Art Matters

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A recent NY Times had an interesting article called The Terrible Toll of Art Anxiety. My reaction to it echoed what a fine art dealer just told me.

He said, "We're surrounded by great art galleries, lots of artists working in every possible medium, and auctions and estate sales recycling beautiful works of art at fractions of their original price. Why should anyone suffer from this so-called art anxiety?"

It's a good point, yet we know many decorators who claim that art is the bane of their clients' existence. They work with designers to whip together decisions to purchase a dining room table, chairs, and fabrics in a jiffy, but the blank walls of a room fill them with dread.

I asked our resident design expert, Irwin Weiner ASID, about this phenomenon. "Art is a very personal thing. It's emotional to most people. Clients usually react very positively or negatively to any work of art. That love it/hate it reaction oftentimes paralyzes the client from making any art decisions, either with me holding their hand and giving my professional opinion or them trying to act on their own."

I asked Irwin if art anxiety plagues any of his clients. "Absolutely," he said, "and it makes a big difference in how a room turns out. To me if there is no art on the walls, I can't professionally photograph and include that room in my design portfolio or submit it to a shelter magazine. It's just not finished without artwork or some other elements that would take the place of traditional paintings on a wall -- things like tapestries, wallhangings, decorative panels, murals, sculptures, screens, or decorative wallcoverings."

When pressed further, Irwin observed that "art should be no different from any other part of the interior design of a home." A dining room table, going back to that earlier example, will have a practical purpose to fit a room, seat so many people, and be made of a certain type of material. It has utility, but it also has decorative value. There is a sculptural form with the best tables and chairs, and that puts it in the "art category," fairly and squarely. The stain on wood, the lacquer on a painted surface, and the fabric patterns and colors on the seat cushions and backs all add to the "art" of the room -- the texture, the palette, the mood, and all those other attributes we have a tendency to assign solely to works of art hanging on a wall.

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