Dramatic decore is the best term to sum up Limbaugh’s aesthetic tastes (click to enlarge)
It’s always fun to scrutinize the private tastes of far right pundits who make it a sport to attack the art world or anything they don’t understand. So, it’s with great joy that we cast our eyes on the garish penthouse of the loudest right winger of them all, Rush Limbaugh.
Fit for a Robber Baron (click to enlarge)
With a weekly radio audience of 14.25 million listeners, Limbaugh regularly has the leaders of the Republican party genuflecting in front of him, so I guess it’s not hard to imagine why the talk radio host thought it was appropriate to deck out his 4,600 sq-ft condo with aesthetic delusions of grandeur. I find it curious that the wrap-myself-in-the-American-flag-and-pretend-I-can-relate-to-Joe-the-Plumber Limbaugh has tastes that are far more hoity toity and European than hoi polloi and American.
Like a robber baron-era remake of a horror flick called Attack of the Architectural Moldings, the conservative talk show host’s Fifth Avenue 10-room penthouse — located between 86th & 87th Streets — is the stuff of interior design nightmares.
A whiff of the colonial? (click to enlarge)
Why he prefers faux murals that compete with his 180 degree view of Central Park is beyond me.
According to the listing, the “renowned artist Richard Smith has hand painted mural ceilings and walls throughout” … a specialist in decorative painting and finishes, Smith has other examples of his fancy brushwork, including trompe l’oeil dumbells in a private gym, on his website.
The good news is that Limbaugh is selling his New York home because he’s relocating to Florida.
Check out the listing on Corcoran.com (PDF).
Via Curbed, which has more photos of the lunatic fringe spokesperson’s Manhattan pad.
Article by Hrag Vartanian
Hrag Vartanian is editor of Hyperallergic. His work has appeared in the Art21 blog, Brooklyn Rail, NYFA's Current, Huffington Post, and Modern Painters. He serves on the board of the Triangle Arts Association and blogs regularly at HragV.com.
Hrag has written 172 articles on Hyperallergic.
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After seeing this I will never speak badly about another contemporary post-modernist again. It makes the 18th Century seem robust and frank. Positively frightening.
JVK
I think its pretty, leave Rush alone!
wow, thanks for making me day. no more comments.
1) He’s not so fringe. That’s why he’s so rich.
2) His move to Florida is NOT good news. Isn’t Ann Coulter enough for one state?
Oh yeah, also: this is an abomination, pure distilled hideousness.
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