the personal aesthetics of mr g’s greenwich village townhouse, a 1860 building, gutted and rebuilt in 1952, appears strangely contemporary in the unstudied settings for his collections of art, twenties and fifties objet and furnishings. david hockney, frank stella, a personal portrait by andy warhol and a photo taken by cecil beaton all live too happily together by the living room fireplace, visible past the eames chair and 50’s venini handkerchief vase.
geldzahler was adamant;’the collector is ruthless in giving away or selling that which no longer radiates’. his romance with with his collections had to give him emotional and intellectual sustenance.
the opposite brick living room wall displays basquiat, philip gaston and portraits of mr g by hockney, irving penn on the sideboard. the living room sports an international style curved staircase and more hockney, ellsworth kelly, jasper johns and barnett newman in the dining room, lit by a 70’s adi finzner pendant lamp. the dining room room is cleverly connected by a half-height divider, acting as a display plinth for a edward avedesian sculpture and some daum and lalique vases. the step and surface finish change completes the seperation.

the bedroom is dominated by a basquiat painting, a 30’s style victorian revival sofa and convenient, practical shelving. elsewhere across the room one would find more works by kelly, arnold newman and more penn.
although mr g’s collector sensibilities in arts and furnishings span the styles of several decades, the distinctness of his style and the un- decorated nature of the spaces, lends a quality to it that like the man, could only be described as memorable.

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