Staged Art

“You can judge the quality of a house by the quality of its art,” so said Rick Friedman, the head of Art Hamptons during his latest art fair in July. And many builders, brokers and interior designers have discovered that staging houses with art helps their properties sell.

In a newly constructed house at 183 Bull Path (listed by Meg Salem of Saunders for $4.195 million), East Hampton gallerist Esperanza Leon has hung the work of 14 artists, mostly local. “I can’t tell you how much art transforms spaces,” she says. “It even amazes me at times.” The addition of art to a house “has the power to make you pause,” especially in typical Hamptons houses with their open floor plans. “Art gives a sense of flow, even subconsciously making you slow down.”

But how do you use art to express the individuality of each house? Leon chooses pieces based on how they inform the structure’s mood, whether it be formal, luxurious, or laid back. She also takes into account a theme. In the Bull Path dwelling, she took her cue from its emphasis on sustainability. As a “net zero” home covered with solar panels, it will produce as much energy as it consumes. Fortunately the architect, Mark Thackrah, and developers, Marc and Anna Clejan, all collaborated to make sure that – though they wanted a lot of glass – the wall space was sufficient to showcase art. The lack of direct southern exposure also works in favor of conserving art, a consideration Leon wishes would drive more designers.

A huge organic abstract canvas by Rob Calvert, a Sag Harbor painter, dominates the living room, its soft structure a counterpoint to the straight lines of the modern abode. Another piece of his is hung in the dining room. Called “the Killing of the Bees” (after the vandalizing of his beekeeper wife’s hives), its subject meshed with Leon’s ecological motif.

The work of another Sag Harbor artist, Carolyn Conrad, is displayed throughout. The artist “up-cycles” dryer lint, which she forms into tiles to create pictures of pastoral settings. East Hampton artist Eva Iacono makes pastel-colored self-portraits festooned with botanical parts. Photographer and artist Rossa Cole, also of East Hampton, has taken photographs of his own vertical sculptures, which he’s called “Green Jobs.” In one of a shovel the blade is replaced by a leaf. His penguin and sea gull mobiles made of six-pack rings hang in a child’s room. Leon is enamored of art made with repurposed materials, which in their new incarnation “become something even better.”

Leon does not consider herself a stager. “I’m working with the people who would inhabit the house to form a private collection that the individual or family would enjoy for years to come.” And often times they do. Some homebuyers have been known to purchase a piece or two.

The interior decorators behind Blue Ocean Design, Deborah Srb, and her partner, Iris Zonlight (both also agents at Sotheby’s) place art in all the spec houses whose interiors they have designed. “Art ties it all together and finishes it,” says Srb. At the model house in Southampton Meadows, they have showcased a variety of art, some from their own collection, which they rotate throughout their projects, other on consignment. “We love to support the local art community,” says Zonlight. The placing of art in homes for sale is essential, says Zonlight, because “people cannot imagine how to fill up a space. It’s overwhelming for them.”

Because the duo decorates with a subtle neutral palette of soft whites and grays, the art adds color and punctuation. In the home’s family room are two small color block paintings by Mark Humphrey, the Southampton gallerist, who is also an artist in his own right. (In fact, Humphrey’s own modern Deerfield Road residence, which is currently on the market for $2.295 million (listed by Roger Blaugh and Michael Forestano of Corcoran), is made even more enticing because of his compelling collection of artwork exhibited throughout.

In the dining room is a striking blue and white wave-like abstract bas-relief painting by New York artist Daniel Anderson, who calls such works “canvas sculpting.” Another work by Anderson hangs in the living room, along with a duo of noteworthy photographs by Sag Harbor photographer Robin Saidman, taken in India. In another house the pair has decorated at 965 Head of Pond, for sale for $5.950 million, are several of Sag Harbor photographer Bryan Downey’s moody images of polo ponies
.
As Zonlight says, “We’re not finished decorating till the last painting is up.”