Within Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s Art-Crammed Modernist House Overlooking the Pacific Ocean

A busy routine, nevertheless, did not maintain Dean from being a fingers-on collaborator for the duration of the 9-month-prolonged job, suggests Behun. “He life and breathes that dwelling he understands each individual sq. inch of it. Being remote would typically be an obstacle, [but] he was so in tune with what he realized he needed, and that is why every thing just clicked.” Erected in 2007, the cantilevered construction contains ground-to-ceiling glass, white concrete, grand walkways, manicured courtyards, and floating staircases. Eager on generating the dwelling far more family-helpful and considerably less like a area a “superhero would are living in,” Behun introduced in warmth by introducing wooden aspects, Moroccan wool rugs, and seating upholstered in comfortable materials like shearling and cotton velvet. The palette leans intensely on colors that harmonize with the views—golden sands, caramel browns, buttery cognacs. “The interiors do not in any way shout they’re easy and timeless,” says Behun, later introducing, “It was by no means heading to be about striving to upstage the natural environment, the architecture, or the art.”

Dean and Keys’s artwork assortment, amassed above 20 a long time and totaling extra than 1,000 functions, is as extensive as it is enviable. A long time back, the pair selected to target on getting pieces by African American and African artists, ranging from Kehinde Wiley and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye to Barkley L. Hendricks and Henry Taylor. They also have a treasure trove of Gordon Parks images—the major in personal hands. “It truly feels like he’s a grandfather to us,” suggests Keys of the celebrated lensman. “To be equipped to maintain his selection alongside one another and for it to reside in the house of Black artists is truly extremely psychological for me.”

In accordance to Thelma Golden, director and main curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, “Alicia and Kasseem see them selves not only as collectors of artwork but as custodians of the culture.” She continues, “Over the many years, I’ve watched their assortment establish as their vision has widened and expanded to produce a selection that really represents the breadth and depth of the do the job getting made by Black artists.” Dean, a member of the board of the Brooklyn Museum, and Keys also acquire to be in close local community with fellow creatives. “I enjoy that 90 % of the art in the dwelling is by artists who are now our close friends,” Dean boasts. “We’ve damaged bread with them, they’ve partied at our household, they’ve expended the evening. It’s not transactional for us.”