 
|
|||||||||||||||||
              
|
Seen: Carnegie International Preview
Monday, November 08, 1999 By Marylynn Uricchio, Post-Gazette Seen Editor
Matthew Barney is the hottest artist in New York, at least according to the Manhattan public relations firm the Carnegie Museum of Art imported to help with its gala preview of the Carnegie International on Thursday.
With so many artists, dealers and collectors from around the world present, someone had to be able to identify them by sight. "Everybody wants him," Sara Fitzmaurice from Fitz & Co. whispered reverentially. Maybe. But in Pittsburgh, nobody much seemed to know or care. They walked by Barney and other artists with nary a glance of recognition.
They came to see the art, to drink, have dinner and dance. Anyone who was truly serious about the exhibit vowed to come back another day, another several days. The point of the party was the people, 1,400 of whom came in two waves to the sold-out event.
It's not that the guests were unaware of the magnitude of the show, or of its importance. The International is a source of enormous pride for Pittsburgh, an intelligent, audacious and progressive event made all the more so this year by the Brooklyn Museum controversy. People were pointing out camera-shy Chris Ofili all night as "the guy who did the elephant dung painting."
There was a sense of superiority in the wake of such provincialism, and a sense of excitement. That so many guests came from out of town reinforced the significance of the show and gave the preview a hip demeanor. There were hordes of young men with scarves around their necks, architectural haircuts and artistic eyeglasses. Foreign accents, an open bar, exquisite decorations and galleries filled with provocation set the tone for an energetic and elegant evening.
It began with cocktails in a tent erected over the front plaza of the museum. Palm trees and steel columns filled with oranges surrounded the dance floor and warmed the interior. After the reception and preview, the 800 black-tie guests migrated to the Music Hall for a short ceremony to award the $10,000 Carnegie Prize (it caught winner William Kentridge off-guard -- he was wandering around upstairs in the galleries and was as disappointed as the guests that he was not present). Then dinner was served -- everywhere.
The tables in the Music Hall foyer, balcony and Hall of Architecture were covered with aluminum and centered with aluminum box planters of rye grass with tall vases of orchids and bamboo reeds from Tim Condron. In all a sleek, modern backdrop for the roasted rack of veal and fabulous artist's palette of desserts, complete with paintbrush, created by Parkhurst While dinner was being served, 400 reinforcements arrived for the after-party that also began in the tent and included cocktails and a preview, attracting a predominantly younger crowd and giving the evening a second wind.
Beaming like a bride and receiving just as many congratulations was Madeleine Grynsztejn, curator of the Carnegie International. She greeted many guests as they arrived along with her husband, Tom Shapiro, and MOA director Richard Armstrong. The three advisors who helped Grynsztejn -- Suzanne Ghez, director of the Renaissance Society in Chicago, Lars Nittve, director of the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in London and Okwui Enwezor, director of Dokumenta XI in Germany -- circulated with other museum directors, including Max Anderson of the Whitney Museum, Lars Grambye of the Danish Contemporary Art Foundation, Fred Henry, president of the Bohen Foundation, Jeremy Strick of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Hugh Davies of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Robert Fitzpatrick of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Cathy Halbreich of the Walker Arts Center with curator Richard Flood and former MOA director Jack Lane (with wife Inge-Lise Eckmann), now with the Dallas Museum of Art.
Dealers, collectors and patrons abounded in the crowd. Ed Ruscha's dealer, Christoph Van der Weghe, was there, along with the head of contemporary art at Christie's, Philippe Segalot, Miami collector Martin Marguels, computer tycoon and patron Peter Norton, David Maupin of Lehmann Maupin (with New York socialite Kim Heirston), Canadian consul general Mark Romoff and Israeli cultural affairs consul Rafi Gamsou.
Such a successful evening was months in the making, with the dinner committee headed by Kenny Nelson (with Gordon) and the after-party co-chaired by her sister, Kate Gaier (with Mark), Christine McCrady (with T.J.), Peggy McKnight (with Steve) and Alex Mellon. Kitty Hillman (with David) devised the decorations. Ellsworth and Dorothy Brown were gracious hosts as usual, welcoming local patrons who opened their homes to the artists -- MOA board chair Milton and Sheila Fine, Jim and Toto Fisher, Stanley and Marcia Gumberg, Marshall and Wallis Katz, Damian and Teri Soffer, Alex and Silvia Speyer and Jim and Ida Mae Rich -- and to Ann and Marty McGuinn, CEO of Mellon Bank, which generously sponsored the exhibit.
--with Patricia Sheridan
|
||||||||||||||||
