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CZECHMATES D A PRIVILEGED PEEK INSIDE THE HOUSE THAT'S HOME TO TREASURES OF THE CZECH AVANT-GARDE. MARY AND ROY CULLEN INVITE US IN. CATCH MORE OF THE SURREALIST HITS AND GORGEOUS GLASS FROM THE CULLEN COLLECTION AT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON, THROUGH MARCH 11, 2012. ays before their splendid works on paper, canvas and glass were carted off for exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, our features editor, photographer and I descended on the pedigreed River Oaks domicile shown on these pages that's the abode of Mary and Roy Cullen. Our purpose? To document these treasures and their owners amongst them. To call this couple assiduous collectors would be an understatement, as there's something more at play here than mere acquiring. The Cullens (yes, that Cullen family) are preservers of the past, archivists of artists and revivers of lost or nearly forgotten talent — resurrecting creative voices, resuscitating visionaries, recording their nuances, lives and concerns while illuminating a period in 20th-century history that deserves to be more widely known and understood. The story of this house is the tale of a time and place far from our own: Czechoslovakia in the years before and after World War II. While literally peeking into the Cullens' interiors, we are also peering behind the Iron Curtain at those who created and even, against all odds, occasionally thrived despite its stern, unwavering grip. The Cullens' perhaps unlikely fascination with Czech history began in 1989, more than a decade before they built this house. It was prompted by a landmark exhibition organized by the MFAH and co-curated by Alison de Lima Greene, "Czech Modernism: 1900 – 1945." That exhibition opened doors that evolved into a floodgate, launching a collection that would go where only the bravest curators dare to tread. The Cullens' obsession involved tracking down arcane Czech treatises, sleuthing out artists from behind the Eastern bloc, unearthing forgotten or nearly vanished figures from the halls of art history and intrepidly plunging into the annals of Cold War Europe. Yet another tantalizing, serendipitous occurrence landed them front row and center at the Velvet Revolution: Through a personal connection, they were in Prague, then met Vaclav Havel and attended his presidential inauguration in 1989. In a nutshell, you have the background of this couple's allconsuming pursuit. The Cullens were well into their Czech quest when they built this house from 2003 through 2005. They tapped New York– and San Francisco–based Ike Kligerman Barkley as their architects — a bicoastal firm, known for its sensitive, seamless borrowings from the past, which sought inspiration in the circa-1808 Nathaniel Russell house in Charleston, South Carolina. Fortuitously, the Cullens' next-door neighbor, Michael J. Siller — who lived with his partner, Larry Hokanson, in a home of a similar blueprint by the same architects, but one with imperial Russian proclivities — was enlisted as their designer. In fact, when the Cullens first glimpsed the Siller-Hokanson home, they implored the men to sell it to them. When Siller and Hokanson declined, the Cullens located an adjoining plot of land and cajoled its owner to part with the prime parcel, and WRITTEN BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON. STYLED BY LAURANN CLARIDGE. PHOTOGRAPHY JACK THOMPSON. JANUARY | PAGE 22 | 2012