Historic Houses and Contemporary Art: Embrace the Love 

As an artist, I was particularly interested in the topic of last fall’s Preservation Park Cities Distinguished Speaker Luncheon: Living with Art.

And I was specifically eager to hear the speaker’s take on age-old arguments about the aesthetic appropriateness of contemporary art in historic homes, which are happily still manifest in the Park Cities, though their numbers decrease with each passing year.

Personally, I find the stylistic juxtaposition intriguing and attractive if it’s accomplished in a thoughtful and tasteful way. 

In my midcentury Turtle Creek condominium, I’m happy to mix the primitive with the modern — Luba and Bantu masks and Maori carvings interspersed with my own colorful and modernist landscapes and portraits on the matte white walls and in the built-in bookshelves. 


Primitive masks and carvings mix with a Dallas artist’s colorful and modernist landscapes and portraits on the matte white walls of his midcentury Turtle Creek condominium. Photo: Josh Hickman

Though my artwork and architecture might encompass a narrower span of time than a 1920s house and 2020s paintings, I think the contrast reveals my eclectic taste in a cozily ironic and hopefully sophisticated way.

The panelist at the Dallas Country Club advocated similar views.

“When we bring a work of art into our home, we are bringing a conversation,” said Thomas Feulmer, curator of The Warehouse Dallas. “We are putting our values and our curiosities — the things that we are and the things that we hope to be — up on the wall. It should not be the anesthesia for your home. It should add a kind of life, a kind of conversation, and a kind of complexity.”

Robyn Siegal, advisor at CCS Fine Art, suggested decorating with whatever speaks to your soul.

“I think collecting should come first and foremost from a place of love,” Siegal said. “You should never ever collect anything that you don’t love, because over time you’re going to like it even less.”

Ashley Avrea Cathey, founder and principal of Avrea & Company, says contemporary art “works 100%” in a traditional home.

“It’s the best juxtaposition,” Cathey said. “It really evokes so much more meaning, because it’s so unexpected. It can be so lonely and boring without a story, and contemporary art is the perfect solution.”

Siegal suggested layering on periods. “Make it authentic, whatever that is to you. It doesn’t have to be an expensive piece of art on expensive wallpaper, but it can be. It’s whatever feels right.”

Feulmer offered, “I think it’s a more authentic way to live. We are engaged with contemporary society, contemporary ideas, the contemporary world. Your home should reflect that you have some engagement with that.”

Siegal compared art selection to dating. “It’s so personality-driven, and there is no formula. It can be a lifelong relationship.”

“Let it be a slow, evolving process,” Feulmer added. “Old houses love contemporary art. It’s the most dynamic thing on the planet to see art that is in dialogue and not subservient to an architecture.”

To me, there’s nothing more pleasing to the eye and soul than an unexpected burst of bright modern color, texture, or shape popping up around the corner of a lovingly-preserved Park Cities home, happily reminding one of the present day.

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