Friday Fête: Holiday Windows, the Guggenheim Gala, the Whitney Art Party, and More

This week in New York, social soirées and celebrations were the stars of our calendar. Talks, dinners, award ceremonies, galas, and more were worthy of attention. Below, we’re sharing our highlights, including events from Hermès, Dewar’s, the Guggenheim, Bergdorf Goodman, and more.

Tuesday kicked off with a lunch Barrie held, a “Friendsgiving” event at De Maria. Hosted by Laurie Heriard Dubreuil, founder of The Webster, the mid-day meal was attended by guests like Leandra Medine Cohen, Sara Blomqvist, Gucci Westman—all wearing pieces from the brand’s new Fall/Winter 2018 and Spring/Summer 2018 collections.

Bergdorf Goodman unveiled its stunning holiday windows on Fifth Avenue, entitled “To New York With Love.” The love letter acts as an adoration-filled message to seven of New York City’s cultural institutions—the American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Museum of the Moving Image, The New York Botanical Garden, New York Philharmonic, New-York Historical Society, and UrbanGlass. That night, guests like Linda Fargo, Jeremy Carver, Lorraine Schwartz, Naeem Khan, David Hoey, and Celina Leung joined in celebrating the spectacular reveal.

Renowned author, journalist, and television host Alain Elkann, who recently released his new book Interviews, continued his series of talks surrounding its debut. At the New York Public Library, Elkann was joined in discussion by long-time friend and interviewee, architect Peter Marino.

That night, Kerstin Brätsch was also named the Munch Museum’s 2017 Edvard Munch Art Award recipient. The award is an international biennial mark of recognition for a contemporary artist that acknowledges Edvard Munch’s historical significance, and the relevance to artists today. It also coincides with the MET Breuer’s exhibition “Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed” that opened the next day, November 15. The reception included a cocktail hour with canapés, and an artist talk led by Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director of the New Museum.

The Whitney Museum of American Art hosted its annual Whitney Art Party with co-chairs actress Zosia Mamet, model Natasha Poly, Oscar de la Renta designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, Vanity Fair‘s Michael Carl, and celebrity stylist Micaela Erlanger. Dinner co-chairs—supermodel Ashley Graham and 2017 Whitney Biennial artist Raúl de Nieves—welcomed guests, as rapper Young Paris (recently named the brand ambassador for the CFDA Men’s Fashion Week) treated attendees to a special performance. Through the night, attendees like Joe Bradley, Willa Nasatir, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Trisha Baga, Heather Hubbs, Isolde Brielmaier, and Laura de Gunzberg enjoyed DJ tunes by The Misshapes.

On Wednesday at Craig F. Starr Gallery, the new “Roy Lichtenstein: 1961-63” exhibition opened. Spotlighting the late artist’s work over three years in the early 1960s, the exhibition brings together early paintings and drawings, which all share commercial subject matter and a predominately black and white palette. Lichtenstein’s exploration of streamlined forms of American post-war consumer culture, like newspaper and magazine advertisements, are seen amplified, enhanced, and adjusted. On view through January 27, the exhibition shows works of note, such as Bread and Jam (1963) and Sponge II (1962).

Uptown on Fifth Avenue, we also got a sight of Henri Bendel’s holiday windows, created in collaboration with Lovepop. The brand was seen on ABC Network’s Shark Tank in 2015, and has since mastered the combination of imagination and engineering to add meaning to people’s lives. Co-founders Wombi Rose and John Wise are trained shipbuilders—who apply the sliceform structure (used in ship design) with the ancient art of kirigami—to create intricate 3-D cards with a technique they call Slicegami™.

From there, we were off to the Blue Ribbon Brasserie for a special meal with Dewar’s. For the very first time, the restaurant closed its doors to the public for a one-of-a-kind pairing dinner, prepared by the restaurant’s very own Bruce and Eric Bromberg, as well as two other notable chef brothers—Michael and Bryan Voltaggio. The celebration was for the number “25” for two reasons—one for the launch of DEWAR’S 25 Blended Scotch Whisky, and the second was for the 25^th anniversary of the Brombergs’ flagship restaurant. Guests enjoyed three courses of seared tuna belly, octopus, and duck breast, with whisky pairings led by the brand’s North American Brand Ambassador, Gabriel Cardarella. An after-party carried well on into the night, welcoming special guests to iconic DEWAR’S 12 Penicillin cocktails.

Ringing in the night at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was the 2017 Guggenheim International Gala Pre-Party. Sponsored by Dior, the event was a pre-celebration for the following night’s international gala, featuring a special performance by sister band HAIM and a DJ set by Adam Bainbridge, known artistically as Kindness. The event celebrated visionary artist Cai Guo-Qiang; former President of Guggenheim Board of Trustees Jennifer Blei Stockman; and UBS, in recognition of its collaboration on the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. Guests like Sidney Toledano, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Richard Armstrong, Juana Burga, Cipriana and TK Quann, Nan Bush, Michael Avedon, Spencer Sweeney, and Dao Yi Chow enjoyed time mingling with other guests.

Yesterday we stopped by both of Hermès’ Madison Avenue boutiques for its holiday window unveiling. In celebration of the brand’s artist window program “Vitrine D’Artiste,” this season’s artworks were created by French artist Le Gentil Garçon. The stores feature 3-D versions of classic movie posters, wherein each window evokes the different genres of the movies, including romance, musical, science fiction, comedy, and horror. The stunning windows are on view through February 2, 2018.

To celebrate the multi-faceted artist Sarah Meyohas’ “Cloud of Petals” exhibition opening at Red Bull Arts New York (and the debut of its accompanying book), the artist held a talk from 6-8 p.m. at the organization, joined by Trevor Paglen and Samuel Loncar. The discussion evolved around the phenomenology of digital images and its function within our society as big data, touching upon Meyoha’s fascinating exhibition made of a film, four installations, and a large-scale mosaic installation—all centered around the beauty, and data analytical-driven dissection of, rose petals.

We also passed through Madison Square Park, joining in on the warm welcome for Madison Square Park Conservancy’s 35^th public art exhibition by artist Erwin Redl entitled “Whiteout.” On view through March 25, 2018 on the park’s Oval Lawn, the project features a luminous white carpet of LED lights—comprised of hundreds of transparent white spheres embedded with discrete lights suspended from a square grid of steel poles and cabling. The orbs are held two feet above the ground plane, and are computer-generated for a wave pattern—forming patterns that trickle from north to south, and south to north.

 

That night, guests ventured to the Guggenheim for the 2017 Guggenheim International Gala. Prior to the dinner, dancer Daniil Simkin performed a work from his “Works & Process”—commissioned production, Falls the Shadow, featuring costume designs by Maria Grazia Chiuri, Artistic Director of Dior. Guests like Naomi Watts, Kirsten Dunst, Kate Mara, Peter Marino, Taryn Simon, Peter Philips, Patrick Demarchelier, Marilyn Minter, Nancy Spector, David Maupin, Spencer Sweeney, and more were in attendance.

Tonight and tomorrow, we are off duty for events. But on Sunday, we are back in action at Public Hotel’s art space, Public Art NYC, with Performa for the Performa 17 closing party. The ceremony, celebrating the closing of the biennial and the presentation of the Malcolm McLaren Award.