There are many types of art collectors. Some act like their collections are filled with CIA secrets. Others love nothing more than to flaunt their holdings to anyone who asks. Thank goodness for that latter type, because they make Architectural Digest’s “Home Tours” so consistently enjoyable to watch.
Though celebrity collectors often blur out their more prized artworks in these tours, many are generous enough to speak to the art they own. I’m a longtime viewer of the series for the Easter eggs that the subjects will occasionally drop—Liv Tyler’s bathroom décor is inspired by Julian Schnabel! Emma Chamberlain’s father has a painting practice that seems to be deeply informed by Wayne Thiebaud!—and for insights into collecting habits.
There are over 170 of these videos, and after watching as many of them as I could, there are some trends. Many still own the first piece of art they ever bought. Noguchi lamps are beloved by the newly rich and famous as much as by established collectors. Inexplicably, many people decide to do their kitchens in green.
I have assembled some of the best examples of art collecting in these videos, and present 10 of them now, ranked. Let’s get into it.
10. Antoni Porowski
The Queer Eye star seems to be a hobbyist collector, with just a handful of art objects littered around his house, but his taste shines through in each choice he made. His collection includes a totemic baseball bat by Okanagan artist Brian Jungen, a sculpture by Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, a Wolfgang Tillmans photo, several drawings by Kent Monkman, an urn by Robert Lugo, and a painting by Erwin Olaf. This is a collector at the very beginning of his career, but he has his sights set high. His most treasured artwork is a sculpture by Louise Nevelson that he keeps on his mantle. He calls it his “pride and joy” and beams, “I’ve been a big fan of her work forever, and I get to look at it every day!” A lot of his other work wasn’t really to my taste, but he seems to be open to other points of view. “Some people love it and some people don’t love it,” he says, “but that’s the fun thing about art, right?”
9. Travis Barker
Another trend I noticed is that most rockstars own something by Raymond Pettibon. It certainly makes sense to kiss the ring of the man who made the iconic Black Flag bars if you’re a punk musician in Southern California. I chose Barker as the representative for this type of celebrity collectors because he has a full wall of Pettibon drawings in different styles with some Wes Lang pieces mixed in, whereas most of the others bought a wave painting and called it a day.
8. Kendall Jenner
It’d be easy to dismiss Jenner’s taste as unsophisticated (that expensive light sculpture by Tracey Emin), but the James Turrell piece she bought, Scorpius, is too cool to dismiss. Plus, for much of her home tour, the 28-year-old model talks about how she likes to meditate and do sound baths at home, and so I imagine that she actually gets something out of the piece’s mesmeric glow.
7. Harris Reed
Fashion designer Harris Reed’s townhouse in London is a maximalist playhouse, made even more lively by his art choices, including a number of works by Chilean painters like Isabel Croxatto Galeria and Luz Maria Fernandez. Another highlight from this funky collection is a Faye Wei Wei piece kept in his velvet-lined bathroom, which Reed framed himself in an Ikea frame: -1 point for Ikea frame, but +100 for having a home that feels like an Italian disco.
6. Ellen Pompeo
I’m not sure what I was expecting going into the Grey’s Anatomy star’s tour of her Malibu guesthouse, but it certainly wasn’t an Ed Ruscha painting. Pompeo doesn’t have a ton of art, but what she does have is very inspired. As she gestures to a wall of black-and-white photography, she explains her curatorial vision: “My children are Black, and it’s really important for me to have lots of representation in the artwork. I really make an effort to have the work be made by Black artists, or have the subjects of the work be Black people who have made an impact on the history of the United States.”
5. Gwyneth Paltrow
Paltrow’s home tour is, of course, infamous in the art world because what appeared to be a Ruth Asawa sculpture hanging in her living room was, in fact, not a Ruth Asawa at all. That alone makes her video thrilling to watch, but the impressive Ruscha text piece that hangs next to that not-Asawa also stuns in her spare, elegant home. Two more canvases are torturously blurred out in that room, but they teem with the possibility of being excellent minimalist works.
4. Serena Williams
Serena Williams refers to her living room as her “art gallery,” and a whole wall of it is covered by a giant Radcliffe Bailey piece, which has a moon rock on it that the tennis star likes to touch when she walks by. Beyond that, there’s a KAWS chair, a Leonardo Drew sculpture next to another piece by Bailey, and a painting made by the tennis star herself. Those keyed into the art market know that Williams is a ravenous collector, and she mentions that a Titus Kaphar piece is being shipped to her. “It’s still a work in progress, like how art galleries are always works in progress,” she says of her displays. That’s a refreshing mindset that matches her reputation as a hardworking athlete.
3. Benny Blanco
This was another unexpectedly great one. The pop music producer has an in-your-face, high-octane collection that reflects a pretty informed approach—he does not discriminate between the emerging and the more high-end. “I just want people to feel like they can be their youngest self here, and let loose,” he explains, looking over a Picasso drawing, a Martin Wong painting, a Tony Matelli sculpture, a Noah Davis painting, some Grant Levy Lucero ceramics, and a nice, big George Condo portrait. Blanco has art scattered all around his house, but not in his bedroom, because as he puts it, he needs “no distractions when he’s sleeping.”
2. Diplo
The music producer is a regular presence at Art Basel Miami Beach, so I went into this video expecting that his collection might something like Blanco’s, filling most of his space. Instead, Diplo’s compound in Jamaica, called “Pompey,” features a judicious and sophisticated selection of only a few large-scale sculptures, one by Pedro Reyes and another by Veronica Ryan, of a Jamaican breadfruit made in bronze. Diplo also pulled an Allison Katz and got some original urns that were recovered from Pompeii and restored. “This one had, like, bones in it,” he grins. The walls are mostly bare with giant windows that open onto the Jamaican jungle. “A landscape for me is a piece of art,” he says. “So we framed it like that.” Classy!
- Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz
It’s an obvious video to take the number-one slot, as Swizz and Keys have been top collectors for many years. But it is pretty incredible to see how a Nick Cave “Soundsuit” can live next to a Jordan Casteel painting and a Gordon Parks photograph inside of a home that still feels homey. Their love of art comes through very organically throughout the video, whether its the way Swizz explains the Derrick Addams piece that stretches out behind their dining room table, or the way Keys lights up around the Radcliffe Bailey piece in their bedroom. “Shout out to Joanna from Jack Shainman for hooking this up,” Swizz says about the Soundsuit. I hope Shainman brought donuts to the office after seeing that.
