The Art of Beauty

Vogue (Paris) Hommes International - Autumn-Winter 2006/2007

Stunning fashion goddess Stephanie Seymour is now the muse for a stable of artists being commissioned by her entrepreneur and art collector husband, Peter Brant. The couple’s jaw-dropping art collection, echoing Stephanie’s own beauty, radiates far beyond the confines of their Connecticut estate, a haven where Art is the master of the house and whose doors were opened exclusively for Vogue Hommes International.

“Jeff Koons is a great modern master who has changed the way we look at art. Stephanie spent all the money she earned on the catwalk on Koon’s sculpture Naked. That was before we were married, and a very brave thing to do back then.”
Peter BRANT

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By Katia KULAWICK and Judicaël LAVRADOR

You can tell a lot about collectors from their art: like a mirror, the collection may reflect a personality, an era or a social circle. From Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant’s collection, you sense the fine line American art crosses into celebrity – and vice-versa. Of this double-barreled existence, the magnum force remains unquestionably the late Andy Warhol, an artist so captivated by luminaries that they would become his principal theme. No accident, then, if Peter Brant and the big wheel at the Factory would run into each other early on; and that the former would go on the support the media ventures of the latter, including founding Interview magazine. “I started collecting art when I was 18 years old,” recounts Peter Brant. “The first piece I bought was a beautiful big abstract painting by Franz Kline. I usually buy through dealers and am very faithful to the artists I love, like Warhol. I’d been friends with Andy for years. One of the first pieces I ever bought was by him. I still have it today: it’s the portrait of Marilyn Monroe with an eye shout out.”
“I don’t know how many I have, I’ve never counted my artworks. We just live with them in the house. I try to put them everywhere I think they look good: walls, floors, wherever. Stephanie and I advise one another when it comes to buying; we keep abreast of things by going to shows and museums. We discuss all potential purchases before we buy anything and generally, we agree with each other – when we don’t, we don’t buy the work.”
“At any given moment, a large number of our pieces are on loan. Currently, one third of our collection is being exhibited in various museums around the world.”

Indeed, works by Warhol figure among the key pieces of their collection, which can be defined as part pop art, part expressionist and part cerebral. Of his paintings, they own Flowers (1964), Red Elvis (1962), Silver Liz as Cleopatra (1956 and 1958) and Liquorice Marilyn (1962), as well as the sculptures Shoe (1956 and 1958), the self-portraits (1964), the famous Campbell’s Soup Can (1962) and, along more conceptual lines from the same year, Dance Diagram. The collection also features large hyperrealist paintings by James Rosenquist – an historic figure of the 60s’ hedonistic consumer society – and wildly enthusiastic works by the flamboyant Julian Schnabel. Peter Brant’s choices reveal a great deal about his Dionysian approach to art: Jeff Koons’ sculptures, at once tender and malicious, tapping this spirit in their kitschy splendor. Koons, brilliant and narcissistic, the enfant terrible of the 80s, is represented in the collection by his regressive Teddy Bears. Then there are reworked magazine images by Richard Prince, whose cropped photos of American legends ranging from the Marlboro Man to the Girl Next Door stand as an indictment of the mass media as a mindless modern icon factory.
This body of art will soon comprise a more literal reflection of Stephanie Seymour’s beauty: “We have started work on a series of portraits of Stephanie commissioned from various contemporary artists. It’s long-term project, as it will take at least ten years to create a sizeable collection. Our goal is to create a spectrum of contemporary art around one subject: Stephanie.” Brant enthusiastically lists the involvement of Julian Schnabel, George Condo, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Maurizio Cattelan, Kenny Scharf, Thomas Ruff, David Salle and Francessco Clemente as “already committed,” and is insistent on his wife’s own role in building their collection: “She’s a real collector who’s very interested in contemporary art; her personal collection is of a very high standard and she’s developed a very good eye. Stephanie is also very involved in collecting furniture; the whole house is brimming over with antiques.” Sure enough, at White Birch Farm, furniture by designer Marc Newson rubs shoulders with pieces by Jean Prouvé, Jean Royère and William Morris in a space redesigned by Peter Marino in 1994.
No surprise that their home is no longer big enough for all of the paintings. The couple has plans underway for the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, an official exhibition space to house their collection, scheduled to open next year in Connecticut. There, Warhol’s spirit should feel at home, as Richard Gluckman – designer of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh – is the architect of Brant’s 150,000 square-foot (15,000m2) museum.