Marlowe Granados on her collection

The author walks us through her art collection and ethos

Marlowe Granados is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Happy Hour. You might have also seen her write for publications such as Interview Magazine, the Cut, and Airmail. As well as being profiled and reviewed in the likes of The New Yorker, the New York Times, and New York Magazine.

I love Marlowe for many reasons—foremost for the way she observes the world around her and herself. There’s a strong sense of being known by her. Often when I’m telling her a story about something I’ve done recently, she’ll reply “Of course you did,” and I’m struck by the sense that she might know me better than I know myself. I think this lends itself to collecting: having a strong sense of the world around you, as well as yourself, makes it easier to trust your own taste.

I chatted with Marlowe recently about her collecting habits. While she might be more well known for her collection of clothing—her archive, as she refers to it—she also has an impressive art collection.

What do you collect? 

Paintings, sculptures, Murano glass—I really want to start collecting those Staffordshire dog figurines, but they take up so much space! Oh, also Mid-Century brass and lucite box bags. 

When did your collection habits begin? 

I grew up spending a lot of time at my grandparent’s house, and it's one of those places with no corner left bare. My grandmother collects crystal vases and Murano glass, too. I started really getting into collecting when it came to clothes. I have this obsession with having a few archetypal pieces from a designer's tenure at whatever fashion house. I have quite a few Prada pieces from my favourite seasons, FW 2000, FW 2011, etc. etc.. Michael Kors at Celine, Margiela at Hermès would be nice. In the last six years, I shifted to wanting to own more art, so I started buying from my artist friends. 

Do you have any rules for collecting? 

I'm very quick to decide whether I like something or not. For paintings, I'll always try to make the price work if it's something I love—no hard and fast rules. I always want more and more art. If I could, I would have something from artist Danielle Mckinney. I just saw Franz Kaka is showing these beautiful works by Karice Mitchell (that I inquired about!), and I just discovered these paintings by Alisher Kushakov. I think my taste has become more and more obvious; I love paintings of women, scenes from their lives, or, like my Brittany Shepherd sculpture—signs that a woman was present. Just like in my style, I love colour and texture, too. I'm a fan of Layla Andrews's paintings of food—lobster, fish etc, Yulia Iosilzon's paintings of these kind of colourful, feminine spectres. Rae Klein, Claire Milbrath (I've been dying for one of her paintings for I think...a decade?), Ash Roberts's paintings of almost waterlily-esque scenes. Over all interested in being surrounded by thoughtfully beautiful things.

You're tapped into the contemporary art market—where and how are you discovering these artists?

Obviously I have been to art fairs for my reportage. I always love seeing what's at NADA in Miami. I like tagging along to openings wherever I am. I also really trust the taste of my friends and know that they understand what I like and what I'd be interested in buying. People send me things they think I would like. Sometimes it could even be a work that I would want as my next book cover (As per the painting on the cover of the Verso edition of Happy Hour by Leia Bryans and photo on the inside flaps by photographer Grant Cornett who years and years ago, I knew I would want something of his for my first book in whatever capacity). I'm much more visual than other writers, as you know I also paint in my spare time, so I get excited talking with artists about how they work and what their current obsessions are. I like beautiful things and I like being around them!

How do you showcase your collections? 

Everything is on display in my house. I have a Brittany Shepherd sculpture that used to sit on my coffee table that was such a conversation piece simply because people thought that it was a dirty glass (It's a martini glass with a napkin stained with a lipstick mark forever floating in resin). Some things still need to be framed or even hung, but they're all on display leaning on walls or on furniture. It's a bit chaotic, but that's my style. My friend Elise Troister just started doing murals in people's homes that I desperately want but I almost want her to do it on a big sheet of linen or something so I can take it with me wherever I move. 

Describe your process of collecting—from searching to acquisition.

This is so gauche, but as an author, I get a few bulk payments a year for royalties or whatever, and this is the time I'll be more in the mood to make a purchase. Besides that, I am on every estate sale organizer's mailing list. Instagram has been a useful catalogue for me to find paintings that I like, and I usually save them in a folder. If curiosity strikes, I contact the artist directly, and they send me their price list, or their gallerist does. I'll ask about how to keep it in the best condition because I really do feel like a steward. 

A Spotlight on Marlowe’s Collection

Bowl of Cherries—unknown (signed Raul)

This was one of my estate auction finds. It's an oil painting and I find the composition so beautiful with the cigarette left lit on the box of matches...I really just fell in love with it immediately. I set timers and everything, eventually winning the auction online. I wish I knew more about it! There had been another painting at the house by the same artist but it wasn't as enigmatic, this one just has something.  

Dinner in Milan I—Andie Dinkin

I love Andie! She's obsessed with Florine Stettheimer, just like me. I was determined to have something by her, so I emailed her a year ago asking for a price list. I hadn't even connected that months prior I had been to Gigi's in LA and seen her mural there a la Bemelman's. This piece is just something I would own. There's an old world glamour to her paintings that I feel a kinship to, not in the glamour of it but in the restoration of it, bringing it into contemporary times. It's a work on paper, so I had it professionally framed and put behind museum glass. 

Diptych—Jeanine Brito

I honestly should ask Jeanine if there's a specific name for these paintings. This was a commission I asked from Jeanine years ago, maybe 2020? Early into her official painting career. I have another one I bought from her even earlier! This is obviously a portrait of me and a painting of my novel. Really, the only brief I gave her was to read my book, and whatever inspired her to paint would be what I would get. It's funny seeing yourself through someone else's eyes. This portrait haunts me...in a good way. People have commented that they find it odd that I have a portrait of myself in my house, but isn't it more strange if someone had a portrait of me in theirs?

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