Art Fundraisers in Aspen and the Hamptons Draw Big Crowds and Even Bigger Checkbooks
From the Atlantic Ocean to the Rockies, summer saw glorious art fundraisers with some record-breaking numbers. Heres a look at a few top events
Aspen Art Museum
It has already welcomed 175,000 visitors to its new home by Shigeru Ban Architects, raised $2.5 million at its annual ArtCrush in August. In the spirit of new venues, the museum relocated festivities to the Buttermilk Ski Area, where 600 revelers came out for the week-long celebration capped by the carnival-themed main event on August 5. Guests like Seal, Domenico De Sole, Don and Mera Rubell and George Lindemann rode a Dom Prignon ferris wheel and watched burlesque performances before heading into the big-top tent for dinner and a live auction.
Gabriel Orozco, whose solo exhibit curated by Aspen Art Museum director and ceo Heidi Zuckerman is on view through December 18, received the Aspen Award for Art. Oliver Barker, senior international specialist for contemporary art at presenting sponsor Sothebys, led a live auction, which culminated in the final bid of $260,000 for a new untitled painting by Orozco. The live auction also saw works from Diane Arbus; Julian Schnabel, who gave a lecture earlier in the week and whose solo show opens at the museum in November, and the Haas Brothers, whose 2015 tri-part sculpture, Herd it through the Grapevine, went for a sensational $170,000.
The Bass Museum of Art, Cultured and Net-A-Porter
They hosted the Ladies in the Arts Luncheon in early August. Mexico City-based art collector Gabriela Garza graciously opened her Aspen residence to guests who were treated to a conversation about the blending of the worlds of art, fashion and design by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, founder of Salon 94 art gallery in New York, Silvia Karman Cubi, executive director and chief curator for the Bass, and Sarah Harrelson, editor in chief for Cultured. Several Miamians, including Mera and Michelle Rubell, Jackie Soffer and Debra Scholl were in attendance.
The Watermill Centers Summer Benefit & Auction
A favorite gala for its magical setting and fun performance art, . raised more than $2 million during peak season in the Hamptons. We received a brilliant response at the live auction portion for portrait commissions by Nan Goldin, Peter Lindbergh and Inez [Van Lamsweerde] and Vinoodh [Matadin], said spokeswoman Danielle Mayer, adding the auction alone raised half the proceeds for artist residencies and education programs at founder Robert Wilsons interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts.
The event also drew the largest attendance in the benefits 23-year history. Guests such as fashion designers Tory Burch and Jill Stuart, art collectors Christophe de Menil and Audrey and Martin Gruss, and publishing scion Anne Hearst and her husband, the best-selling author Jay McInerney, toured installations and performances by 130 artists from 28 countries before a seated dinner. This years theme, FADA: House of Madness, began with Jacques Reynauds Angels of Apocalypse complemented by a sound installation adapted from recordings by Oscar nominee ANOHNI. Another marvelous sight was La Traviata, Wilsons chandelier collaboration for Slamp lighting firm. After bidding on works by Marina Abramovi, the Campana brothers and Francesco Clemente, everyone hit the dance floor for a concert by Ja Rule.
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