Loyalty Program
Art World's Finest—Chuck Close, Gilbert and George, Feinstein and Currin—Declare Their Allegiance to the New Museum
New York's art world was on quite a pedestal last night: 45 stories up at 7 World Trade Center, to be exact, where the New Museum threw a star-packed fundraising gala underneath crystal Swarovski chandeliers. The event raked in $1.3 million and drew the likes of George Condo and John Currin and Rachel Feinstein Currin—if nothing else, a reminder that the downtown institution is the only major museum in town devoted entirely to artists who are young or at least still young enough to party.
All of which makes it fairly irresistible, of course, for fashionable art fans like Rose McGowan (in Dolce & Gabbana) and Dree Hemingway and Rose Byrne (both in Calvin Klein Collection). Had Byrne informed her sister back home in Australia, a painter by trade and the source of much of the Damages actress' art knowledge, that Jeff Koons was standing at three o'clock and Marilyn Minter was blazing a path through the room? "I e-mailed her, but it's a different time zone, so I don't know if she knows just yet," she said.
The New Museum has made a partisan out of John Waters, who had the final show at the institution's previous, less fabulous space in 2004. "If I had to go to war—if we were going to attack another museum and injure people, I'd be on this side," Waters promised. Meanwhile, Chuck Close made a show of his loyalty by putting his first-ever portrait commission on the auction block. (During dinner, Tobias Meyer of Sotheby's sold it for $250,000.)
London-based Gilbert and George were the evening's honorees, along with collectors and philanthropists Gael Neeson and Stefan Edlis. The artist duo wore their trademark matching tweed suits and delivered part of their speech in unison. "We are two people but one artist," George explained afterward. "It's an enormous strength. That's why the world is divided into twos—this room is divided mainly into twos. It removes self-doubt." Added Gilbert, "And instead of two hands, we have four!"
ERROR:
