One of the eight paintings (cropped image) by Jonas Wood on view in the penthouse.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic
One of the privileged treats for art collectors and aficionados during Armory Week is the annual viewing of the Hort Family Collection, a new hanging of a selection of the 3,000-plus artworks owned by Susan and Michael Hort, which they open to Armory Show VIPs and other guests. Though they’re open only to a select crowd, the viewings, which began 13 years ago, have become wildly popular and today can bring up to 3,000 visitors per day. Curated by art adviser Jamie Cohen Hort, the collectors’ daughter-in-law, the 2014 installation features over 150 works displayed over four floors of the family’s Tribeca home and includes works by a range of artists, from art world veterans like Cindy Sherman to lesser known emerging artists like Greg Gong, who has never had a show and is not represented by a gallery, yet.
It is widely known that the Horts have always had a penchant for emerging talent and often create not only a little buzz around greener artists they decide to bring into the fold. Though there are works on permanent display, the annual viewing is geared toward newer acquisitions. “Our one request of Jamie as she decides on what to install,” said Susan Hort in a statement on the pamphlet handed out at the event, “is that she focus on what we have purchased recently and on what we have not seen recently.” Here are a few select images from our tour of the collection.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
Greeting visitors in the first floor front gallery is an installation created on site by artist Felix Schramm, for which the artist created layers of fake walls that he then tore up.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
Three works by Thomas Houseago were on view this year beginning with this large sculpture in the first floor front gallery.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
Of the five works on view by emerging artist Christian Rosa, who was a sensation at Art LA Contemporary despite not yet having had a solo show, was this 2013 painting.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic
In the living/dining area, where guests munched on canapés, Susan and Michael’s son Peter kicked off a collection tour with this light work by Spencer Finch, which represents the molecular make-up of the atmosphere around Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
This painting by John Currin, which the Horts acquired from White Columns, is the first painting Currin ever sold. The Horts, as such, were among the artist’s first supporters.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
A salon-style hang in the master bedroom includes works from the following bevy of sought-after artists, clockwise from top left: Erik Van Lieshout, Neo Rauch, Eberhard Havekost, Karen Kilimnik, Adrian Ghenie, Richard Prince, Wilhelm Sasnal, Raymond Pettibon, Gillian Carnegie, Andreas Hofer, Elizabeth Peyton, Luc Tuymans (behind Peter Hort), Tim Eitel, and Paul P. During the tour, Peter Hort pointed to an Elizabeth Peyton painting and joked that he wasn’t sure it was authentic because one time a couple of documentarians were filming the collection and took so long with the Peyton that he said he wouldn’t be surprised if they had forged the painting and snatched the real one, leaving the forgery in its place.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
In a room on the fifth floor, there were nine works by Greg Gong an artist who, according to Peter Hort during the tour, has never had a show and is not yet represented by a gallery. We heard that since the preview, two galleries have already shown interest in the artist’s work.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
In the same room as the works by Gong is a sculpture by Lucky DeBellevue, which the family acquired with the help of the late art dealer Hudson, the founder of LES gallery Feature Inc. who died in February this year.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
Hanging in the sixth floor stairwell were three works by recent Columbia MFA sensation Sebastian Black.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
In the sixth floor West Gallery, another work by Houseago.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
Another view of the sixth floor West Gallery with works by Andy Coolquitt (light fixture above table), a two-toned blue sculpture by Sam Falls, and four wall works by Michiel Ceulers.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
This large splashy painting by Ella Kruglyanskaya graced the sixth floor east gallery.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
This bright work of three standing figures by LA-based painter and sculptor Ruby Neri, one of three on view, was in the sixth floor East Gallery.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
In the sixth floor North Gallery was a room devoted to the works on paper of Jon Pestoni, an artist who had his first solo show at Lisa Cooley in 2011. The bench in the center is by Brendan Fowler, but whether or not it is a work of art is debatable, according to Peter Hort, who said during the tour that Fowler made the bench for the Horts for use as a bench.
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
In the penthouse foyer were works by artist Mariah Robertson. You can also see Robertson’s photographic works on view through May 4 at the International Center of Photography show “What is a Photograph?”
Photo: Rozalia Jovanovic.
An installation by Sarah Sze, who represented the US at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Sze was a 1997 recipient of a grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation, an organization in honor of Susan and Michael Hort’s eldest daughter Rema Hort, which provides support to emerging artists as well as to cancer patients and their families.