Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/956427
59 Top: Gallerist Hiram Butler in the couple's kitchen. The master print, Robert Rauschenberg's Autobiography, 1968. Anchoring the downstairs is an imposing American Classical bookcase cabinet in mahogany, Boston, circa 1840-1860, from Andrew Spindler Antiques. Within, a collection of Wedgwood, primarily black basalt pottery from the late-19th/early-20th century. Nineteenth-century Texan horn chair by Wenzel Friedrich, which one day will be bequeathed to Bayou Bend. the second floor alone, there are works by Robert Wilson, Jennifer Bartlett, John Cage, Houston artist Dean Ruck (of Cherryhurst House's Ripple), Tony Feher, Darryl Lauster, Ian Hamilton Finley, and Braque. The homeowners have come a long way since their days in the Victorian cottage, which has now been repurposed as a viewing space for gallery clients. Butler notes an unexpected bonus with this well-insulated home, its double- pane windows, and white, powder- coated roof: "My electric bills are about $100 a month, versus $500 for the much tinier, but drafty cottage." CORRECTING THE RECORD The year 2018 has been auspicious so far — but it did involve a letter Butler wrote to The New York Times to correct the art- historical record. Spindler-Roesle posted to Facebook the yet-to-be- published letter requesting that Butler be appropriately credited for the principal role he played in commissioning Ellsworth Kelly for Austin, the late artist's chapel-like project at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin. (For more about the chance Manhattan encounter that led Kelly to ask Butler to "bring me a patron," and the tale of how it then unfolded, go to papercitymag.com.)