Art in Calvin America
(NEW YORK) Film folks have the Oscars and Globes, music honchos have the Grammys, we have the CFDAs, and the not-so-little art world finally held a historic first awards show of their own last night at the Guggenheim. Rob Pruitt (perhaps best known for his Cocaine Buffet installation) had a dream of the fine art industry honors and he finally realized it with a voting member academy, champagne/lamp-inspired awards statue, fancy 'curated' dinner, the support of Calvin Klein Collection that blessed the event with Francisco and Italo, fancy suits and dresses, and what every credible award ceremony can't live without: A-list talent.
"We wanted to see the Kandinsky show, so at the very least we're few floors away," said Julianne Moore aa she entered the premises with husband Bart Freundlich. "But I don't think we get to go to as many art dates as we want to. So it's refreshing to actually go to an awards show from a completely different world before the real madness commences!" A few feet away, Kylie Minogue agreed. "I'm 100% in new waters tonight," she confessed. "But when you're touring there's no time to go to museums except during nights. So this evening, my aim is to get know as many artists as possible first-hand while they're all in this fabulous room."
But their first order of business was paying tribute to Costa, who has accumulated as many airline miles as his two famous seatmates over the last few weeks. "I'm in this crazy travel whirlwind," said the designer. "I just came back from Brazil a few days ago, and then spent about twelve hours at work. After tonight, I'm leaving to north of California to shoot our spring campaign." His colleague, Zucchelli is excited about another travel-related prospect. "I'm finally in the citizenship naturalization process," he smiled. "I've been in this country for almost ten years so I'll finally have my American passport!"
But for now, Nate Loman, Costa, Minogue, and Zucchelli each had a presenting task in front of them. "We already know the winner, so it's a little bit of a challenge to keep it secret!" noted Zucchelli. But they weren't the only ones. The giant teleprompter in the room revealed the night's winner to half of the room seconds before the envelopes were actually opened. But guests like Dree Hemingway, Yvonne Force Villareal, Larry Gagosian, Hamish Bowles, Stefano Tonchi, Elizabeth Peyton, Marilyn Minter, Peter Brant, and Richard Armstrong didn't seem to mind. They had endless refills of sauvignon in their wine glasses, crudo and beef brisket on their plates, and even Glenn O'Brien as the night's very entertaining announcer.
The evening's big winners included Joan Jonas and curator Kasper Koenig in the lifetime-achievement categories, Gagosian (Solo Show of the Year for the Mazoni retrospective), the Met (for their The Pictures Generation group show), Tony Shafrazi for his Jasper Johns showing, and Jerry Saltz as art writer of the year. "I love you all and I hate you and I love you," he exclaimed as he accepted his honor. James Franco, almost didn't make it to the podium to present one of the evening's last categories. "I'm running from a class in Columbia," he breathlessly told us. "But I've made it, with a suit on."
VALENTINE UHOVSKI
