| EVENT REPORT 06.22.09 4:07 PM |
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| Lightened Up |
| After a darker showing last year, the Whitney Museum opted for a lighter-hearted (and hued) version of its annual Art Party. |
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Known for reeling in socialites, celebrities, models, and artists, the Whitney Museum of American Art did so once again during Wednesday's Art Party at Skylight, amid a much airier environment. Unlike the 2008 incarnation of the event, which paid tribute to longtime sponsor Max Azria's Hervé Léger bandage dresses with dark swaths of tightly wound fabric, this year's party had a lightness to it, evident in glowing bars and communal tables and leafy centerpieces.
"We were planning [this event] in February and March, it was a heavy time. Life in New York was heavy," said Bronson van Wyck of Van Wyck & Van Wyck, who co-produced the party with his colleague Lauren Koppel and Whitney senior manager of special events Sarah Milestone. "We wanted a party that, like art, could be a breath of fresh air. There was a sharpness to last year's event, and this was meant to be the opposite of that. We wanted to mark the beginning of summer." |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | Two 20-foot-long tufted white leather Chesterfield sectionals were paired back-to-back at the entrance to the party.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | Twenty-six trees, among them royal palms, Robellini palms, fan palms, and fig trees, were brought in for the event.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | The evening's central bar was illuminated and seemingly multidimensional, thanks to a wall of mirrors in the background. Event sponsors Belvedere and 10 Cane rum offered specialty cocktails throughout the night at all three bars.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | In the gallery section of the event, flickering votives and oversize fronds topped an 18-foot-long illuminated acrylic-top communal table.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | A private viewing of the silent art auction took place an hour before the main party. Artist Chris Wyllie's Girl on Doors 2 sold at the event.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | Inspired by artists who work with neon, Van Wyck & Van Wyck created a 10-foot-long neon sign that read "Party," and flashed "Art" and "Party."
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | Large-scale projections on either end of the long corridor played loops of a video by artist Mark Fox.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | Artist Mark Fox and BCBG creative director Lubov Azria created ink-blotted umbrellas as gifts for all the guests. The pattern also appeared on the event's invitation.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | Five-spice chicken served on wonton crisps with pineapple citrus salsa was among the six hors d'oeuvres passed during the party.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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 | As the night wound down, Taste waiters passed chocolate cups filled with coconut dulce de leche.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash |
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Another inspiration: a 1931 quote from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, which appeared on the invitation and emblazoned on a wall at the party: "It is especially in times like these that we need to look to the spiritual. In art we find it."
To channel the "fresh air" he was looking for, van Wyck brought in lots of palm trees and hired Bentley Meeker to light the venue in rotating hues of yellow, green, pink, orange, and purple. Haze—a lighter form of fog—seeped throughout the massive rooms, picking up the beams of light and the Mark Fox films projected above the two bars on either end of the corridor.
The highlight of the gallery section of the party (besides the art, that is) was an illuminated 18-foot-long communal table made from jade acrylic, accented by Ghost stools. According to van Wyck, when planning a party void of dinner, communal tables are key to fostering interaction. "You've got to create spaces and moments that induce people to interact with each other."
At the opposite end of the venue, a nearly 11-foot-long neon sign reading "Party" flashed "Art" and "Party," thus reminding guests they were there for the art as well as to party. Helping them achieve the latter was DJ Kid America, who kept everyone dancing by mixing the likes of Lady Gaga and MGMT with Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Buddy Holly.
The most buzzed-about guest of the night was The Hangover star Bradley Cooper, though actor Gerard Butler garnered his share of clamoring fans as well. Other notable attendees included the evening's sponsors Max and Lubov Azria, Camilla Belle, Ali Larter, David Cross, Alexis Bledel, Gretchen Mol, Lydia Hearst, Tinsley Mortimer, Lake Bell, Melissa George, Selita Ebanks, and ranks of lesser-known models.
—Courtney Thompson
RELATED TOPICS
Whitney Museum of American Art, BCBG Max Azria, Hervé Léger, Belvedere Vodka, 10 Cane Rum
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