She chaired the international board of directors of the Guggenheim Museum, founded an acquisitions committee for the Tate Gallery. In the Principality, where she has lived with her husband for several years, she is a member of the NMNM committee. When she talks about art, her words are expert, her gestures that of an enthusiast. Inspired by a love of art collecting during her youth in Venezuela, by her uncle Otto, who encouraged her at the age of 17 to buy her first work, a painting by Armando Reverón, icon of Venezuelan art.
Since that time, Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian has continued to enrich his collection. With parts of pop art acquired when she lived in New York, with French designers she met when she moved to Paris. Also featuring works by new British artists, led by Damien Hirst, whom she collected in her early days.
“I really like meeting artists, discovering their intimacy because I feel at ease everywhere.” she smiles, adding that she cherishes her daily life in the Principality, “a privilege to be in Monaco when we see what is happening in the world.”
“We understand an artist better by seeing his house”
For her third book, Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian gave herself a pleasure that she shares. That of introducing readers to Inside the homes of artists: for art’s sakethe living space of some of the most renowned contemporary artists of today’s creation. And really the place where they live, which is not necessarily where they work.
Throughout the pages, we penetrate the scenery of the residences of Jean-Michel Othoniel, Francesco Vezzoli, Claire Tabouret, Tracey Emin, Miquel Barcelo or Yan Pei-Ming among others.
Around twenty visits, guided by the words of Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian and photos by Jean-François Jaussaud, oscillating from plush decors to more crazy interiors.
“We better understand the work of an artist by seeing his house”, assures the author who has been collecting contemporary, modern art and design for several decades. “Myself, who is fascinated by artists, seeing their world is like reading their minds. We understand their approach.”
Intended to be international, the book is a journey from New York to New Delhi via Buenos Aires, London… and the Var too, where the tandem went to meet Bernar Venet in his house-studio. A visit, like the others, which does not lack panache.
