Rolling out wallpaper: artists are using off-the-wall themes and techniques to design wallpapers that demand attention

Art Business News, Feb, 2004 by Julie Mehta

A piece by Francesco Simeti that was shown at both exhibits was even more directly inspired by historic French wallpaper. Simeti used Photoshop to replace figures in a 1789 Jean Baptiste Reveillon wallpaper with recent newspaper images of refugees fleeing Afghanistan. Because he often uses newspaper clippings in this manner, most of his work is digitally printed. Simeti said he has sold pieces to private collectors and hotels for $3,000 to $6,000, plus production costs.

Simeti has been making wallpaper since 1997, but Virgil Marti, who works exclusively with wallpaper, made his first print in 1992. "I like the idea of producing material that can be expanded or contracted to fit a room so that the architecture becomes the frame," Marti said. His first paper is probably his most famous. "Bullies" is a screenprint featuring repeating fluorescent images of bullies from Marti's junior high school yearbook set on a floral background. Fabric Workshop, which has the pattern installed in its men's room, offered the paper for $375 a yard. Marti's "Lotus Room" includes digitally printed decals that give the delicate blossoms on the reflective silver mylar background an added dimension. The piece sells for $200 a yard.

Other pieces in one or both exhibitions included Robert Gober's provocative "Hanging Man, Sleeping Man" depicting a lynched black man and sleeping white man in a subtle repeating pattern, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami's cartoonlike "Jellyfish Eyes," and Peter Kogler's "Untitled," with its trails of computer-generated ants crisscrossing the walls.

Malting It Stick

Kippy Stroud, who curated the Fabric Workshop's exhibition, said she has pieces by Gober and Marti in her own home. "It's another form of collectors living with art. Decorators aren't interested in stuff they can't work into a color scheme with the sofa and coffee table. This is for art collectors."

Cvijanovic agreed that his work has had more response from art collectors than designers. Brooklyn's Bellwether Gallery, which represents him, sold a sprawling spring break scene he did to a corporate collector for $45,000, according to owner Becky Smith. She also said a private collector paid $20,000 for a smaller piece showing icebergs, which was hung in the family dining room.

Elisabeth Cunnick owner of A/D Gallery also in New York, has been selling wallpaper made by artists for more than 10 years. She offers a lush vine pattern by Joan Nelson in a limited edition of 1500 for $500 per roll. A famous wallpaper border by William Wegman with Weimeraners contorted into letters of the alphabet sells for $350. And a life-like living room interior scene by Lichtenstein is available in a limited edition of 1,500 for $9,500 per roll. "People might see these papers in a design magazine or they're a fan of the artist. We get lots of people buying the Wegman as a gift for a child's room," said Cunnick.

One indicator of wallpaper's lasting value may be the continued success of Zuber and Company's scenic prints, made from blocks carved more than 100 years ago. "We get everything from world travellers to history buffs to people who are looking for a major conversation piece," said Kerry Robinson, the company's director of United States operations. "Views of North America" is its best seller and even hangs in the White House. The full piece costs $28,000. "El Dorado," picturing landmarks from four continents, sells for almost $35,000. And Robinson said an old scenic paper in mint condition sold for more than $200,000 at auction.