Interior designer Chris Boutlier recently opened his personal art collection to friends and fellow Corcoran members so they could view rare pieces by Kara Walker, Monet, Diego Rivera and Steven Meisel alongside those of local artists such as Sebastian Martorana and Beverly West that Boutlier and his partner, attorney Aaron Flynn, say represents an “odd combination of their interests.”
“We tend to buy artwork that most people wouldn’t buy and I think that’s part of the attraction,” Boutlier told Yeas & Nays at his Dupont Circle home.
“Otherwise no one would buy it; no one would be maintaining it.”
Much of their collection tends to be erotic and provocative, like an original Kara Walker piece, “Bureau of Refugees,” depicting a rape scene, a Sebastian Martorana crying sculpture dedicated to the lost generation of children of the Holocaust and “Seems harmless” by Flynn’s brother Nolan reflecting the maniacal workings of the Ku Klux Klan.
Now an independent interior designer, when he was with Adams Design Inc., Boutlier designed Vice President Joe Biden’s home during the transition, Infanta Cristina’s home in Chevy Chase, and the home of Emily Spitzer, sister of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
