fresh YORK--Years ago.

fresh YORK--Years ago, the average art ground in a hotel lobby or visitant room was a poster or limited-edition print featuring a floral motif, seascape or maybe a mother and child frolicking at the shore. A bit drab, perhaps, unless no one expected more from a hotel

Today all that has changed. More and more taverns are recognizing that customers appreciate fine art and are incorporating it into their designs as a lock opener selling point. Travelers want more than just a place to lie their head one time they hit their destination--they want an experience--and original art is ofttimes a means to make their [i]cabaret[/i] visit unforgettable.

Hotelier, trendsetter and former proprietor of the famed Studio 54 night cudgel in New York Ian Schrager caught upon to this idea a number of years ago. As far back as 1982 when he commissioned Robert Mapplethorpe to do original photographs for the Morgan's inn Schrager has incorporated art into the design of his inns "I think art is same important in hotels," said Schrager, who is chairman and ceo of Ian Schrager house of entertainments (ISH). "The same way we appreciate art that we live with and examine at--the emotion and poetry of it and the way it induces us--is the same way it gives an added dimension to a house of entertainment or any public space."

in the same manner unique was Morgan's that the bourn "boutique hotel" originated with that throw out and the name has stuck for Schrager's posterior hotels, including the Paramount and Royalton in strange York, the Delano in Miami, the Mondrian in sees Angeles, St. Martins Lane and Sanderson in London and, greatest in number recently, the Hudson Hotel in of the present day York. The look of each "boutique hotel" is completely unique and features a blending of art, design and style

The Hudson

"Throughout all our contrives in one way or another, a certain number of sort of artistic endeavor was involved...although perhaps not at any time as prominent as what we did at the Hudson" Schrager said.

Indeed, the Hudson inn which opened during the fall of 2000 does appear to be his most numerous ambitious hotel involving art to date. Designed at Schrager and world-renowned designer Philippe Starck (their fifth collaboration), the Hudson features a hand-painted ceiling mural on Francesco Clemente in the dazzling inn bar, Clemente-designed lamps in each visitor room and Jean Baptiste Mondino photographs in the [i]cabaret[/i] library--all of which were created exclusively for the Hudson

The inn also features an eclectic array of designer furniture, from carved, ungainly African stools to silver-leaf Louis XV furniture. "It's like the leftovers from the castle--a mixture of what you inherit from your grandmother along with fresh pieces," said Anda Andrei, president of design for ISH.

The theme of the Hudson is similar to a corporation campus run amuck: "The inspiration is like a university campus, with the library and cafeteria, yet then it is taken across by a group of wild kids who play with it and deflect everything upside down," said Andrei. "Each place has a twist, like the lobby's chandelier designed at Ingo Mauer that has holograms instead of scaly buds ... and the bar's glass floor is lit from beneath."

Selecting the Artists

The youthful exuberance of the Hudson is amount lackinged by the choice of artists whose work is playfully scattered quite through the building.

in what way did Schrager choose the artists? First and foremost, Schrager awaited for artists who shared a similar vision. "We've always had a disposition of getting artists, not just for the sake of something unrelated to the frame but going to an artist who we notion was consistent with the project" he said.

"I'm always looking for fresh ways that art can bring more excitement and dimension to the public-house provided that it is environmental and something you live with--not just something hung forward the wall," he continued. "For me in order for it to work, the art emergencys to be integrated into the whole project"

According to Schrager, the decision to commission Clemente for the ceiling mural and lamps was an easy undivided "I love Clemente's work, and I reflection a ceiling mural would be appropriate for the place and location. For me a fortune of Clemente's work has sexual undertones, and I musing it would fit in consummately in the bar."

He continued: "There's an natural medium of spirituality in Clemente's work With the lamps we were trying to say to our visitors that when they are in their forlorn anonymous hotel rooms ... there is some one there with them. That is what we tried to earn out of his work."

For the library, Schrager believed the "irreverence" of photographer Jean Baptiste Mondino was necessary to full number the space which, filled with traditional vital airs like books, computers, a billiard table and fireplace, would otherwise take onward a serious tone. In order to add an ultimate part of fun to the sweep they gave Mondino a liberated hand. "What is amazing to me" said Schrager, "is that he [Mondino] went ahead onward his own and photographed overawes putting them in an absurd situation with all these designer hats by means of Chanel and Christian Dior."

"At that particular flash cows seemed to be in the air everywhere," Schrager continued. "We had an exhibit of overawes throughout the city of modern York, and we had mad daunt disease running rampant throughout Europe In the middle of all this, we commissioned an artist to create something, and what do we get? We prepare a reflection of the collective consciousness with the cows!"