June 27th, 2007
The Hotel as Art Work - hotels feature works my major artists - Brief Article
Art-savvy travelers in Europe can check into four hotels that prominently feature the works of a major artist. Called art’otels, the establishments are billed as art works and are named for and “signed” by the artists. Travelers can sleep in well-appointed rooms (priced at around $100 to $250 per night), dine and conduct meetings surrounded by the works of Georg Baselitz in Berlin, A.R. Penck in Dresden, Katharina Sieverding in Potsdam and Donald Sultan in Budapest.
Instead of simply supplying pieces for display in the hotel, art’otel artists work to varying degrees with the architects and decorators to help design the interiors. In Budapest, where the newest art’otel is sited, five large paintings by Sultan hang in the hotel’s common areas, and hundreds of prints and drawings are displayed in the hallways and guest rooms. Sultan also designed the carpets and the lobby fountain, and his images appear on matchbook cowers, menus and dinnerware. Each room also has a castaluminum black bird designed by the artist perched in a corner, copies of which are sold in the hotel shop for $25.
The art’otel chain was started by German developer and collector Dirk Gaedeke in the mid `90s. Park Plaza Worldwide became a partner in the enterprise in 1999 (chairman Jonathan Read is also an art collector). The corporation, which owns the works in each hotel, is considering artists to work on sites in Marrakesh, London and Paris, and there are plans to open new locations in L.A., Chicago, New York and numerous other cities within three years.
In New York, several new hotels feature works by prominent artists. At the midtown Hudson, owned by Ian Schrager, Francesco Clemente designed the ceiling in the bar and painted the bedside lamps, essentially mini-light boxes, in the guest rooms. (The lamps will feature the work of different artists on a rotating schedule.) Photo works by Jean Baptiste Mondino are located in the library and cafeteria. The nearby Chambers hotel, owned by Ira Drukier, Richard Born and Steve Caspi, has selected some younger artists along with more established ones, commissioning works from James Siena, Michael Lazarus, Udomsak Krisanamis, Do-Ho Suh, John Waters, Sheila Pepe, Nina Bovasso and others.
For the Embassy Suites in Battery Park City and the Hilton Times Square, the Public Art Fund helped commission works from nearly 50 artists. Major works at the Embassy Suites include an 11-story-high wall drawing by Sol LeWitt and a mural by Pat Steir, while 75 figures by Tom Otterness are sited in and around the Hilton’s lobby and entrance. Among the other artists with works in the two hotels are Bernd and Hilla Becher, Louise Bourgeois, Daniel Buren, Dan Flavin, Nan Goldin, Kurt Kauper, Ellsworth Kelly, Jeff Koons, Nam June Paik, Elizabeth
Peyton, Mary Heilmann, Julian Schnabel and Hiroshi Sugimoto.