Yahoo Finance Delve into the story behind the Fife Arms
Deep in the Scottish Highlands lies one of the world’s finest hotels. Opened in 2018 by the art aficionados Iwan and Manuela Wirth (the powerhouses behind the international gallery empire Hauser & Wirth), the Fife Arms in Aberdeenshire is now the subject of a beautiful book.
Published in December, the volume will take readers on a guided tour of the Braemar residence, which holds incredible art at its core. Together, its 46 rooms house more than 14,000 antique or specially commissioned artworks, all hand-picked by the Wirths. Each is inspired by a particular place, person, event or theme connected with Braemar or with Scottish history: Room 23, for example, is devoted to Robert Louis Stevenson, who started writing his famous adventure novel, Treasure Island, while staying in a house across the road. Sandy walls are decorated with palm-trees, the headboard features the quote ‘Every night the landscape retreats into maps & sheets’ and the cushions on the bed are festooned with exotic jungle motifs.
Co-written by the Wirths and Dominic Bradbury, a writer who specialises in architecture and design, the book celebrates both the powerful sense of heritage that runs through the hotel and its strong connections with contemporary culture. Alongside their collection of masterpieces by legendary artists such as Lucian Freud and Pablo Picasso, the Wirths have commissioned living artists and designers to create striking objets d’art, from Richard Jackson’s neon ‘Red Deer Chandelier’, made from replicas of bag pipe drones and glass antlers, to Guillermo Kuitca’s wall mural in the dining-room. These are complemented by bespoke furnishings such as Araminta Campbell’s house tweed and tartan, and beds hand-painted by artists from the region.
This lavishly designed book brings to life a unique venue that has both embedded itself into its local community and attracted the loyalty of visitors from around the world.
‘The Fife Arms’, with text by Dominic Bradbury and photographs by Sim Canetty-Clarke and Ben Addy (£90, Phaidon), is published on 4 December.
