Artist William Kentridge’s dining room displays many of his works, including a drawing of a fish for one of his daughters. Photograph: © Jean-François Jaussaud. All artworks by William Kentdrige, courtesy of the artist.

Artists’ homes are often an extension of, and an insight into, their creative practice. What do they keep on their mantelpiece? What does their kitchen look like? Are they the type to cook lavish dinners for friends and acquaintances? Or are they the sort who only use the oven to store books? A peek inside someone’s home can tell you so much about a person and the way they work.

Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist agrees. In the introduction to the book, “Inside the Homes of Artists: For Art’s Sake,” he writes of visiting 19th-century painter Gustave Moreau’s former home in Paris. It was, he says, “a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ [total work of art], full of Moreau’s drawings and collections. It was like looking into the mind of the artist, enabling me to start to understand his way of thinking.”

The book—published by Rizzoli and written by collector Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian—invites readers into the private domains and studios of 24 of the most prolific artists working today. For all of them, the home plays a pivotal role in their practice: as a staging ground for in-process works; a compendium of inspirations and objects to be referenced; and often as an archive of rough drafts or discarded ideas.

Claire Tabouret hand-painted the ceiling of her mezzanine library and the walnut bookcases were made by her husband, carpenter and musician, Nathan Thelen. Photograph: © Jean-François Jaussaud. All artworks by Claire Tabouret, courtesy of the artist.

Some have filled their home with their own art, such as the Los Angeles-based French artist Claire Tabouret, known for her evocative, figurative paintings. Between the antique wooden ceiling beams of her 1920s cottage in the neighborhood of Los Feliz, she has painted vibrantly colored, fresco-like portraits inspired by Tarot cards—yet based on real figures from her family.

Others have banished their work almost entirely, preferring to keep a strict separation between studio and sanctum. This is the case with Indian artists Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher, acclaimed for their sculptures and installations—Gupta’s often incorporating everyday objects and Kher’s exploring themes of identity and mythology. The couple say that while they sometimes bring art home from the studio, they choose not to fill their house completely with it. According to the couple, they see the primary purpose of their private domain as a place to welcome friends and family, especially in the form of intimate dinner parties.

The colorful dining room is Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher’s favourite room in their house. Photograph: © Jean-François Jaussaud. All artworks by Subodh Gupta © Subodh Gupta, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, and Bharti Kher © Bharti Kher, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

The home of prolific South African artist William Kentridge—known for his evocative charcoal drawings, stop-motion animations, and multimedia installations—also centers family. Kentridge’s Arts & Crafts-style Johannesburg house comes steeped in history. The artist’s parents bought it in 1964 when he was just nine years old. After moving away and starting his own family, he returned to the house in the late 1990s with his wife and children, where they have been living ever since.

Of all the homes in the book, Kentridge’s feels the most inextricable from his practice—likely because of this history. He talks of his teenage years when he attempted—and failed—to build a makeshift studio in the garden. Later on, he turned the living room into his personal workspace, becoming the fulcrum around which his family revolved. Today, the living room is an inviting retreat, with several shelves of small bronze sculptures from his 2017 “Lexicon” series presiding over heaving bookcases, a handsome hearth and several comfortable sofas.

Then there is the Rio de Janeiro home of Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, known for his large-scale experimental installations, which, as the author writes, “make or remake connections between the body and the mind, between ourselves and our surroundings, between different individuals, between humankind and nature, between the past, present, and future.” Neto tells her he chose the apartment, sandwiched between the city’s vibrant Copacabana beach and the soaring Sugarloaf mountain, for its proximity to nature.

Colorful tiles decorate Ernesto Neto’s bathroom, which also has ceramics by Regina Kemp. Photograph: © Jean-François Jaussaud. All artworks by Ernesto Neto, courtesy of the artist.

Throughout Neto’s home one can sense a yearning for a closer relationship with the natural world. In addition to art, plants and a few pieces of mid-century Brazilian furniture is Neto’s vast collection of objects made by the Indigenous communities of Brazil, which includes hanging textiles by the Shipibo and Huni Kuin tribes, who he praises for the sophisticated knowledge they have developed for working in sync with the earth.

It would be convenient to declare a thread that winds its way through these homes, but inevitably every one is deeply personal. Yes, they are filled with art, and are largely eccentric and luxurious, teeming with beautiful souvenirs from extensive travels and covetable antique furniture. But once you get into the minute details of why these artists have chosen to furnish their lives just so, it’s clear that each of their spaces is as unique to them as their practice.

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