Total works of art: we round up restaurants and bars conceived by artists as 'Gesamtkunstwerke'
Total works of art: we round up restaurants and bars conceived by artists as 'Gesamtkunstwerke'
Spurred on by David Shrigley's restaurant design for London's Sketch, we've dug into our archive to round up a gang of artists who have stepped away from the gallery to re-imagine hospitality spaces as all-encompassing works of art. Shrigley's Sketch creation follows on from Martin Creed's design for the same space (pictured), for which he paved the room with zigzagged, multi-coloured marble flooring, and fitted it out with an eclectic assortment of multi-hued furniture and tableware - with each piece being unique.
Last year's Frieze Art Fair in New York saw German artist Tobias Rehberger transplant a dazzling version of his favourite Frankfurt drinking den into Chelsea's Hôtel Americano. Rehberger's smart replica, Bar Oppenheimer, featured the identical proportions of the Frankfurt bar, but came emblazoned with striped graphics, dubbed 'dazzle camouflage'.
Designed by artist Ry Rocklen, Absolut's trophy 'Art Bar' installation at the 2013 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach was one of the triumphs of the vodka brand's ongoing pop-up bar series. For 'Night Court' - the most extensive manifestation of Rocklen's 'Trophy Modern' collection to date - a basketball court on Miami's oceanfront was transformed into a bouncing bar scene, featuring bleachers, a ping pong and chess table, all made from trophy parts
Artist Piero Golia launched Chalet Hollywood in 2013 as a gesamtkunstwerk that repurposed an abandoned storage area in Los Angeles into a low-lit, intimate members' club. Golia enlisted architect Edwin Chan to blend the aesthetics of cabaret with an alpine mountain getaway, carving out a late night LA escape. Photography: Joshua White
To celebrate the arrival of Damien Hirst’s ‘Relics’ retrospective at Doha’s Al Riwaq Exhibition Space last year, the British artist teamed up with Miuccia Prada to create a desert mirage in the form of a pop-up juice bar in Qatar. Located within a nearby Bedouin tent, the ‘Prada Oasis and Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy Juice Bar’ came decked out as a drug store, acting as a reinterpretation of the artist’s late 1990s Pharmacy restaurant
Private Parisian members' club Silencio was conceived by film director, and visual artist David Lynch to act as a temple of the arts, housing a bar, library, cinema screen and stage for private performances. Located in the Paris neighbourhood of Montmartre, Silencio opened in 2011, with interiors resembling Lynch's film sets from Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive
