Most houses need art – pieces that catch the eye, create a focal point and add a layer of personality: some that are more decorative, and others that are by a favourite artist or have a personal meaning for their owner. As Fiona McKenzie Johnston suggests in her column on buying art on page 176 of this November issue, ‘Art does not just decorate.’ It also ‘grounds’ and ‘elevates’. This special art issue is a celebration of all that art can do, and the people who create it.
The Kent home of artist Robert Montgomery and Greta Bellamacina
The Kent home of artist Robert Montgomery and poet and actress Greta Bellamacina is a jewel box of candy colours, distinctive antiques and original artworks. The effect is irreverent and original, and provides the perfect setting for their family life and work. Arriving at the house is a bit like emerging from the back of the wardrobe into Narnia. At the end of a cul-de-sac, behind a wooden gate tucked between two 1960s semi-detached houses and a short walk down a lane that looks like it goes nowhere, the lawn of a perfect Georgian house unspools, obscured from the surrounding roads by trees. It is like coming across a wedding cake in the middle of a conference centre.
Michael Craig-Martin’s Barbican tower black flat
On the 21st floor of a Barbican tower block, the flat of Royal Academician Michael Craig-Martin mirrors his artistic aesthetic, with clean lines, blocks of colour and careful placement of artworks and the design classics that feature in his work. Artists’ homes have long held a fascination for the parallels that might exist between the domestic space and the artist’s creative output. In the case of the Barbican flat owned by the conceptual artist and painter Michael Craig-Martin, the link seems to be particularly strong.