Susan and Michael Hort have been scooping up cutting edge artists before they become household names since the mid 1980's. The Horts were two of John Currin's first supporters, they count Kehinde Wiley among their friends, and they probably got the Elizabeth Peyton painting that hangs in their bedroom in exchange for a cheese sandwich when Peyton was first starting out. The Horts know how to find talent early, to collect deep, and hold until it is time to get out.

Over the weekend, the Hort Family and The Rema Hort Mann Foundation graciously invited the (quasi) public to explore their humble abode, and to see a VERY small selection of their extensive art collection. A friend and I met early on Saturday morning for a walk through; before families were allowed into their home. We were met at the entrance by an incredibly engaged but unassuming gentleman. He greeted us with a smile, said 'Hello' and reminded us to check our bags around the corner.

Bags checked. I asked a security attendant if I could take pictures. He said 'Yes.' We started on the 5th floor and worked our way up. Between floors five and six, I had seen several people with point-and-shoot cameras and countless guests taking photos with smart phones. I had taken 18 photos when we reached one of the last sections of the home on the seventh floor.

I snapped a picture of what looked like a bunch of aspirin spilt on an astroturfed shelf in a closet. The shutter had barely closed when a middle school aged young woman (girl?) said "I don't think you can take pictures. May I watch you erase it please?" I was startled but happy to comply. As soon as the image disappeared from the screen, Rema Hort (Rema Hort Mann's niece), said 'Thank you' and was back in the middle of the room explaining to us how the sculpture of the tallest man in the world was built to a scale that requires EVEN HER to have to bend down to whisper sweet nothings into his ear. Rema was amazing at telling the story, you can catch a little of her sincere enthusiasm here.

Before leaving, we did a second quick review of the entire space to make sure we could award our Grand Prize. My selection was on a bed among many works of marker/pen/glitter/crayon on 8x11 paper. Horts as Monsters is a compelling analysis of the inner workings of an interesting family, from the perspective of REMA HORT (our budding photoeditor/contemporary art historian)! Rema has a great sense of humor, she is fearless of pen on paper, and she has cultivated a supportive collector base early in her career.

After a quick awards ceremony, we took the elevator to the first floor, placed bets on how much art in this Hort residence we thought was insured, got our bags and headed for the door. On our way out, our humble greeter stepped away from his conversation, looked at us both and straight out of Walmart's employee training manual he said 'Hello, my name is Michael, thank you for coming, please come and visit us again.'

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The following are images that were shot before I was told I could not shoot and after I was told that I could.