To artists and designers, a home is a canvas on which they can project themselves, a testing ground for creative impulses, a place to display the objects that inspire them, a venue for experimentation with forms and materials that later appear in their own work.

In this unique volume, photographer Bärbel Miebach captures the unique spirit of the private living quarters of twenty-five internationally known figures including Ellsworth Kelly, Catherine Malandrino, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Andres Serrano, Hunt Slonem, Vivienne Tam, and Andrea Zittel. From self-designed, floor-to-ceiling trompe l'oeil tile to renovations of urban lofts as Japanese farmhouses, pristine all-white spaces, sixteenth-century cathedrals, and bold apartments that take design cues directly from the vibrant colors of the inhabitant's own artwork.

Over 200 color images reveal a wealth of unique, personal approaches to the challenge of incorporating creative space into a home. Of interest to anyone who has wondered what the living rooms and studios of famous artists might contain, The Art of Living provides a colorful, varied look at a group of diverse artistic individuals who live and work in homes from New York and the Hamptons to Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert.

Photographer: Bärbel Miebach
Text: Claudia Steinberg