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| Lunch break on 23rd and 10th in front of Jim Kempner Art Gallery Building. 2:00 PM. Photo: JH. |
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| Wednesday, May 7, 2014. Yesterday was another beautiful Spring day in New York, sunny and bright. |
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| Stories from the nabe; truth in fiction. Thirteen years ago in 2001, Deborah Buck, an artist and design connoisseur opened up a shop on Madison Avenue in Carnegie Hill (the 90s) which was a cross between an art gallery, a design gallery and a kind of decorator’s showcase. She called it Buck House. It was a small shop, right on a corner with one large display window that was soon the talk of the neighborhood. The retail stock was basically a distinctive collection of eclectic furniture, art and decorative objects, and with it Deborah created what she described as a “salon for the cognoscenti.” And soon after, it was. To draw attention to her new enterprise, she committed herself to a series of bi-monthly window installations that were devoted to the theatre of design and would launch them with a cocktail reception to include her eclectic array of friends and neighbors. |
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To assure variety and uniqueness for the shop, she created a half dozen fictional females whose inhabitable spaces were in the Buck House window.
She even had names and bios for them. The fabulous females included: Anna Force, New York ad executive; Sheelock Holmes, London detective; Goldy Banks, Geneva investment banker, Velocity La Rue, Automobile designer and Maddy Tscientist, German chemist.
Deborah closed Buck House in 2012, although her business continues — she’s currently overseeing the design and restoration of a large modernist residential project in Sagaponack. She’s also documented the life of these Buck House windows in a beautiful book “The Windows of Buck House; Fabulous Fictional Females,” 22 theatrically-inspired window installations, designed and curated by Deborah and photographed by Jaka Vinsek, just published by Acanthanus Press. It’s a beautiful coffee table book but after reading it, and having known Deborah since the early days of her shop, it is its own chef d’oeuvres, an exhibition of an artist’s work, her business and her life. There was a launch party for Deborah’s book last night at the Madeline Weinrib Showroom at 126 Fifth Avenue. At Buck House, twenty two Fabulous Fictional Females inhabited the living space windows that Deborah — artist and design entrepreneur — created for the effervescent installations at her Madison Avenue gallery-cum-social-salon. It was from her imaginative heart, mind and soul that these women sprang — and Deborah has preserved the theatrical vignettes in the new book to be published May 6th. |
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| More artists, more exhibitions. Last night at the new Leila Heller Gallery on 43 West 57th Street, there was a preview of a new exhibition: LOOK AT ME: Portraiture from Manet to the Present” curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody and Paul Morris, a founding director of the Armory Show. The show was of particular interest to me because Beth and I are old friends. We’ve known each other since she was fresh out of college. Her interest in art and collecting was already apparent, in retrospect although in the early days she was feeling her way into the process. I don’t know that it was intentional, but then she married an artist — James DeWoody, with whom she had her son Carlton and daughter Kyle— and about that time her interest began to develop into the connoisseurship that belongs to her today.
Beth loves talented people. She is by nature in their thrall. This show that she curated with Paul Morris is a clear reflection of that thrall of hers. The subject, the subjects, the artists and the attitudes are all aspects of the lady’s vivid artistic interest. This is a new gallery for Leila Heller, who is now also an old friend and whom I met through Beth DeWoody about twenty-five years ago. Leila, who is also the mother of two growing sons, has been in the gallery business for a number of years. In the last several years she has been expanding her interest and business. The Fifty-seventh Street location, now her second in the city, is big -- eight floors. Thomas Arnold will lead the new gallery. Arnold comes from 14 years with Mary Boone Gallery where he managed 150 exhibitions. |
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| This debut exhibition is ambitious and includes works by many renowned artists, including: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Tom Wesselmann, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Mitra Tabrizian, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Firooz Zahedi, Jack Pierson, John Currin, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, George Condo, Loretta Lux, Marilyn Minter, Ai Wei Wei, Youssef Nabil, Iké Udé, Farideh Lashai, Shoja Azari, Rachel Lee Hovnanian, Josh Azzarella, Reza Aramesh. The exhibition includes many seminal works, including Warhol’s “Blue Jackie,” “Bill” by Elaine de Kooning and “Peintre et son Modele” by Picasso. The show runs through August 29th and if you like portraiture, this delivers. I loved it, although I’ve got to go back and spend some time taking it all in. |
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| More Art. I left the Leila Heller Gallery to go up to Swifty’s where Tiffany Dubin was hosting a dinner for her friend Louisa Guinness, who is in from London for a selling exhibition at Sotheby’s of “Artists’ Jewelry.” Tiffany had about thirty friends at four tables. I’m not well informed about the business of the art and auction world but right now is the season for a lot of sales – that much I know. Louisa Guinness, I learned last night, has a gallery in London (at 45 Conduit Street) and deals in artist-designed jewelry. Her father was an art dealer, and so is her husband, Ben Bram, in London. |
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| She has been interested in art and its business since she was a young girl because her parents always took the children to galleries and museum – something that was of little to no interest in childhood developed into a way of life as an adult. When she was old enough to consider going in to the business she decided that she wanted to pursue an interest in jewelry designed by artists. The necklace she was wearing last night was by Man Ray, for example. She began dealing in the works of artists of the past, antique, or vintage, if you will. She was operating out of her husband’s gallery, and because he deals in contemporary art, it occurred to her that there were no contemporary artists designing jewelry. So, having the connection to meet many contemporary artists, she embarked on the business of getting them to do it. She is now working with a number of artists sculptors including Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor, Sophia Varik – who is also the wife of Fernando Botero. |
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| Louisa is selling only three artists work at the stall she has taken on the Second Floor at Sotheby’s during the month of sales. They are Claude Lalanne, Sophia Vari and Anish Kapoor. She’ll be there through May 27. It’s the perfect location for Louisa’s venture since many of the artists in her portfolio are represented in the upcoming sales, and many have collectors of their work. The jewelry is an addition which can play a different role for the collector. Her web site is www.louisaguinnessgallery.com |
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| Catching up. A week ago this past Monday, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation hosted its annual Hot Pink Party at the Waldorf Astoria. This year’s was an elegant Can Can-inspired affair which featured a performance by five-time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, who was invited by Sir Elton John to join him on stage. Elton John has been a longtime supporter of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. He was brought into he fold by its late great founder Evelyn Lauder, and he has given his time to this event for years now. Leonard Lauder and Kinga Lampert were the evening’s co-hosts accompanied by Elizabeth Hurley, who like Sir Elton is a longtime supporter of BCRF, as emcee. Event co-chairs included Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Reed Krakoff, Aerin Lauder, William Lauder, and Vera Wang, among others. |
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| Since its founding by Evelyn Lauder in 1993, BCRF has raised more than $480 million to advance the world’s most promising breast cancer research. The Hot Pink Party alone has raised more than $60 million since its inception in 2001 with this year’s event raising more than $5.4 million. “Evelyn Lauder was a philanthropic force to be reckoned with,” said Sir Elton John. "She was a dear friend, and I am proud to keep her extraordinary legacy alive by supporting BCRF and its mission to eradicate breast cancer through research.” John, who has performed at the Hot Pink Party for more than a decade, closed the 45-minute set with a moving duet of Bareilles’ “Gravity.” Another highlight of the evening was the auction for a stay at the Lauder family’s Aspen home led by Sotheby’s Chairman Jamie Niven. Town & Country’s“Event Planner of the Year” Bryan Rafanelli, who the Clintons handpicked to plan Chelsea's wedding, produced the fundraiser with a generous donation from Winston Flowers. |
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| Among the guests at the sold-out black tie evening: Tory Burch, Josh Groban, Paul Shaffer, Thom Browne, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and owner Bob Kraft, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Greta Rooney, New York Giants’ Victor Cruz, NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon, “30 Rock” alum Katrina Bowden, Academy-award nominee Hailee Steinfeld, Lisa Perry and Star Jones, while other notable co-chairs included Marjorie Reed Gordon, Jane Lauder, Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder, Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brant, and Lizzie and Jon Tisch. The event’s underwriters included ANN, INC.,Rob and Cindy Citrone, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Condé Nast, Firmenich, Roz and Les Goldstein, Hearst, Kinga Lampert and The Leonard & Evelyn Lauder Foundation. |
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Contact DPC here. |