ÚHunt Slonem featured in New York
Magazine, March 08, 2010
Discover the Mystical World of Hunt Slonem
You are invited for an exclusive studio visit
with celebrated artist, Hunt Slonem
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
11:00am ~ 1:00pm
545 West 45th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
4th Floor
$100/person
Price includes lunch by Bottino
Space is limited.
rsvp arc@arcfineartllc.com
Hunt Slonem's Hell's Kitchen habitat is 15,000 square
feet. Cramped New Yorkers accustomed to tiny spaces might
get dizzy at the prospect of filling that much openness,
but Slonem, an artist and lifelong accumulator, had the
opposite problem: He was moving from a Tenth Street studio
that was a mind-boggling 40,000 square feet, divided into
89 rooms. "I had to give away 27 sofas," he
says wistfully. "I lost a thousand things in the
moving process! I was beside myself." This space,
which had been headquarters for a movie company, now houses
Slonem's painting studio as well as his ever-expanding
collections, mined from flea markets and antique fairs.
In an interview in Vincent Katz's book Pleasure Palaces:
The Art & Homes of Hunt Slonem, he describes
his collecting technique as "cluttering." For
him, objects are friends; the more there are, the more
he's inspired. "I have to have a certain amount of
stuff in place before I can function and paint,"
he says. Slonem is a prodigious multitasker. He paints
(rabbits, birds, portraits) several hours a day. He's
also planning his next show, at the Marlborough Chelsea
gallery next year, launching a rug collection with interior
designer Marc Charbonnet, and working on his next book,
with Vendome Press. Grey Gardens director Albert
Maysles has a documentary in the works about him. But
nothing gets in the way of twice-weekly flea-market visits.
After shedding so much during the last move, "I feel
I am entitled to get a thousand new things!" he says,
chuckling.
Excerpt from New York Magazine, by Wendy Goodman
