Madonna is back with her new album Confessions II, a follow-up to 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor. This occasion is a good time to look back on the Grammy-winning singer’s career and life, including her 1990s New York City apartment, which was designed by her late brother Christopher G. Ciccone.
Designing the Apartment
Madonna first purchased the apartment with her ex-husband Sean Penn, and later added two more units and gave the home a complete overhaul with the help of architect Stephen Wang and her brother Christopher G. Ciccone.
According to the report, Madonna entrusted her brother with the design of her Los Angeles house and never thought of having anyone else envision and execute the New York space.
Christopher G. Ciccone has no formal art training, but he designed the stage sets for the Blonde Ambition tour and is an artist in his own right.
The Apartment’s Style
The style that emerged is a classic early Art Deco look, with Ciccone keeping as many original details of the 1915 building as possible, such as moldings and fireplaces.
He paid attention to all-new minutiae, including the doorknobs and the color of screws, and wanted to stay away from American Deco and late Deco because he felt this style was easier to live with and would age well.
The main problem was to make the three apartments feel as though they had always been one, which Christopher G. Ciccone and Stephen Wang achieved.
Madonna’s Art Collection
Madonna’s art collection is the key to the apartment, with vintage photographs, mostly of female nudes, including works by André Kertész, looking more like a series of abstract shapes than human figures.
A Salvador Dalí depicts a veiled red heart, somehow fitting for this comfortable yet completely stylized environment.
Everything Madonna does tells a story, and she takes the narrative out of the art and puts it into her work.
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For people like Madonna, who have a deep connection to art and design, a space like this apartment is not just a reflection of their personal taste but also a way to express their creativity and individuality.
This is evident in the way Madonna has curated her art collection and designed her apartment, which shows her ability to bring different elements together to create a unique and cohesive space, much like designing a guesthouse that requires careful planning.
The Kitchen and Dining Room
The kitchen is in direct contrast to the main living areas, a combination of white tile and stainless steel.
Madonna requested a breakfast nook that was made to resemble a booth in a 1950s diner, and over this booth is a 1927 photograph by Jacques-Henri Lartigue of two women called The Rowe Twins.
The dining room across the vestibule features a highly burnished Art Deco table that was one of the first pieces bought by Penn and Madonna.
Madonna’s Bedroom and Bath
Taking center stage in Madonna’s bedroom is a king-size bed, with Ciccone’s version of Printz’s accordion-folded head and footboards, in front of a series of tied-back draperies.
The bed is theatrical but subdued, very appropriate to Madonna, and she wanted yellow in the room, but Ciccone didn’t exactly want to put lemon on the walls.
He found a shade of yellowish beige that every piece of fabric and every object in the room picks up on and reflects.
The bath features a series of repeating pointed Moorish arches, echoing the vaulted hallway, and Stephen Wang had to figure out how to work out a door with a vaulted head and make the hardware work too.
According to Christopher Ciccone, Stephen Wang was great in letting his creativity take precedence, and he learned a lot from watching him work.