Modern art and antiques

This will be easier to look at if you're working on a laptop.
(Preferably a sleek new MacBook Air. If you haven't seen one, go straight to Apple right now! The super-slim beauty has no disk drive, and I think Apple has once again made a bold gesture towards the future. As my fabulous, award-winning, designer-friend out in Steamboat Springs pointed out, "It's a wireless, web-based world, baby!") (Hey, David Taylor!)

If, like TT, you work on a standard desk-top computer, it will take a little neck twisting to view these images, but we hope you'll find it worthwhile.

The equally fabulous and funny design-blogger Maison 21 recently wrote about the impact of big dramatic art in a home. (You can take a look at his hilarious post here. He even gave a tutorial on creating your own Jackson Pollock!) While reading Maison 21's post, I was reminded of an unforgettable feature that appeared in House & Garden magazine a few years ago (with a real Jackson Pollock or two), and was finally able to put my hands on.

The interiors are a theatrical blending of modern art on a grand scale, with 19th century furnishings and classical architecture. And, in almost as much of a magnificent gesture, House & Garden ran three consecutive 3- and 4-page foldouts to show off and accentuate the scale and rich, complex textures in this Manhattan apartment. (Please come back, House & Garden!)

In the living room shown above, the back-to-back sofa is so large it had to be reupholstered on site (in Bernadette gauffrage* velvet, Old World Weavers). A set of early 19th-century Swedish chairs in leopard-print velvet (Brunschwig & Fils) and an 18th-century marble-topped, Italian console provide wonderful counterpoint to jaw-dropping art: Yellow Ochre Scroll, 1948, by Jackson Pollock; The Word II, 1954, by Barnett Newman; Les Disques Dans la Ville, 1918-1919, by Fernand Léger; San Francisco I, 1950, by Clyfford Still; and, at far right, Browns, 1957, by Mark Rothko.
*As I understand it, gauffrage is an embossing technique which involves hot pressing an intricate pattern into velvet.

In the library, above, Alberto Giacometti's Portrait of Annette provides a bold splash of color against the rich wood paneled walls and resides quite beautifully alongside the 19th-century Italian chairs covered in a buttery leather.

An 18th-century Italian console and Ellsworth Kelly's Bay, (detail) 1959,
create a modern vignette in the dining room.

In a hallway, a 19th-century French chandelier casts a glow on
Andy Warhol's The Week That Was, 1964.

Roy Lichtenstein's Mirror, above an 18th-century console.

The apartment required major reconfiguring to accommodate an art collection that surpasses that of many museums. In order to achieve maximum wall space throughout, there were pocket doors installed so that they would not open out to cover walls and paintings; minimal window treatments were designed to be contained inside the frames; the library was designed to have no bookshelves (books are stored in a separate study); and architectural detailing was concentrated on the ceilings and floors.

Whether or not you feel that these interiors speak too much to the past, the furnishings, fabrics and art are masterfully composed. Does the modern art provide enough edge and interest? TT would love to hear your thoughts.

Interior design by Brian Murphy, architectural design by Ferguson Shamamian & Rattner. Photographs by Françoise Dischinger for House & Garden magazine, 02/01.

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