Design Showcase: Picture Perfect
Matthew Esposito
06/01/2007

In the early 1990s, designer Donald Starkey was working on the interior of a 200-foot Feadship. The topic of art did not sit at the forefront of his mind as he made his drawings. Mid-project, the owner announced: "I have some paintings I would like to put on board. Why don’t you go to my apartment and see what you think?" The apartment Starkey entered had close to 30 paintings of the finest caliber—"Picasso, Chagall, Dubuffet, all the greats were there," says the designer. Eventually all made their way on board Mylin IV, where, although it was not intended, they looked much better than they did in the apartment, according to the owner and Starkey.

A Lalique crystal mask on Atlantide. (Click image to enlarge)

Placing fine art aboard yachts has been a growing trend among owners and designers for more than two decades. The pace has quickened in recent years. According to several leading designers, yacht owners who already enjoy art collections on land generally fuel this trend. However, more and more, the stray Picasso, Miró or Dalí will make the cut even when the owner is not officially an art connoisseur.

"Fifteen or twenty years ago, people were trying to find paintings that matched their place settings and window treatments," says designer Ken Freivokh. "Now you wouldn’t see something like that. It is more likely they will choose to include something of value from a recognized artist."

Top: Aboard Harbour Moon, renowned glass artisan Dale Chihuly fills a space formerly envisioned as an aquarium. Photograph courtesy of Donald Starkey. Bottom: This arrangement in a Disdale interior forms a multimedia relationship. Photograph by Bob Marchant (Click images to enlarge)

As fantastic as some of the works being installed on today’s yachts may be, they are still essentially meant to complement the interior, not dominate it. In the case of Mylin IV, inclusion of the collection did not drive the design, but the works were artfully positioned in Starkey’s interior. "We had already halfway completed the interior when the subject of art was mentioned," says Starkey, "although many people thought, as in the case of the dining room, that some of the rooms had been designed around the paintings."

Some examples make it seem that too much art can compromise the design, though the talented designers responsible for these interiors have found a way to make them work. On the 289-foot Perini Navi The Maltese Falcon, Freivokh knew he had quite a collection to contend with when he planned the yacht’s interior. Large-scale paintings were to be a staple aboard The Falcon and drove many of the wall heights, as well as some fabric and upholstery choices. Before the designing began, pieces were selected from the owner’s collection and spaces to display them were developed accordingly. Some of this development included modifying nearly half the canvasses chosen (by scoring and bending) to fit along the curved bulkheads.

Several paintings aboard The Maltese Falcon hang on curved bulkheads. Photograph by Giuliano Sargentini. (Click image to enlarge)

"This is not ordinarily how it is done," says Freivokh. "Sometimes the art is an afterthought. We create a niche, or area or alcove first, and the selection of what goes there comes later. It is only when the owner has pieces to begin with that it greatly affects the design."

Terence Disdale has a similar tale. When completing his firm’s largest yacht project, the 457-foot Lürssen Al Salamah, 680 paintings, each specifically commissioned, were given as part of the design brief. "It took a huge amount of time and energy over a nine-month period," says Disdale. Again, as with The Maltese Falcon, Disdale confirmed this was not your average project and that, quite often, his firm commissions artwork for every space. "We select an artist, discuss imagery, furnish [the owners] with color references of the room, and specify the exact size and frame."
So it seems in the last decade and a half, fine art has found a home on the sea and, if chosen, can have a significant effect on how one crafts a design. Several additional Starkey designs exemplify this point, among them the 158-foot Feadship Mi Gaea (now called Inevitable). In this instance, Starkey consulted with the Agnew’s gallery on Old Bond Street in London when the owners let him know they "were thinking of putting a couple of pictures on the yacht." Said pictures were J.M.W. Turner’s complementary paintings "Going to the Ball" and "Returning from the Ball," which were located on the forward and aft bulkheads of the dining salon. Starkey also designed a detail in the wall that would allow the paintings to be concealed so the owner could decide to whom he would show them. "Eventually he had very good copies made for insurance reasons, but it was an interesting feature," says the designer.

Top: Mylin IV’s Picasso-adorned owner’s lobby. Photograph courtesy of Donald Starkey. Bottom: A unique space aboard Candyscape. Photograph by Henry Bourne. (Click images to enlarge)

The medium being employed by these designers is certainly not restricted to painting. Aboard the 147-foot Benetti Candyscape, designer Brigitta Spinocchia artfully combined photography, sculpture and rare objects alongside famous paintings throughout the yacht. Highlights include a collection of vintage cameras and authentic James Bond props in the media lounge and a Giacometti coffee table base in the main salon. Starkey is also responsible for implementing an early Dale Chihuly glass installation in a yacht interior. Before the renowned glass artisan made his mark on the ceiling of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, he completed a beautiful "faux aquarium" aboard the 144-foot Heesen formerly known as Honey Money (now called Harbour Moon). The owner wanted a live aquarium, but he was dissuaded by the weight and care it would require. Starkey suggested instead a work in glass that would be visible from both the foyer and dining room, with the ability to see through it. As art collectors, the owners agreed and hired Chihuly and his team to install close to $1 million worth of glass on the yacht, including the inside of the Starkey-designed display case separating the dining room and the lobby.

The VIP cabin on The Maltese Falcon is enlivened by this painting from the owner’s personal collection. Photograph by Giuliano Sargentini. (Click image to enlarge)

There is greater design awareness on the part of yacht owners today as the population as a whole becomes savvier and more evolved regarding this au courant topic. "Yachts are getting bigger and therefore are more suitable for displaying this type of art," says Freivokh.

Whether it’s a Picasso lithograph subtly taking the focus of your main and dining salon (as aboard the recently refit Palmer Johnson Helios2) or multiple works from Roy Lichtenstein, Josef Albers and Agnes Martin (as with Disdale’s design of the recent Lürssen launch Ice), fine art is becoming a valuable asset to the fine yacht interior.