Something New and Something Borrowed: The New Museum Gala Aimed Big

12 April 2012
by Art Rubynstein

New Museum changed up venues for its 35th Anniversary Gala, moving on up to the Cipriani Wall Street address this year. The event’s best ever crowd came out for the bellinis, special performance by spectacularly named The Pimps of Joytime from Brooklyn, and face time with more A-list artists than we could count. 560 patrons occupied tables on Wall Street and $1.6 million was raised. Here are the highlights:

Hosts: Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis, and Saul Dennison

Big artist alert: honoree Paul McCarthy, George Condo, Elizabeth Peyton, Roni Horn, Marilyn Minter, Dasha Shiskin, Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, Aaron Young, Tom Sachs, Rob Pruitt, Lisa Yuskavage and Matvey Levenstein, Lorna Simpson, Hanna Liden, Dustin Yellin, Cecily Brown, Wangechi Mutu, Tony Oursler, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Will Cotton, Sue Williams, and many more.

SAG members in attendance: Honorary co-chair Chloe Sevigny and Leelee Sobieski

CFDA members in attendance: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Adam Kimmel, and jean loving Francisco Costa.

Most popular designer of the night: Costa’s work for Calvin Klein. Nora Zehetner, Amanda Brooks, Anh Duong, Yvonne Force Villareal, Minter, Olympia Scarry, and Piper Marshall all wore his designs to the dinner.

Most fascinating accessory: Massimiliano Gioni’s Mickey Mouse like gloves.

Runner-up: Sue Hostetler’s Barbara Kruger blessed column.

Best possible parting gift: Carsten Höller’s mini-version of Giant Triple Mushroom sculpture made especially for the gala. $5K was the minimum bid for the piece.

Best auction item: A George Condo portrait commission, a first of its kind for the artist.

Spot Challenge Pit Stops # 4 and #5: Rome and Geneva

19 January 2012
by Art Rubynstein

It’s a fortuitous thing that the Spot Challenge is taking place in January. Because during the warmer days, cities like Rome, Athens, and Paris are swarmed with tourists eager to eat crepes and buy magnets. Rome in January is actually a magnificent city. The air is crisp, the skies are blue, and streets are more manageable without all the overbearing group tours.

The Italian location for Gagosian (just few blocks away from Fontana di Trevi) is actually our favorite of Larry’s properties so far architecturally. It’s a gorgeous, curved room that happened to host the smallest spot on display in the world…the 1 x 1/2 inch, yellow wonder from 1996 (pictured). It’s very tiny and very refreshing after this week’s big spot overdrive.