Here Are 8 Breathtaking Luxury Hotels Around the World Where Art Is a Big Part of the Allure

In recent years, bold, blue-chip
art has become a must-have amenity at many of the world’s best
hotels. For a lot of travelers, there’s something particularly
thrilling about cohabiting with important works of art for a few
days, even if you can’t take them home. Indeed, the trend is
increasingly redefining what luxury vacations look
like. 

Just in time for the last wave
of summer holidays this August, we’ve come up with a list of eight
hotels worth visiting for their art alone, from noteworthy
contemporary collections and experiential outdoor installations, to
artist-in-residency programs and crazy decor inspired entirely by
artists. 

The Peninsula, Hong
Kong

The
Peninsula Hong Kong, the hotel giant’s flagship property, has long
been recognized as one of Asia’s best. Beyond its ornate,
colonial-era architecture and famous afternoon high tea service,
the property has also garnered attention in recent years for its
stellar art initiatives.

Beginning with the 2014 “Love
Art at the Peninsula Hong Kong” project, which offered public art
experiences led by contemporary talents like Tracey Emin and
Richard Wilson on the hotel grounds, the Peninsula’s arts program
has only expanded. It now includes a conversation series with
artists from both Hong Kong and abroad, trips to galleries and
museums around the city, and a traveling exhibition for all
Peninsula properties titled “Art in Resonance,” that comprises
immersive installation works by Janet Echelman, Iván Navarro,
Timothy Paul Myers, and the Shanghai-based artist and architect
Zhi-gang Lu of MINAX collective. 

The Dolder Grand, Zurich

The Zurich-based Dolder Grand
hotel, set on the edge of the Swiss Adilsberg forest, offers
old-world luxury and a seriously impressive collection of
contemporary art. With over 100 paintings and sculptural works by
artists like Takashi Murakami, Joan Miró, Niki de Saint Phalle, Fernando
Botero, Henry Moore, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring, and Andy
Warhol—who greets visitors via an enormous, 11-meter painting hung
above the reception desk as soon as you enter the building—the
Dolder has become an art destination of sorts in and of
itself.

With sprawling lawns and gardens
that host its largest-scale sculptures, the art experience extends
outside, offering the prospect of long, aesthetically pleasing
strolls through art and nature.

Casa Malca, Tulum

New York-based bigwig art dealer
Lio Malca—who represents artists such as KAWS, Warhol, and
Jean-Michel Basquiat—renovated a property he stumbled upon in Tulum
in 2012, filling it with striking contemporary art and turning it
into nine-bedroom boutique hotel. At Casa Malca, each bedroom
showcases bold artwork that contrasts against its otherwise
beach-y, neutral-toned interiors.

The art extends into the rest of
the hotel, too: A Keith Haring print wallpapers the hotel bar, a
KAWS sculpture features prominently in the lobby, and an immersive
light installation provides a backdrop for the ground-floor
pool. 

Hotel Lungarno, Florence

Overlooking the Arno River and
the iconic Ponte Vecchio bridge, this understated,
classically-designed boutique hotel makes up for what it lacks in
bold design with a sizeable—and stunning—art collection. Over 400
works by Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Antonio Bueno, and several
Italian contemporary and postwar painters—including Bruno
Cassinari, Virgilio Guidi, Ennio Morlotti, and Ottone Rosai—dot the
walls of the rooms, lobbies, restaurant, and charming riverfront
Picteau bar.

The sleek blue-and-white
interiors complement the hotel’s place as the sole Florentine hotel
property set upon on the Arno itself. Interior designer Michael
Bonan likens the Lungarno experience to that of a “cruise ship
sailing down the river,” explaining that the hotel was designed “to
accentuate the sense of endlessly drifting on the river, but with
the Ponte Vecchio—a symbol of Florence—as your point of
reference.”

Tourists, Massachusetts

Tucked away in North Adams,
Massachusetts, a stone’s throw away from the Massachusetts Museum
of Contemporary Art, is the recently opened Tourists hotel and
riverside retreat. Offering beautiful, city-free vistas from the
foothills of the Berkshires, the hotel—conceived as a high-design
version of the American motor lodge—comprises 48 beautifully
decorated rooms. Among its amenities are hikes around its woodland
trails, as well as tours of its immersive outdoor sculptural and
installation-based art, all made by young artists.

Recent projects include
Chime Chapel, a life-size playable structure built using
wind-chimes by the artist collective New Orleans Airlift, and a
psychedelic video installation featuring footage of the surrounding
landscape by the Chicago-based artist duo, Luftwerk.

The Hamilton Princess Hotel & Beach Clubs,
Bermuda

The famed Bermuda-based Hamilton
Princess Hotel & Beach Clubs—nicknamed “The Pink Palace” by
locals—has been around since 1885. The beachfront property boasts
around 300 modern and pop artworks, strewn about the hotel and its
grounds, including pieces by Banksy, Warhol (a whopping 40 works!),
Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, KAWS, Julian Opie, Yayoi Kusama, and Ai
Weiwei.

Every Saturday, the hotel also
offers official tours of its art, lead by the in-house
curator. 

The Alila Yangshuo, Guilin

It’s difficult to find a resort
more beautiful than the Alila Yangshuo, a former sugar factory and
cluster of 1960s buildings located an hour south of Guilin, in
southern China. The structures were rescued by the Alila group and
turned into a state-of-the-art hotel property featuring 117 rooms,
restaurants, gardens, and art-filled meditation areas. Surrounded
by limestone mountains, caves, and the winding Yulong River, the
space serves as a cutting-edge oasis far from China’s bustling
cities.

Its raw but sophisticated design
nods to its industrial past, built from cement, washed stone, and
recycled timber. As for its collection of art, it’s made up solely
of works by Chinese artists, from traditional paintings to
contemporary pieces by international stars such as Cai Guo-Qiang
and Zeng Fanzhi. 

Conrad New York
Downtown, NYC

The Conrad Downtown in New
York’s Battery Park was planned by architects Kohn Penderson Fox
with art specifically in mind. Upon entry, an enormous mural by Sol
LeWitt features prominently over the hotel’s 16-story atrium lobby,
across from which sits a sculptural piece comprised of cable-like
wires by architect Monica Ponce de Leon.

Inside, more works by the likes
of Ellsworth Kelly, Julian Schnabel, Elizabeth Peyton, and Frank
Stella are strewn around the space. All in all, the Conrad
collection totals a staggering 2,000 works, and was selected with
the help of the New York-based non-profit Public Art
Fund.

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World Where Art Is a Big Part of the Allure appeared first on
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