| EVENT REPORT 10.19.05 12:00 AM |
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| Whitney Gala Glows Blue and Red |
| Tabletop decor at the party featured swirling neon centerpieces by artist Richard Tuttle and hundreds of red votives. |
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| For the benefit marking the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 75th anniversary, the museum’s special events director, Kimberly Goldsteen, put the art right on the tabletops. Artist Richard Tuttle—the subject of a retrospective at the Whitney this fall—created tall dramatic centerpieces of swirling ribbons of blue neon light that cascaded onto the black linens covering the dinner tables. Tuttle's work for the fund-raiser dictated a modern, brightly colored look for the museum, decked in blue upstairs and in red downstairs. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | | The Whitney Museum of American Art’s annual gala featured artist Richard Tuttle’s dramatic blue neon centerpieces on the dinner tabletops, which were also dotted with red votive candles. |
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 | | In the cocktail party space, red votive candles lined narrow shelves along the walls and tallboy cocktail tables glowed with red light from within. |
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 | | A tent from Starr Tents also glowed with red lighting and candles. |
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 | | In the lobby, long, narrow banners of Tuttle’s artwork hung behind a collection of cylindrical vases filled with magnolias and white candles floating in water. |
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Tuttle even influenced the dress code: The invitation asked benefit guests (many from the worlds of art, media, and money) to come dressed in the Pantone Matching System (PMS) color blue 630 to match his creations for the evening, called “Art Into Life.” David Ziff’s dinner menu included an organic heirloom tomato salad to start, a Maine lobster pot pie entrée, and mocha custard for dessert.
Those Whitney patrons who didn’t sit for the dinner portion of the evening in the museum's fourth floor gallery (with its $5,000 per-plate cost), turned up afterward for a cocktail party (with a more affordable per-ticket cost of $175) downstairs—where red replaced blue as the most striking decor element. In fact, red was the only color to be found there: red votive candles lined narrow shelves along the walls in neat rows—so many that guests could feel the emanating heat when they passed—and tall, boxy cocktail tables glowed with red light from within.
A tent from Starr Tents had a fabric-covered ceiling that glowed with red light, and more red votives lined its perimeter. For the second year in a row, up-and-coming designer Gill Hockett, who worked with Tuttle on this year’s decor, nearly banished flowers from the building, opting instead to make red cellophane synthetic blooms, and use them sparingly around the space. DJ Javier Natureboy got the crowd of chic art patrons moving on a small, impromptu dance floor.
As they left for the evening, many guests clogged the museum’s lobby to admire the art and decor there: On the floor in front of long, narrow banners of Tuttle’s artwork sprawled a collection of dozens of cylindrical vases of varying heights filled with magnolias and white candles floating in water.
—Alesandra Dubin
Photos: Arlene Sandler/Lensgirl
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