As far as Betti Franceschi is concerned, every last part of her apartment is alive.
“I’m an animist,” she said, referring to her sense that there’s a soul in everything, including inanimate objects. “And anyone who’s not — I don’t understand it.”
The 90-year-old artist has lived in her Upper West Side rental since 1990, and she’s accumulated a lot of life in the place.
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Each room is defined by its art. Ms. Franceschi has curated her collection over a lifetime, adding some of her own portraits and sculptures along the way. There are dozens of paintings and drawings, some photographs and sculptures and stained glass. There’s a samovar converted into a lamp. A framed apron — woven by her grandmother in Belarus more than a century ago — hangs on the wall. In one hallway, Ms. Franceschi displays three portraits: her mother, her daughter and herself. There’s a lamp shade from Venice and a vase from Hangzhou, China.
A few large prints are bundled in a corner, remnants from her most recent project: a book of photographs featuring pre-eminent dancers, which took nine years to complete and was published this year.
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