plinths. “I don’t want to put it on a pedestal. My family live with art around us and we are very cautious,” she says. “When my children were toddlers and had play dates, they’d stick to their playrooms. My kids have been incredible – they’ve never damaged anything.”
Kate Bryan, the arts broadcaster and head of collections at Soho House, agrees that collections can be made child friendly. “Art is more robust than you might think, but it’s obviously better to be safe than sorry,” she advises. “Canvases shouldn’t be placed anywhere someone might lean their body or an object against them. Framed works are the simplest way to go in kitchens and play areas, so dirty fingerprints and the odd projected yoghurt can be wiped away.”
In some instances, Bryan has observed parents censoring where they hang art showing the naked body. She says: “I would encourage people to push the boundaries of what art they show with children in the home. I was surprised recently that a collector moved a Miranda Forrester work into a quiet corner because it depicted a nude figure.”
Wear and tear are issues for those with or without children, however, and some areas of the house are riskier than others. MatherLees recalls a case where a marble sculpture had been installed at the bottom of a staircase. “Guests would come down the stairs and rub the sculpture’s tummy, which discoloured it. Marble is not impervious, it picks up grease and dirt,” she says.
Specialist solutions, such as sealed, microclimate frames, can help in challenging environments – even bathrooms. Prices can run into the thousands, though Tru Vue’s Optimum frames are relatively affordable at about £1,000 for a modest-sized two-dimensional work. Mather-Lees, however, advises only installing less valuable pieces such as photography or prints in wet or steamy rooms. “I would say, have the least valuable works in your bathroom, and be aware that they are going to deteriorate if you don’t have proper ventilation,” she adds.
If food or drink is spilt on a work, it’s best to leave any cleaning to the experts, and to make sure cleaning staff know not to use cleaning products on art- or museum-glass, as this will create smears that are almost impossible to remove. Similarly, bleach is corrosive on alabaster and marble, while silver is particularly soft and malleable, and therefore vulnerable. In one extreme case, Mather-Lees was indeed asked by a billionaire to restore a Basquiat painting on his superyacht that had been splattered with breakfast cereal. “The crew had made the damage worse by wiping the cornflakes off,” she says. “It’s always a case of least invasive method first. Try to avoid touching anything and bring in the experts. If you can’t, a gentle dusting with a dry brush is best – dry methods over wet methods, always.”
Sculptures destined for gardens or outdoor terraces need to be made of fairly impervious material such as granite, marble or bronze. It’s best practice, where possible, to work closely with the artist’s studio or a curator to oversee the maintenance of outdoor works. Once installed, bronze pieces can be washed gently with warm water and a soft cloth, and a soft brush can be used to remove more stubborn marks or droppings. Bronzes may also have artificial patinas applied to their surfaces, so will be expected to turn green in time.
The display of digital art presents other challenges. Tablets, laptops and smart TVs can easily be used, but more sophisticated digital picture frames are also available. Once again, these can run to thousands of pounds. Specialist David Fox of New York-based Stonefox architecture practice – “where architecture, art and design meet” – sometimes creates “a small mock-up for the collector to see the intent and sign off on it”, prior to installation. “Having a digital artwork completely integrated into the architecture can have a big impact, but it will take a team of professionals to make it happen.”
As for the burgeoning and sometimes baffling world of NFTs and virtual art – perhaps displayed in your virtual gallery in the metaverse – that’s a whole new world of challenges. Be aware that if art can be displayed virtually, then it can be lost, stolen or damaged virtually, too. Whatever the collection, Mather-Lees says the most important thing to remember is “awareness… Art is the only appreciating asset, apart from the house itself. So it is important to have that awareness, to have that appreciation and to be trained in the care of your collection.” And also, as Napoleone would stress, to enjoy it.
Above: contemporary art can work well in a classical setting. Here, Banksy’s 2004 work Girl with Balloon (Colour AP Gold) takes pride of place above this handsome fireplace (Maddox Gallery)
Right: specialist architectural practice Stonefox created this striking modern home in Palm Beach, Florida, with the clients’ art collection at the centre of their design
