You Can Sit on (Some) of the Art at the Horts' House

Everything is always changing in Michael and Susan Hort’s live-in museum in Tribeca.

- By Wendy Goodman

Michael and Susan Hort’s three-story, 10,000-plus-square-foot home in Tribeca is alive with art. It’s simply everywhere: on every wall, up and down the stairs, on every table some of which were made by artists too), and, in the case of one Sarah Sze, in a closet. Some of it you can sit on; there's a 1993 Franz West sofa by the fireplace and a Nari Ward piece, Tired Seats, from the same year. It has to be the most cozily lived-in all-star contemporary-art museum in the world. And it’s ever changing. The couple are constantly switching out what's on display, drawing from their 5,000-piece collection— and counting—of works by emerging artists they've built over the past 37 years.

Susan is the president of their century-old family printing business, Earth Enterprise, but earlier in her career, she was an art dealer. When the pair bought into this building in 1996, it was a time of change in their lives; they had been living in Westchester. My youngest was going to college, so the house was empty,’ says Michael. This building was abandoned. It had been most recently a warehouse for olive oil and cheese. I know that because it smelled of olive oil and cheese, so much so that all the wood floors had to be thrown out.”