Collectors: An artful marriage: she picks, he learns to like

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Ted Loos

Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein with a Gutai painting at their home in San Francisco. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein have perfected a low-key California attitude about their success that takes years of practice. Married collectors and philanthropists who have reached a happy place — Mr. Silverstein is the co-founder of the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners — they are enjoying life and don’t particularly feel the need to prove themselves further. At home, even the guest level has a shiny blue John McCracken painting over the bed and a Dan Flavin light piece in the hall, adjacent to a heavy, translucent Roni Horn sculpture that required reinforcing the floor. Upstairs, amid concrete walls and copious light, there are works by Maurizio Cattelan, Kurt Schwitters and Alexander Calder. Their bedroom features a small Pipilotti Rist projection piece. [More]