Artists are known for being risk-takers. And it’s a fearlessness they often apply to building their homes. This cache of properties for sale includes some fine examples – from a 600-year-old ruin resurrected by Jeffrey Smart to a former viaduct transformed by Dinos Chapman. It seems artists will dream big to create spaces that inspire their work. And now you too could benefit from the results…
Jeffrey Smart
Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
A$2.658m
Known as ‘Posticcia Nuova’, this 600-year-old farmhouse near Arezzo had ‘no lavatory and one tap’ when Australian artist Jeffrey Smart bought it in 1971. With his partner Ermes De Zan, he spent 43 years restoring the two-bedroom villa and turning its 18-hectare grounds into a thriving olive and sheep rearing estate.
Over the decades, Posticcia Nuova became a hub for Australia’s visiting cultural big guns, with director Bruce Beresford, Barry Humphries and Gough Whitlam all regulars in its downstairs guest apartment. The house comes equipped with a sunny loggia and a hayloft studio that overlooks the pool, from which Smart painted some of his most famous works. ‘It’s not glitzy’, says estate agent Ken Jacobs, but ‘it’s a Tuscan villa that’s been well maintained and lived in and enjoyed.’
Jeffrey Smart
Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
A$2.658m
Jeffrey Smart
Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
A$2.658m
Jean Dubuffet
Rue de Vaugirard, Paris, France
Price on request
French painter Jean Dubuffet called this three-bedroom space his home for 40 years. Though it was originally built in 1928 for fellow artist, Mela Muter, the building was made famous by Debuffet, who produced his most notable works from its first-floor studio workshop, pioneering the art brut form.
Writing to its architect Auguste Perret in August 1946 – a year after he moved in – Debuffet expressed his pleasure in the details of the house, particularly its staircase: ‘I assure you that I go up and down every day at least 20 times more than necessary’, he enthused. A ringing endorsement, given the 300 sq m property is spread across three floors.
Jean Dubuffet
Rue de Vaugirard, Paris, France
Price on request
Jean Dubuffet
Rue de Vaugirard, Paris, France
Price on request
Jean Dubuffet
Rue de Vaugirard, Paris, France
Price on request
Dinos Chapman and Tiphaine de Lussy
Harrietsham, Kent, UK
£2.45m
Artist Dinos Chapman and knitwear designer Tiphaine de Lussy worked with Brinkworth Design to turn this former reservoir into a contemporary family home. The architects made use of the industrial structure’s floor plate, ‘inserting spaces within the gridded bay,’ says the practice’s Kevin Brennan.
About as far from ‘traditional’ country living as you can get, the sprawling five-bedroom property has a colossal 49 ft open-plan living space and a large steel and glass pavilion from which to enjoy sweeping views of the surrounding countryside.
Dinos Chapman and Tiphaine de Lussy
Harrietsham, Kent, UK
£2.45m
Dinos Chapman and Tiphaine de Lussy
Harrietsham, Kent, UK
£2.45m
Zao Wou-Ki
Rue Didot, Paris, France
€3.5m
Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-Ki painted from this first-floor workshop in the Montparnasse district of Paris for close to 40 years. It is part of a cluster of buildings that comprise three separate spaces organised around a Zen garden courtyard: a top floor atelier with five-metre-high ceilings, two bedrooms and two bathrooms; an adjoining one-bedroom apartment; and a third one-bedroom house that features a glass-ceilinged living room.
Zao Wou-Ki was one of the leading Chinese painters of the 20th century. He emigrated to Montparnasse – then considered ‘Europe’s most fertile quarter’ – in 1948, taking up residence on the 350 sq m property.
Zao Wou-Ki
Rue Didot, Paris, France
€3.5m
Zao Wou-Ki
Rue Didot, Paris, France
€3.5m
Michael Craig-Martin
Highgate Road, London, UK
£1.2m
We’re bending the ‘home’ rule a little bit here, but given the dream-team of client-architect, we think you’ll forgive us. In 1986, conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin commissioned a very young John Pawson to turn this former brewery into his workspace.
Fast forward almost 30 years and the building’s current owner has converted the 1,300 sq ft property into a one-bedroom home. It retains Pawson’s Minimalist thumbprint – white walls have shadows gaps and the two-storey space manipulates natural light in clever ways. The building has plenty of drama too, with a soaring 34 ft double-height ceiling and architectural staircase forming the centrepiece of the space.
Michael Craig-Martin
Highgate Road, London, UK
£1.2m
Michael Craig-Martin
Highgate Road, London, UK
£1.2m
Andy Warhol
Montauk, New York, USA
$85m
While none of these artists’ homes are what you’d call ‘cheap’, this one is in a league of its own… Built in the early 1930s as a fishing camp for the Church family of Arm & Hammer fame, Eothen – as the 30-acre compound is known – is most famous as the summer retreat of Andy Warhol. It was here guests such as Mick Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor spent their holidays enjoying the property’s Atlantic-facing beach.
Within the compound is a 5.7-acre cluster of whitewashed buildings built by architect Stanford White. Six guest cottages, and a main house comprising nine bedrooms and 11 bathrooms make up the estate, which has been restored by architect Thierry Despont.
Currently owned by J.Crew’s CEO Mickey Drexler, the compound also includes a 24-acre equestrian facility with 29 stalls and extensive riding trails. And if that’s not enough, 4 buildable acres could also accommodate a pool and tennis court.
Andy Warhol
Montauk, New York, USA
$85m
Andy Warhol
Montauk, New York, USA
$85m
Andy Warhol
Montauk, New York, USA
$85m
John Chamberlain
10th and Cocoanut Ave, Sarasota, USA
Price on request
By the early 1980s, American artist John Chamberlain was already becoming famous for his crushed metal sculptures but he needed a studio space to take him to the next level. This 18,000 sq ft warehouse in downtown Sarasota, Florida, was just the ticket.
Several years after buying the warehouse, Chamberlain commissioned local architect Yehuda Inbar to design a two-storey clapboard house for him on its adjacent plot, but both have been shuttered for several years following his relocation to New York shortly before his death in 2011.
Now the warehouse, offices, a garden and the home are all for sale. More of a ‘fixer upper’ than a ‘move-in-ready’, the property will make up for what it lacks in beauty with its cultural significance. (And damp, too, which you’ll probably want to get looked at…)
John Chamberlain
10th and Cocoanut Ave, Sarasota, USA
Price on request
