Thursday, November 06, 2014

Do not disturb

There was a cartoon in the New Yorker many years ago with an artist and a collector looking at a large empty canvas. The collector was looking unimpressed and the artist was saying “It’s minimal at the moment but if you want maximal, no problem." Welcome to the world of the Art Hotel. The first question you might ask is how does anyone actually sleep in one of these super jazzed-up curated rooms? Art hotels have obviously decided that more is more and, if you can get even more in, that’s good too. There are at least six of them in Australia with some themed on one artist (be careful) and as we know one in Wellington run by ex Te Papa Board member Chris Parkin. Hotels have used art as a metaphor for cultivation and class forever but this new style? Definitely more Madonna Inn than The Ritz.

Images: top to bottom left to right, Semiramis Hotel in Athens, Byblos Art Hotel in Verona, San Francisco’s Hotel Des Arts, Au Vieux Panier Hotel of Marseille, the Fox Hotel in Copenhagen and Daddy Long Legs Art Hotel in Cape Town.