Art & Hotellerie is a column that Orlando devotes to art projects realised by hotels, around the world. Art is one of our favourite languages and hotels represent our identity as Orlando is the only magazine in the world structured as an imaginary hotel. When these two subjects come together, excellent projects are born, which we like to recount.

Some hotels are simply legends. There are the Grande Dames, but there are also others with less long histories behind them that have become landmarks for their cities and for high society. They have become myths. In New York, one of the most legendary hotels is undoubtedly The Carlyle, now owned by the Rosewood luxury group, which while embodying the elegance of a formidable era has managed to evolve and adapt to the times, without ever betraying its soul.

We are on the corner of 76th and Madison Avenue, in the heart of the Upper East Side, New York’s chicest neighbourhood, and in 1930 The Carlyle hotel was opened, named after the essayist Thomas Carlyle by the daughter of the then owner. It is a microcosm where glamour and culture coexist. To call it a hotel is reductive, because in no time at all The Carlyle became a meeting place for the elite, and every detail – from Jan Weenix’s historic murals in the lobby to more recent artistic interventions – tells stories of culture, hospitality and talent.

The two Jan Weenix murals in the lift lobby were originally a series of five paintings commissioned by a wealthy Amsterdam merchant in the late 1600s. They were sold to newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1923. The Carlyle has owned the two paintings since the early 1940s and they have remained on display, available to all guests, ever since.

More recently (the latest renovation included designer Tony Chi), The Carlyle has transformed its penchant and love of art with a series of collaborations with famous illustrators. These works, often translated into limited editions of prints and objects, for sale in the hotel and on its website, are symbolic of a creativity that feeds off the hotel’s genius loci. One thinks of Blair Breitenstein, who immortalised, in a beautiful print, the legendary Bemelmans Bar (according to many the most beautiful bar in the city), with its cherry red martinis and napkins. Its vibrant lines and bold colours evoke an energy that, while inspired by the past, smacks of modernity. There is also Carly Beck, who has designed beautiful gift cards that take you on a magical journey through the iconic details of the Carlyle: the awning, the fireplace, the yellow sofas, the martinis and right up to the unmistakable silhouette of the building.

Art, at the Carlyle, has never been just a decoration or ornament. Rather, it is a language that connects guests to the place, creating a dialogue between past and present, between the great names that have trod its corridors – Jacqueline Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, US presidents – and the new generation of visitors attracted by its aura. Chesley McLaren celebrates Café Carlyle’s historic performer and Tony Award winning actress, Elaine Stritch. Not only was Stritch much loved for her cabaret numbers and witty stories, but she was also a resident of the hotel for 12 years. This limited edition print, made in McLaren’s characteristic style, is part of a small series immortalising the legends of the Carlyle.

But the art at the Carlyle does not just tell the story of what lives inside its walls. Kera Till, for example, has captured the buzz of life on 76th Street with ironic and vivid detail. These prints or objects for sale are an invitation to guests to take a fragment of this experience with them, becoming part of it. Perhaps this is the magic of the Carlyle: the ability to transmit its spirit to anyone who crosses its threshold. And while the marble floor of the lobby gleams like a lake in the moonlight, the illustrations by Till, Beck and Breitenstein continue to shape a legend that seems destined never to end. Among the latest artists called upon to collaborate are Clym Evernden (who has worked with many luxury brands – as well as other hotels, such as Claridge’s in London, p.s. we have interviewed him in Orlando Issue III) and Elly O, an illustrator with a fondness for travel and pink.

Assouline published The Carlyle Book in 2021, a tribute to the history of the iconic hotel that has hosted presidents and princesses, dukes and duchesses and Hollywood stars. Written by Vanity Fair’s Writer-at-Large James Reginato, the book was released to mark the hotel’s 90th anniversary and its most recent renovation. The book includes exclusive interviews with celebrities and never-before-seen photographs from the hotel’s earliest archives to today’s most exclusive parties.