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The Art of Living [Hardcover]

Claudia Steinberg (Author), Barbel Miebach (Photographer)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 17, 2009
To artists and designers, a home is a canvas on which they can project themselves, a testing ground for creative impulses, a place to display the objects that inspire them, a venue for experimentation with forms and materials that later appear in their own work. In this unique volume, photographer Bärbel Miebach captures the unique spirit of the private living quarters of twenty-five internationally known figures including Ellsworth Kelly, Catherine Malandrino, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Andres Serrano, Hunt Slonem, Vivienne Tam, and Andrea Zittel.

From self-designed, floor-to-ceiling trompe l'oeil tile in quirky color combinations to renovations of urban lofts as Japanese farmhouses to pristine all-white spaces, sixteenth-century cathedrals, and a bold apartment that takes design cues and motifs directly from the vibrant colors and brash metallic forms of the inhabitant's own artwork, each of the featured homes provides an inside look at the personalities behind these unconventional dwellings. Equally intriguing are homes of artists and gallery owners who have spent a lifetime collecting works by artistic friends, priceless examples of art and furniture from a favorite period, or artifacts from far-flung continents during their own wide-ranging travels. Still other spaces reveal how the imaginations of architects are interpreted in black concrete, copper, zinc, and brightly painted plywood when they turn their energies to designing houses for themselves and their families.

Over 200 color images reveal a wealth of unique, personal approaches to the challenge of incorporating creative space into a home. Of interest to anyone who has wondered what the living rooms and studios of famous artists might contain, what objects inspire them, and what inventive solutions they devise to create expressive personal spaces in a domestic atmosphere, The Art of Living provides a colorful, varied look at a group of diverse artistic individuals who live and work in homes from New York and the Hamptons to Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Photographer Bärbel Miebach was born near Cologne, Germany, and has lived in NewYork since 1998. Her images have appeared in Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Interior Design magazine, and the New York Times. Her other books include Inspired Styles.

Journalist Claudia Steinberg writes on art, health, literature, and interior design, and her articles have appeared in the New York Times, Surface, and Interior Design magazine, among other publications.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

As my ten-year anniversary of living and working in the United States approached, I began to feel nostalgic. I thought about the diverse, wonderful people I have photographed and the artistic environments they have built for themselves, and that became the spark of inspiration for this book.
 
The Art of Living introduces you to twenty-five unique homes; the book also tells twenty-five individual stories about their occupants. Artists, fashion designers, gallery owners, collectors, and one resourceful farmer express their personalities, idiosyncrasies, and creativity through their surroundings. I feel fortunate to have met them. They have inspired my own work and enriched my life.

I felt honored to spend a day with Ellsworth Kelly in Spencertown, New York. I learned so much about his work and his aesthetic. His partner prepared a delicious lunch, and we drank Ellsworth's favorite wine, Pouilly-Fuissé, while he reminisced about his time in Paris.

The fashion designer Catherine Malandrino was at the beginning of her career when I first met her and her husband, Bernard Aiden. At that time, I was fascinated by her eclectic mix of French bohemian elegance and urban New York chic, and to this day I continue to adore her.

Randolph Duke's house in the Hollywood hills with its breathtaking view of Los Angeles, its modern aesthetic, and unbelievably pleasant quality of life instantly became my dream home. When all the sliding glass doors were opened, I felt close to nature. While I was taking pictures I thought about how much I would love to live in a place like his.

Most surprising was my visit to the home of the artist Andres Serrano. His triplex in the West Village is filled with religious artifacts. Looking at the crucifixes, statues of saints, and pews all around me, I felt I had stepped into a medieval church in the center of Manhattan. It was an unsettling feeling that made me want to bring the photo shoot to an end quickly. When I returned for another shoot later, I came to understand the artist's personal reasons for having become such an obsessive collector. Today Andres Serrano is one of my best friends. I love him dearly.

I am profoundly grateful for the time I have spent in the U.S. and for the people I have met. They opened their homes to me and let me photograph their worlds. I cherish these experiences and hope to give you the same sense of wonder and admiration I felt when seeing these homes for the first time.

—Bärbel Miebach

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: The Monacelli Press; 1 edition (November 17, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1580932509
  • ISBN-13: 978-1580932509
  • Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 0.9 x 12.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Average Customer Review
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This book asks us to express ourselves whole-heartedly!, March 18, 2010
By 
Swee10 (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Art of Living (Hardcover)
Photographer Barbel Miebach visited twenty-five artists and designers living throughout the country, photographed their homes, and documented her work in this elegant book. Each house inside is bristling with individuality, energized by the vision of its owner. Taken together they suggest that inhabiting one's place, nesting, is an act of personal expression.

Just as some people look like their dogs, some artists look like their homes. That is, their homes seem like direct translations of their work. Designer Randolph Duke lives in a stone and glass house in the Hollywood Hills whose sumptuous, modernist furnishings reflect the sleek glamor of his clothing. Artist Andre Serrano lives in a Manhattan triplex furnished with historical European religious art that's an extension of his dark, moody photographs. Other artists have shaped more surprising environments for themselves. Painter Ellsworth Kelly lives in a house in upstate New York filled with American, African and Asian antiques that are at odds with the cool minimalism of his canvases. Artist Andrea Zittel, whose mobile home and clothing designs have a downtown, urban edge, lives in a sparsely-furnished house in the Mojave desert.

This book asks us to express ourselves, and our tastes, whole-heartedly as we design our homes. Designer Hunt Slonem, who lives in an extravagantly furnished nineteenth century manor house in Hudson County, New York, declares: "Why should I practice restraint if the world is full of wonderful things?" Since what each of us finds wonderful, and beautiful, is deeply personal, it only follows that our homes ought to reflect our fantasies and idiosyncrasies. Why bother following someone else's fashions?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great title !!!, February 25, 2011
This review is from: The Art of Living (Hardcover)
Very interesting look into the "minds" and homes of famous artists - very inspiring to see all the different interiors of very creative people.
Beautiful pictures.
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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars oh........my..............god!, February 16, 2011
By 
R. A. Ewing (cincinnati, ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Art of Living (Hardcover)
this book should be subtitled "the inmates take over the asylum". there is not one livable space in the entire book. while there may be some lovely objects displayed in some of the homes, their presentation is hideous. in other homes presented there is absolutely NOTHING attractive or interesting, such as the architect designed and owned abortion in which seemingly every surface is covered with lumpy concrete. does anyone ever actually live in these rooms? even in a conventional space such as the apartment featured on the cover there isn't one comfortable chair on view. what do these people do, spend their lives bingeing and purging, then languidly pose all day in their horrifying rooms looking all pale and interesting?

this book will be one of those curiosities that provokes future generations to study it and ask, "WHAT were they thinking?".
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