ELLE DECOR March 2022

“ART MAKES THE ROOM!” THAT’S THE PHRASE WE KEPT repeating, with varying degrees of humor and seriousness, as we put together this issue celebrating the power of living with art. The homes in these pages prove the axiom true, filled as they are with canvases, sculpture, and more that elevate every interior—from an art historian’s deeply personal apartment in Rome to our newsstand cover story, a collector couple’s San Francisco Tudor Revival, designed by Nicole Hollis and renovated by architect Stephen Will-rich to accommodate the family and their blue-chip collection. Of course, art can be much more than just a pièce de résistance—it can be a means of resistance to boredom, to despair, and to cultural erasure. Art may make the room, but it also makes room—for self-reflection, delight, and…

PALM FLOOR LAMP: JOSEPH DE LEO; HALO CHANDELIER: SEAN DAVIDSON…

1. THÉORÈME BOX BY NIGEL PEAKE JOEONNA BELLORADO-SAMUELS: Allowing an artist to mine an archive injects such thoughtfulness and energy. LEYDEN LEWIS: The eye is drawn to the geometry of the sensuous cutout forms. 10.5 • w. x 10.5 • d. x 3 • h.; $1,325. hermes.com 2. OE QUASI LIGHT BY OLAFUR ELIASSON LL: This alludes to a powerful talisman; a transcendent object of the past that has been unearthed. JBS: When I am home, I crave fixtures like this that have something to say. 32 • dia. x 35 • h.; $19,870. louispoulsen.com 3. RELICS STOOL BY CAMERON WELCH LL: The humor and joyfulness of this piece come from an unexpected mixture of materials. JBS: I love how Welch strikes that difficult balance between freneticism and symmetry. 16.5 • dia. x 18 • h.; $10,850. konektstudio.com 4. CHAIR II BY…

As many art experiences migrate to the metaverse, it’s increasingly easy to take for granted good spatial design for viewing art right here in the real world. Two Manhattan galleries are offering up a bold reminder in newly renovated spaces: Salon 94, in a Beaux Arts mansion uptown, and Company Gallery, in a former commercial storage center downtown. Both have evolved beyond the clichéd white-box approach and provide a sense of community and space for dialogue—room to discuss how art can shape our lives, our culture, and our world. Happy viewing. JEANNE GREENBERG ROHATYN’S Salon 94 is a New York institution. The former residential building on Museum Mile was constructed between 1913 and 1915 for Archer M. Huntington and his second wife, the artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, who used the ballrooms…

We’re seldom able to pinpoint the catalyst for a total change of heart. But I know the moment my approach to living with art shifted. It was March 24, 2020, when Brooklyn sculptor Alyson Shotz shared an achingly poignant image on Instagram—one of wilted flowers in a slouched earthenware vase. It was a long-distance collaboration in a time of vast separation between Shotz and fellow artist Carrie Mae Weems. Based on her Recumbent Fold series, where Shotz drops unglazed porcelain slabs from varying heights to the ground, her vases are made as gifts for friends like Weems, who took the photograph. With the art world in free fall, I desperately wanted to telegraph my deep personal support to artists, who I’ve long held are essential workers. So I bought a…

ALL THEY WANTED FROM BILLY COTTON WAS A NEW KITCHEN. That’s why Margaret Lee and her husband, Oliver Newton, the founders of 47 Canal Gallery, originally sought out the New York decorator. The couple had purchased their modest 760-square-foot prewar apartment in an estate sale, which in Manhattan is typically a euphemism for gut-renovation required. “It had not been touched in many years,” Cotton says diplomatically. The kitchen in question was little more than a “galley” that was “deeply nonfunctional.” Needless to say, as Cotton is known for his work with art collectors and artists as much as his warm palettes and Dutch Old Master moodiness, he had more to offer Lee and Newton than just a one-room redo. Lee and Cotton met years ago while the former was managing the…