The Livingroom of Thomas Dellert-Dellacroix in his Loft in Berlin-Kreuzberg

In the 70’s, Andy Warhol decided that Tommy Dollar sounds better than Thomas Dellert. That was the time of the ‘Sex Pistols’ and Dellert was a punk rocker and follower of Warhol. Wether ‘Phantom of the Opera’ or ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’: The multi talent Dellert left out hardly any art- and music genre. Since five years, the native of Stockholm, with compassionate connections to the Swedish royal house, lives in Berlin Kreuzberg. The 120 square meter loft of the former Berlin Wall painter is full of memories and dedicated pictures from Yoko Ono and Michael Jackson to Nina Hagen. One isn’t surprised that the antique Samovar was a present of the Russian tsar family to one of Dellert’s ancestral and that he enjoyed the, meanwhile empty, caviar cans together with the erstwhile Shah of Persia and his wife, Empress Farah Diba.

Multimedia-artist, actor, singer, painter & film maker: Thomas Dellert-Dellacroix

MyStylery: Your life took you to many different cities, Paris, London, New York. Today you live in a former chocolate fabric in Berlin. Does an artist have to be here nowadays?
Thomas Dellert: No, to me, Berlin is only a stopover. I’m restless and in thoughts already somewhere else. Maybe I’ll go back to Paris or Stockholm next.

Highheel on telephone: Artpiece by Thomas Dellert

MS: In your loft you live with your wife and two children. And you also work here…
TD: I never separate work and privacy. My life is my work.

This is what the home of a manic collector looks like

MS: Two times within five years you got robbed. Do the things that stayed with you become a different meaning?
TD: Yes, such as Miles Davis’ trumpet or my collection of stockings from the 30s and 40s. Among is also a pair that Marlene Dietrich gave to me in 1973. Especially the things that can’t be replaced are the important ones. Therefore I saved all my projects on harddrive, which I keep in a hundred years old, very thick steal-safe.

Dellert loves provocation – even and especially in his art

MS: Wherever you look around here, you always find something new. Have you always been a collector?
TD: Yes, a passionate one. My style is creative and full of love. The carpets I designed myself. But I also like Danish design, such as the chair from Kjaerholm.

The black leather chair is by Kjaerholm, the carpets are Dellert-Design

MS: How did you get the idea of wallpapering your bedroom with a leopard print?
TD: (laughs) Since I was 18 I always had a leo-wallpaper. It’s the energy from back then, which I hope for and thereby get back. Now I am 60, three times divorced, survived fires and car accidents. Today I’m standing in the Autumn of life and look back.

Wherever one looks, there is always something new to discover

MS: Kitchen furniture, floor, lampshades, nearly all walls are black here. Why?
TD: I never really thought about this. Black isn’t a color, it’s a powerful basis, a symbol and has something sedative. When I close my eyes, I see black, but also all the other colors. Actually black is the beginning and ending of everything.  BvH

Besides Andy Warhol, Dellert is the only artist who ever designed a SL-Edition for Mercedes

Thomas Dellert’s likeness as a bottle label – also an expression of his versatility

Dellert – who was named Tommy Dollar by Andy Warhol – was enthusiastic about pop art and inspired Warhol to his camouflage series

VIP toilet: On the walls pictures, autographs and dedications from Nina Hagen to Michael Jackson

Former Berlin wall painter Dellert, who was born just eight years after the end of WWII, deals in his works with the war theme, the Holocaust and the division of Germany

Thomas Dellert in his bedroom: Here he also keeps treasures of his collection such as the snakeskin-heels of Leni Riefenstahl or a stage outfit of Jimi Hendrix

Dellert’s art is represented among others in ‘The Absolut Vodka’ Collection and ‘The Heinz Collection’ and the Holocaust Memorial Museum

Dellert was already fascinated of leoprints as a jung man. Today his entire bedroom is papered with it

Memories of Africa. Dellert lived in New York, Barcelona, twelve years in Paris, eight years in London, in Barcelona and in Stuttgart

Customized workplace

Dellert has a certain penchant for the morbid

And again Leo: this time not a print, but a real one

Contact Thomas Dellert:

www.thomasdellert.com

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Livingroom: The painting by Mauritius (1987) shows Sigmund Loewe, the inventor of television next to the physicist Albert Einstein. Sofa by Living Divani, Vintage chair by Hans Wegner

A cool new building in Berlin, in the attic of the summerhouse there is a modern living room with several floors – Japanese Zen-garden inclusive. The man of the house is a bustling businessman, a cosmopolitan, who finds the balance to his intensive travel life in the growing of orchids. Of course with the appropriate greenhouse.

Internet Entrepreneur, author and Art Collector Hubertus Hoffmann – always busy

MyStylery: Growing of orchids is an unusual hobby for a metropolitan amid a metropolis like Berlin…
Hubertus Hoffmann: True. But these plants amaze me since the age of 16. It’s not about money or stocks, but about beauty and exotic. The greenhouse is my romantic little jungle.

Zen garden and green house on the roof top terrace

MS: Your roof garden is a little green dream. Was it the inspiration for the initiative “Green on the Roof”?
HH: Unfortunately there is less and less green in the cities, but huge, unused roof surfaces. Our target of more than 500 supporters of “Green on the Roof” is, to greening half of all roof areas over the next few years. This is technically feasible. Regrettably, the 100 year old, antiquated authority regulations are often in the way, they must be adapted to the needs of today.

Dining area and open kitchen with a portrait of Twiggy

MS: You lived in many international cities. Is there something you miss in Germany?
HH: A lot of the Germans often lack the humor, the airy. Same applies to their flats. Most of them are still fun-free zones and also stuffy.

The reception committee in the entrée is “revolution kitsch” from China. Andy Warhol’s “Cow” keeps an eye on it

MS: Apropos: You draped a funny welcoming committee in the hallway…
HH: …that is revolution kitsch from China. The porcelain-figures I spotted at a flea market in Hong Kong. Above Mao and Co hangs the pink cow from Andy Warhol, that’s a good contrast, isn’t it?

A special souvenir to Hubertus Hoffmann is the biker jacket of the Rolling Stones of one of their last concerts in the US

The photos of Keith Richards have been shooted by Peter Lindbergh

The guitar of the Rolling Stones signed by all band members

MS: Absolutely. What about the framed biker-jacket?
HH: This one’s from one of the last concerts of the Rolling Stones in the USA, beneath is a guitar from a Stones-concert. All members of the band signed it. But I also like the Bismarck-portrait from Lenbach from 1897, which I bought at an auction. Besides stands the officer sword of my father. Every piece has its relevance.

The Bismarck portrait was painted by Franz von Lenbach in 1897, below the officer’s sword from Hubertus father

The home office of Hubertus Hoffmann

MS: Which piece are you especially proud of?
HH: In 1988 I bought a poster from Gerhard Richter for 50 DM in my hometown Goslar by the Harz, when he got the Kaiserring. Back then he also signed the “candle” for me. Today the painting’s value increased a thousand-fold. I also really like my little African collection; especially the antique headman’s chair from Ethiopia or the headman’s jewelry, both pieces cost 700 Euros only.

Gerhard Richter has signed the poster “Die Kerze”

MS: A succeeded lifestyle is…
HH: …when the flat frames as an event, old and new, inexpensive and gallant being combined. My afternoon tea for example simply tastes best from the old Rosenthal-cups from my mother. Important to me are good photographs and paintings on the wall. Many have amazing furniture, but awful art or none at all.

The ensuite bathroom …

… is adjacent to the bedroom. In the background the limited Helmut Newton book “Sumo”

MS: From your point of view, what are furnishing-sins?
HH: TV’s. They are black holes which get bigger and bigger and start dominating rooms. I hang a picture in front of every TV-screen, which, if needed, moves to the side when pressing a button. Often flats are lumbered up. Furnishing should be easy with cozy snuggle-corners.

Art by Christo on the corridor …

… and so it turns to a gallery

MS: Is there an interior-investment, which you wouldn’t repeat?
HH: As a student I lived, probably like most, with Ikea-furniture. Not one piece lived through the years. Since all these years probably around 15.000 DM came about, which I should have invested in art or a good furniture piece. I can only advice against buying mass merchandise. Vintage-furniture and good photo-art however increase in value. By the way, the best deals can be made at online-auctions. BvH

The robot man by Nam Yun Paik

The staircase leads to the upper floor. Again the functional architecture convinced

In the gallery, the photographic work “Pope” …

… and “Dalai Lama”, both by Tom Lemke – created in collaboration with Hubertus Hoffmann – entitled “Champions and The Art of Tolerance”

On the upper floor there is the guest area

A great mix of art and souvenirs

African Art and a photographic work by Michael Poliza

Painting by A.R. Penck

Humor may not be missing in the interior: The figures are flea market finds from Hong Kong. Hubertus bought “Angie” in Berlin. Love it!

For more information

about “Grün aufs Dach” (green on the roof) on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gr%C3%BCn-aufs-Dach/1565000283717883?fref=ts

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