Philippe Cohen: LLiving with Art and Design

Those of you who have been reading my blog for long know how fortunate I feel about my role as a design historian and educator, about meeting some extraordinary people in the world of design, some of whom who have become a part of my life. One of them is Dr. Philippe Cohen, a former dentist turn-art-advisor, a man of an extraordinarily intellectual taste in art, design, and style. Today, as a part of a special program that I conduct in Tel Aviv, directed by Dafna  Ish-Hurvitz, and sponsored by the Parisian auction house Artcurial, I was invited, together with a group of 14 women, for a visit at Cohen’s spectacular and inspiring home in Herzelia, Israel. Founder of the Tel-Aviv-based branch of Artrucial, he has been particularly known in the contemporary art world for a major collection of conceptual art, which he has carefully assembled and curated over the past 25 years, and which consists works by such artists as Pierre Huyghe, Paul McCarthy, Loris Gréaud, and Danh Vō. In the most generous way, Cohen gave us a tour of his home, speaking about his passion and about the power of living with great art and design.