$5.00 OCTOBER 2014
ARTS & CULTURE ISSUE
Rachel Lee Hovnanian Plugged-In or Unplugged?
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104 122
CONTENTS A rts & C ulture Issue 104
TRIUMPH ON EASTERN PARKWAY
The Brooklyn Museum is getting
its due thanks to a visionary director, Arnold Lehman. by MIChAel thoMAs
112
INSTANT GRATIFICATION
Rachel Hovnanian’s exhibition
at Leila Heller Gallery, “Plastic Perfect,” examines our relationship with technology.
118
by
Alex r. trAvers
WELCOME TO MIAMI
The scene in Miami is hotter and hotter, and it’s thanks
to these galleries and museums.
122
THE ELEGANT EYE
produCed by
elIzAbeth QuInn brown
Bunny Williams has a great talent for finding ways to mix
the incredibly stylish with the truly practical.
132
THE MANY LAYERS OF PETER SACKS
by
GeorGInA sChAeffer
With his intricate paintings,
Peter Sacks delights the eye and the mind alike.
136
JR: FACING OURSELVES
lIly hoAGlAnd
One of the rising stars in modern art, JR, is making
the world his studio and everyone his subjects.
142
by
by
lIly hoAGlAnd
I HEART NY GALLERY GUIDE
An insider’s look at some of New York’s
most exciting art galleries.
Alex r. trAvers
by
136
OYSTER PERPETUAL SK Y-DWELLER IN 18 KT WHITE GOLD
rolex
oyster perpetual and sky-dweller are trademarks.
90
66
CONTENTS 74
C oluMns 22
SOCIAL DIARY
66
HARRY BENSON
Her Highness Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1986 was an impressive young lady.
68
OBSERVATIONS
The memories of our Greek columnist in Athens.
70
JEROMACK
A look at Flemish artist Bartholomeus Spranger’s upcoming exhibition at the Met.
72
CANTEENS
With a wall of Warhols, Casa Lever makes an art of Milanese dining.
74
FRESH FINDS
82
HEALTH
84
DESIGN
86
PHOTOGRAPHY
88
OPEN HOUSE
90
ENTERTAINMENT
94
REAL ESTATE
96
WEDDINGS
148
YOUNG & THE GUEST LIST
152
SNAPSHOT
Rubbing elbows with the movers and shakers.
Trying on a hint of pink for October.
by
by
dAvId PAtrICk ColuMbIA
by
tAkI theodorACoPulos
dAnIel CAPPello
And
by
dAnIel CAPPello
elIzAbeth MeIGher
The Seleni Institute opens its doors to help with women’s mental health and wellness. Tufenkian carpets are world-renowned for their handmade character.
by
Nancy Ellison has caught unguarded moments of iconic people.
Alex r. trAvers
by
lIly hoAGlAnd
A listing that offers views of Lake Waramaug (and more) in Litchfield County. Which T.V. shows bold-faced names watch at home.
by
e lIzAbeth MeIGher
“Grey Walls,” a property in Newport, is the epitome of magnificence in the Ocean State.
Brides and grooms are tying the knot from coast to coast.
by
Toasting tennis at the U.S. Open, and more.
elIzAbeth QuInn brown by
elIzAbeth QuInn brown
At The Four Seasons restaurant, a Picasso steps down as majordomo.
by
dAnIel CAPPello
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EDITOR’S LETTER
How art can affect all aspects of life: The legendary interior designer Bunny Williams (left); a couple used JR’s trademark oversized portraits to express their love (right).
DON’T YOU JUST love the crisp winds of fall? This is by far my favorite season, and it’s always made me sad that you can find places that are in perpetual spring (California), summer (the Caribbean), and winter (Siberia—though I have no personal experience with that one), but nowhere that the leaves are always turning various shades of red and brown. And fall brings one of my favorite Quest issues as well: the Arts & Culture Issue. With all the fantastic exhibits and social events of the season, we had an embarrassment of riches to cover. The much-discussed artist on our cover, Rachel Lee Hovnanian, has started an interesting conversation with her new show “Plastic Perfect”: What effect is technology is having on our lives, both in the everyday and in the longer term? “The next generation is not going to know what it was like to not be connected all the time,” she said, and looks at what that might mean for interpersonal relationships. It’s enough to give Philip K. Dick nightmares about his own electric sheep. Which is not to say that humanism is dead, as another artist we feature strives to remind us with his own art. With his largescale photographs of people around the world, JR shows us that when we put a face to different cultures and groups (well, actually, thousands and thousands of faces) we can realize that we’re not just connected electronically, we are also connected by our basic humanity. And now, with a new exhibit on Ellis 20 QUEST
Island, we can also see the faces of our own past looking back at us—now that’s worth the price of a ferry ride. We also shrug on our metaphorical doctor’s coats to examine the elegant eye of venerable interior designer Bunny Williams to see how she composes her masterpieces of interior design. Her secret: 20/20 vision of taste and practicality. Enjoy this all-too-brief season and our own artistic pages— but for your own sake, without the pumpkin spice latte. u
Lily Hoagland
ON THE COVER: Rachel Lee Hovnanian, whose show “Plastic Perfect” is on view at the Lelia Heller Gallery through October 18. Alex R. Travers talks to the artist about how technology is impacting our everyday lives in “Instant Gratification.” Photograph by Margaret Gibbons.
D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A
David Patrick Columbia
NEW YORK SO CIAL DIARY WE HAD A WARM and lovely summer in this year of 2014. That came as almost a surprise, since New Yorkers are used to weather running to extremes and summertime can usually mean intense, uncomfortable heat and humidity. On the first week of September, right after Labor Day weekend, the town
was back to getting on the social schedule. Let’s start at the very beginning. That was the annual Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Couture Council luncheon that serves to kick off Fashion Week in New York. This is a very successful luncheon, started just a
few years ago by the group of women who formed the Couture Council with the objective of raising funds for what is becoming a major museum in the world. Its creators (including Liz Peek, who has just stepped down from chairing) have put it into the mainstream of New York social life.
This was a big objective for what was practically unknown 10 years ago. The Fashion Institute of Technology, itself, was a big objective that has long been coming into its own. The Couture Council has been a major factor in introducing it into mainstream media. Dr. Joyce Brown, the pres-
S U M M E R F E ST AT T H E S O U T H A M P TO N A R TS C E N T E R
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A ident of the Fashion Institute of Technology, told the guests at the luncheon that the school was started in 1944 by a small band of people who had a concept, a dream. The first year, 100 students walked through their newly opened doors. Seventy years later, 10,000 students walk through those doors. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology celebrates the endeavors of their graduates. There you have it—a real success story for all of us. Every year, they honor a major designer at this event. This year, it was Carolina Herrera. I don’t have to tell you anything about the lady. Look at any photograph of her. Part
of it is her South American heritage, where women were taught early how to present themselves to the world. Impeccably chic, fresh, even gleaming, yet non-intrusive, easy on the eye. That’s what Carolina learned. And her presentation implies something more: thorough, confident, diligent, wise, and with a natural eye for beauty. That articulates Carolina Herrera when you see her and when you are in her company. I know the lady only in the way you may know a good neighbor, familiar but not close. She’s very good company. She is direct and forthright but there is a shyness about her. Yet she puts herself
out and makes the effort. She always makes an effort. You can see that in her costume. No frills. Serious, intense even, clean, neat, ordered to work. Admirable. You can also tell her mind is going all the time, taking it all in. She misses nothing. Her elegance is in the bearing and the clothes, the costume, are simply addendum to clarify. This is an example of what used to be known as the “best” of New York. The crowd at this lunch is very social, and the fashion media and their high honchos were at the tables. Oscar de la Renta, who was honored last year, was hosting a table that included Ralph Lauren and
Anna Wintour. Then there were the Condé Nasto-crats and their star celebrities, and it was New York in the thick of it. Fashion implies “society” and such, but its creators, promoters, directors, and backers are workers. Those “names” at those tables, they work. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be at those tables. That’s the great story of this luncheon and its objectives, and how and why so much of New York works the way it does. There were brief speeches. Carolina Herrera was introduced by Yaz Hernandez, who is the new chair of the Couture Council. She confided that she’s admired the designer all her life. I wondered
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Janelle Reiring and Louise Lawler 24 QUEST
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A C A S I TA M A R I A H O S T E D C O C K TA I L S F O R LY N N W YAT T I N N E W YO R K
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to myself as she said that if Carolina Herrera were aware of the admiration she evokes among women of all walks of life. Then she came to the podium and very briefly and seriously and graciously thanked the Couture Council for the honor. She then left the podium to a thundering ovation on the promenade of the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. And that was it. Lunch was over. And it was only 1:30 p.m. Another good idea for us working stiffs, and there were a lot of us present. And then there was Joan. Joan Rivers died, as the world knows, on September 4 in a 26 QUEST
Jackie Weld Drake and Aileen Mehle
Beth DeWoody
New York medical clinic. She was 81. Everything about her, written or spoken, has covered just about every aspect of her life. I knew her. We weren’t close friends but she had a way of extending herself as a friend that made her very alluring. There was heart there. Sharp, witty, quick thinking, but, also, there was heart. The dogs are evidence. They were strays, rescues. She adored them and I’m sure they adored her back. She left it in the will for them to be taken care of. I’m sure that it burdened her just to think she wouldn’t be there to confirm it. I met her a number of years ago. I can’t remember the
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occasion but we had many friends and acquaintances in common. She was living with or going out with Orin Lehman. They never married but they were a couple. He was quite a bit older than she. He had been badly wounded in World War II and his legs were damaged so badly (or maybe partially amputated) that he walked with canes and difficulty or used a wheelchair. He required care. Joan was up to it. Orin was from a distinguished New York banking family, related to several other families of distinction known historically as the “Our Crowd Jews.” Very aristocrat-
ic families, philanthropists, leaders, members of society. It occurred to me that Joan, the Jewish girl from Brooklyn, had moved up. Consciously. I’m sure she was aware of this because she was sensitive and perceptive about ambition. They were a couple quietly on the social scene. She was always working, of course, but he was her man and they had a life together. It seemed fulfilling for her. Then she caught him fooling around and it was humiliating, and they broke up. She might have known; Orin was never a oneman woman. But… That’s an old story. That really got her in the
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A gut, and the heart. She went to work. She had made a good life for herself. Her apartment, her wardrobe. Her social self was full of charm, warmth, and elegant remnants of chic. The apartment was the top three floors of a mansion designed and built in 1901 by Horace Trumbauer, the Philadelphia-based architect, for John R. Drexel, a scion to the famous Philadelphia banking fortune whose father was a partner of J. Pierpont Morgan. The property passed from the Drexels in 1929 and, a half-century later when Joan Rivers saw it, it had been broken up into spacious, upscale
apartments. (Ernest Hemingway kept an apartment there and later his heirs used it.) Joan’s apartment was built in 1938, a “penthouse” on top of the original house. It was a three-story addition with nine rooms and two terraces. (Horace Trumbauer coincidentally died that year.) Joan first spotted it when a real-estate broker was showing her another apartment several floors above and across the way on East 62nd, Street just off Fifth Avenue. Looking down on what was clearly an empty space, she asked the broker about it. Oh, it was the home of a 90-year-old woman
who had recently died. “How long had she lived there?” Joan asked. “Oh, forever,” was the answer. Joan thought: “That’s for me. That house has good vibes. I can live there till I die.” She told me this in recounting the moment. And so she saw it and bought it. When her apartment was created, they had removed the oak paneling that John and Alice Drexel had bought in France at the turn of the 20th century for their ballroom on the second floor and reinstalled it in the penthouse. When Joan bought it, the paneling was covered with years of accumulated dust and
coats of paint. She then hired museum-trained restorers to strip all that way and bring it back to its original gilded condition. On entering for the first time, the message was clear: this is an elegant, sophisticated, successful, and intelligent woman. That was Joan right underneath the glitzy veneer of her intense “show business” ambition and her mouth. If you didn’t know the woman, the celebrity, the name, who she was, and you were a guest in her house, you would recognize her qualities immediately. Well-educated and naturally curious with
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some intellectual sensibilities, she was a conscientious and gracious hostess—never any different a personality than what you saw on stage or on camera. She was the same woman, yet not raucous in words and delivery. She bore a natural class. The first time I was invited to her Seder several years ago, we were late in getting started because her sister was late in arriving. I didn’t know she had a sister. I didn’t really know anything about her family background. The sister, I was told, was a lawyer, lived in Philadelphia and was making the trip up for the dinner. She arrived more than a half hour 30 QUEST
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late and in an obvious state of high anxiety. She was older than Joan. They didn’t look alike, although they were about the same height. But the sisterhood was there. She had a natural drama about her, too. You could see that she, not Joan, commanded the space when she was in it. Joan naturally withdrew. She was a brunette woman, ample in her figure, and she disguised the additions of age in a smart-looking chiffon shift dress in a darkish mauve print. Smart-looking and appropriate. It had been an endless trip of traffic coming up from Philadelphia, nevertheless.
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Joan was quieter and softer and very concerned about her sister’s comfort. She was now little sister showing a natural respect for another strong personality that required her own kind of attention. I was struck by the change. Those qualities of hers that we were familiar with under bright lights were put respectfully aside as if to light the way for her sister. Now, it might have been a different story if the two women were alone in the room. But the message was clear. And dear. It reminded me of another time when I first knew her. It was a weekday afternoon. I was walking up Madison
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Avenue one on my way home from Michael’s. I was waiting for the light to change on East 63rd Street when a black limousine pulled up to the curb right by where I was standing. The window came down; it was Joan. “You wanna ride?” she asked. I figured she was going home, which was just a block away. “No,” I answered. “I’m going home…” Then she told me she was going home but her driver could take me home. It seemed like a lot of bother for the driver. But I got in, and he swung around the block at 63rd Street down to 62nd Street, dropped her
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Charlot Malin
off, and then took me home. To this day, I remain amazed by her gesture—a little act of thoughtfulness and kindness. Then there was Tommy Corcoran who was her best friend, adviser, escort, shoulder, and audience. Tommy was entirely show business. A well-dressed, well-tailored dude with a silk tie, wellshined loafers, glasses, closely cropped hair, a frequent smile, and fast-clip dialogue. A very nice guy. After Orin, Tommy was not Joan’s man in the same sense, but definitely her man 32 QUEST
Alisa Burgess-Blajwas
George and Charlotte Shultz
for all seasons. It was a very close relationship, soul mates maybe. And although there might have been months (a couple of times) where she might not have been speaking to him because she was angry about his drinking, she was devoted to him. I had no idea about this so-called problem of Tommy’s, nor did it matter to me. Nor did it really matter to Joan, except probably for her caring about his health. She needed him and he, having had a lot of background training in handling the diva in comediennes, was
Boaz Mazor, Dede Wilsey and Trevor Traina
David Gockley with Joan and John Lavorgna
prepared for her needs. But then, one day, Tommy Corcoran contracted some form of cancer and it killed him. And it killed Joan. It was a great, great loss. She handled those great losses of the men in her life (her late husband Edgar Rosenberg, Orin, and Tommy) by picking herself up, dusting herself off. That was the story of the girl from Brooklyn whose mother “disowned” her for her professional choices, but who moved on and up—and into a stratosphere that her only mother would have wanted
for herself. Joan did it for her mother. Finis. I started out in this business as a writer, a social chronicler following the charity circuit. In the more than 20 years that I’ve been at it, I’ve seen that area of our culture in New York grow into a kind of industry accumulating and generating hundreds of millions annually. It is no small matter and now its size has invited controversy in some way. In those two decades, the focus on these charity events has defined what early 21st–century society is in New York, both
D R E W A LT I Z E R
Keith and Priscilla Geeslin with Bill Fisher
D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A on the upper and lower ends. Aside from having a catbird seat in watching the activities and vagaries of the ambitious, driven participants—who are often very smart and clever, not to mention a healthy dollop of greedy, venal, and misdirected—I have often seen a better side, a higher side, in many of the charities which have been created, grown, and developed over the past two decades. Many times, when I choose to go a specific dinner such as last night’s International Women’s Health Coalition evening, it’s because the news of the world around us is so distressing and despairing that I’m consciously looking to see
a better side, a better angle, a better idea. Call it a pacifier, call it hope, but you can also call it courage. This is what the International Women’s Health Coalition is about. Incidentally, I know very little about the organization, factually, but you can learn about it quickly by going to iwhc.org. I was introduced to it a few years ago by a couple of women I know, Ann Unterberg and Marlene Hess, both of whom are actively involved. Marlene is the head of the board now. On this mid-September evening, they were celebrating their 30th anniversary at the Pierre Hotel. The organization stemmed from the idea
of one woman who endeavored to promote and protect the sexual and reproductive rights and health of women, particularly adolescent girls, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The approach is to seek out those in their societies who can work on their behalf within the communities. In other words, turn women on to helping themselves out with their dilemmas and barriers. The evening’s guest of honor was associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court. Ginsburg is only the second female justice on the Supreme Court and the first Jewish female justice. The evening was
basically an interview of Ginsburg and Aryeh Neier, another great humanitarian (as well as a lawyer) who is president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations and cofounder of the Human Rights Watch. The interview was conducted by Françoise Girard, current president of International Women’s Health Coalition. The discussion centered around Ginsburg’s history as a lawyer and as a judge in the area of women’s rights in reproduction and decisions regarding health. Amazingly, there are many parts of the world—namely sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—where women’s rights are almost entirely nonex-
R EC E P T I O N FO R P R I S C I L L A P R E S L E Y AT T H E D I X O N G A L L E R Y A N D G A R D E N S I N M E M P H I S
Elizabeth Coors 34 QUEST
Kevin Sharp
William Eubanks and Priscilla Presley
Bonnie Thornton, Dodie Hunter, Sarah Haizlip, Kathy Butler and Sally Shy
Dabney Coors
Pam Martin
CO U RTE S Y O F DA B N E Y CO O R S
Julie and Van Spear
D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A R EC E P T I O N FO R T H E R I TA H AY WO R T H G A L A I N N E W YO R K
Kara Croteau and Andrea Douzet
istent. These are areas that Ginsburg refers to as having “unconscious bias” as an honored tradition. I cannot adequately convey the breadth and scope of the International Women’s Health Coalition’s work and their achievements, no matter how small in the beginning. But throughout the evening, while listening to the discussion (which ran for the better part of an hour), there was a constant glimmer of hope that shined beyond the catastrophes confronting us humans on so many levels at 36 QUEST
John Connolly
Michele Herbert and Susan Murphy
this time. There was an overall sense of a greater force of good nurturing. It was also a treat to listen to Ginsburg talk about cases and decisions and how they are and aren’t arrived at, all in relation to the business of the organization. I don’t know how they raise money but I can say that, whatever they need, it is a pittance to what we are spending across the world in killing each other. But the potential power of their achievements can be a reward for the entire human race. The Next Night: Despite
Robert Zimmerman and Kari Tiedeman
Peter DiPaola and Victoria Amory
the New York Fashion Week activity, there were other events going on in the evening. Up at the Museum of the City of New York, they were holding an opening reception for a new exhibition: “Mac Conner: A New York Life” (September 10–January 19, 2015). Mac Conner (whose birth name is McCauley Conner but is known by all as Mac) was born in 1913, and he was there for the opening. Yes, you read that correctly. As a kid, he grew up admiring the work of Norman Rockwell on the American magazine
covers, especially the Saturday Evening Post, which his father sold in his general store. When he was old enough, he came to New York to work on wartime Navy publications. After the war, he stayed and made a career for himself. The exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York is composed of some of Mac Conner’s illustrations for advertising campaigns and women’s magazines such as Redbook and McCall’s. It was after World War II when commercial artists, who had long been active in publishing, came to
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A the forefront of popular interest and helped redefine American style and culture. Mac Conner’s work was distinctive in a way that reflects his inspirations provided by Rockwell. To this writer’s eyes—which were very young and impressionable at that time in history—Mac Conner’s style was as all-American ideal, as were Norman Rockwell’s images. I met Mac Conner about 20 years ago when he was a youngster of 80 or so. I had gone to interview his wife, Gerta Conner, who was an artist and had done a book of her paintings about her life. Gerta was a granddaughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, for whom she was named. In 1999, she published a memoir about growing up as a Vanderbilt and a Whitney. It was illustrated by her paintings
she did to show a “privileged yet somber childhood.” Fifteen years later, my memory of meeting the Conners is not detailed. They were a very gentle couple to meet together, both very pleasant company and kind. You got the impression that they were a couple that was very devoted to their work as artists. In some ways that I wouldn’t know how to identify, it defined their relationship. As a landscape painter, Gerta studied with Hans Hofmann and was influenced by Edward Hopper and Fairfield Porter. A Writer’s Tale. During the month over at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, they were showing Smiling Through the Apocalypse, a biography/documentary by Tom Hayes about his father, the late Harold Hayes (the editor of Esquire magazine
in the 1960s, when Esquire was one of the most popular, most influential, most talked about magazines). He was a man whose influence briefly but importantly touched on the life of this writer. The film has recollections of Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Gore Vidal, and Gay Talese. I don’t really know the story about Hayes, about his life, or about his personality. But I knew then, as a young reader, that he was what we call “cutting-edge” because, thanks to him, Esquire was a must-read. What drew my attention to the appearance of this film was my own (very brief but important) experience with Hayes back in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, when I was out there struggling to make
a career for myself as a writer without any success. It was a very difficult time for me emotionally. I’d been out there for four years and was making little headway and even littler money. I had a boring, even pointless, job working as an assistant to a film producer named Lester Persky, who had very little going on in terms of production and was often in New York. I was at my wit’s end. My only real writing was in my daily journals, much of which was an ongoing litany of complaints and inconsequential injustices that afflict the struggling artist, would-be or otherwise. One night after a day at the fatigue-inducing office, I sat at my desk at home and started going through my old journal pages, looking for something that I could maybe turn into
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Andrea Fahnestock and Bonnie Johnson 38 QUEST
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Presentation
a story, a script—something! Aside from my mental dramatics, I also wrote what I continue to do on these pages—about the day, what I saw, what I heard, where I was. And it happened. There was an entry: In 1982, Truman Capote had come to Los Angeles to meet with Persky about a story he wrote for Interview magazine called “Handcarved Coffins.” It was being published in a collection of his stories and Lester was buying the film rights for $500,000. Truman was a major author and celebrity who touched with notoriety. This was big time. Truman was arriving on a Thursday afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport. I had been sent to pick him up. He was coming in from New Orleans and, I learned 40 QUEST
Jadranka Jovanovic
Cheri Kaufman, Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia and Bill Sclight
from him, a photo shoot with “13 of thee moss bee-yootee-ful drag queens you have ever seeeeen.” (I learned recently from Harry Benson, who appears in this magazine, that he had been the photographer who had taken that picture.) Truman was drunk, blotto, although on the ride back to Beverly Hills, he was very pleasant and not without some charm. We were greeted in the driving court of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel by the assistant manager, who accompanied Truman to his room. Walking down the thickly carpeted corridor to the room, Capote noticed that all of the rooms were named for California vineyards. “Oh, we must be on the alcoholics floor,” he cracked in his wheezy drawl. Entering his suite, the first
Meera Gandhi and Susan Gutfreund
Roksanda Ilincic, Prince Alexander of Serbia and Rushka Bergman
thing he said to the manager was: “Where’s the Stolichnaya?” Coming right up. Then he went into the bathroom without closing the door and, a moment later, we could hear his snorting up the white stuff. Assignment complete, I left. What followed for the next three and a half days in Capote’s life, I would later learn, was essentially a “lost weekend,” a binge of cocaine and vodka that left him almost semi-comatose by Monday morning. I reported all the details of those days in my journals— from Capote’s arrival at the airport to the trip to his hotel (where he spent the weekend with his two companions, Booze and Coke) to Monday morning, when I heard about his drama and the rescue of the poor man from himself.
So, as I was sitting at my desk reading those pages, it happened, coincidentally, that Truman Capote had just died in bed in Los Angeles at the home of Joanne Carson, the second wife of Johnny Carson. There was a magazine being published in Los Angeles at the time called California magazine. And the editor of California was Harold Hayes. He had taken on the post after leaving Esquire. I had a writer friend named Tom Huth, who had worked for Hayes. I asked him if I could use his name to introduce myself and send Hayes something I’d written. “Sure,” he said. So I did. I sent him the raw pages from my journal about the lost weekend of Truman Capote. I had never published in a magazine before. I had tried several times, but with no
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Stephanie March
Judith Light
Klaus Biesenbach and Agnes Gund
success. I knew that Hayes was a major editor. He’d published the giants in my world, and he’d paved the way for many others. I didn’t have high hopes for these pages I was sending, but it was too late in my life to care about hopes. Two days later, the phone rang. It was Hayes. I was shocked that the Harold Hayes was calling me on the phone. It made me very nervous, almost tonguetied. It still makes me nervous, even to recall. The call was simple. He told me that he’d gotten the pages and read them, liked them, and sent them around the office asking other editors for comments about them. The others all wrote comments on the original copy—would I like to see them? I said, “Yes.” Then, he added, would I like to turn them into an article for the magazine? “Yes!” I was very nervous. The pages were re-
Kelly Rutherford and Hannah Bronfman
Thomas Pritzker and Mark Hoplamazian
turned the following day. The comments of the other editors were glowing and highly flattering to this man in the throes of his struggle. I spent the next two weeks working on the piece, attempting to turn the pages into a story. It was very difficult. I felt like I was failing. I couldn’t get a handle on it. The child in me was whining: “I can’t, I can’t.” I was trying to write something else. Three weeks went by. This was bad. Finally, I hammered something together and submitted it. I had no confidence in it, and at that moment, I had no confidence in myself. A longed-for opportunity destroyed in a hope. A week went by. I didn’t hear from Hayes. Two weeks. Nothing. I wasn’t surprised. I knew it didn’t cut it. Finally, I got up the courage to call him and ask. I was right. It wasn’t what he had in mind.
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N
Cosmetic injections and fillers should help to get rid of wrinkles and deep folds. When these injections are done by an expert, the patient’s face should look refreshed; shape and emotion should be brightened and natural – not a “frozen face.”
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A He was very businesslike and matter-of-fact about it. O.K. Then, he added, he did write out a summary of his criticisms and, if I’d like, he’d send them to me so that I would know. That was interesting. Hopeless, but I agreed. He sent them. Handwritten in pencil on yellow typing paper. Two pages. He went down through the piece, paragraph by paragraph, explaining what did and what didn’t work, examining what I said and asking why did I say it. His edits were cogent. I don’t think I ever
had had a critique of anything I’d written before or since that was so simple and so clear. Reading through his notes, I felt compelled to “try it out.” I sat down and, following Hayes’ words and thoughts, I rewrote the piece. It was quite a different piece from the first, and I could see that it now had weight. For the hell of it, or rather, to see what more I could learn from the man, I sent him my rewrite, pointing out that I understood that it had already been rejected, but I was curi-
ous to know if this were the sort of thing he had in mind. The next day I got a call from Hayes. He told me that he’d read the rewrite and that, for the first time in his career, a writer took all of his criticisms and followed them through to a perfect rewrite. And he added that they would buy it. It was called “On Having Met Mr. Capote,” and it was one giant step for the writer’s head—and one great gift from the man who wrote the book that would become the title of the film, Smiling
Through the Apocalypse. I never did meet the great Harold Hayes. Work began to gather for me. I was on another road and our paths never crossed. A few years later, he died an untimely death from cancer. He’s remembered in his son’s film for the editor he was and the struggles he had in his profession. I remember him as the man who launched me professionally. He never knew this, and I had the feeling it wouldn’t have mattered to him anyway. He was a pro; that was his life. u
TO W N R E S I D E N T I A L PA R T N E R E D W I T H H U D S O N U N I O N S O C I E T Y : A N E V E N I N G W I T H M A R T I N A N AV R AT I L O VA
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Lisa Crosby and Chuck Pfeifer
David Patrick Columbia
Melinda Blinken, Eleanora Kennedy and Julie Macklowe 46 QUEST
Grace Meigher and Amanda Meigher
Daniel Cappello
Matthew Mellon and Richard Johnson with Susan Magrino and Jim Dunning
Steve and Tina McPherson
Jock and Buttons Goodrich
Tatiana Perkin
Marcia Schaeffer and Georgina Schaeffer
B FA NYC . CO M
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Michael Landes with Gigi and Harry Benson
Richard Tayar and Jacquelyn Cuccaro
Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman and Mai Hallingby Harrison
Iris Love and Ann Rapp
Emilia Saint-Amand and Mario Buatta
Jeff Pfeifle and Dave Granville OCTOBER 2014 47
D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A A L Z H E I M E R ’ S A S S O C I AT I O N AT T H E H OM E O F A N N E H E A R S T A N D J AY M C I N E R N E Y I N W AT E R M I L L
Patricia Duff and Sharon Bush
Bonnie Pfeifer Evans 48 QUEST
Robin Meltzer and Lauren Rogen
Princess Yasmin Aga Khan and Dominique Debay
Lynne Carey and Brendan Shanahan
Ivana Lowell and Nicole Miller
Pandora Biddle and Cornelia Bregman
Charles Atkins and Michelle Paige
Kiane and Charlie von Mueffling
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N
Anne Hearst and Jay McInerney
D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A “HAITI IN THE HAMPTONS” HELD BY ARTISTS FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN EA ST HAMPTON
Law Slagsvol and Anjelica Huston
Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict
Calvin Klein 50 QUEST
Rodger Berman and Rachel Zoe
Kathryn Everett
Donna Karan and Alixe Boyer
Molly Sims
Paul Haggis
Francine Li
B FA NYC . CO M
Christie Brinkley
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COUNTRY CLASSIC | $6,495,000 Located on a serene cul-de-sac just minutes from downtown Greenwich, this gracious country home was beautifully rebuilt in 2002. WEB ID: 0067248 | Robin Kencel | 203.249.2943
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COUNTRY ELEGANCE | $4,500,000 Situated on over 3 acres at the end of private cul-de-sac. Fabulous amenities include home theatre, pool,steam room and library. WEB ID: 0067262 | Lynn Schiro | 203.249.3877
GREENWICH BROKERAGE | 203.869.4343 One Pickwick Plaza | Greenwich, CT 06830 Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.
OctQuest.indd 1
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Charles Fagan, David Lauren and Nacho Figueras
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James Marshall and Elettra Wiedemann 54 QUEST
Jeanann Williams
Kendall Westrich and Tanija Gobin
Samantha Yanks with Sadie
RenĂŠe Beaumont, John Wattreker and Michelle Jank
Karen Goerl and Shab Hariri
Harry Brant, Jr., Paige Reifler and Peter Brant
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N
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56 QUEST
Coco Rocha and Dennis Basso
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LuAnn de Lesseps, Kelly Bensimon and Lisa Rinna
Hoda Kotb
Michael Cominotto
Beverly Johnson, Nikki Haskell and Ivana Trump
Carol Mack and Dori Cooperman
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A C H R I STO F L E F Ê T E S P U B L I C AT I O N O F D A N I E L C A P P E L L O ’ S “ D I N N E R D I A R I E S ”
Gail Monaghan and Sara Hart
Muffie Potter Aston, Sharon Bush, Karen Klopp, and Susy Schieffelin
Prosper Assouline, Daniel Cappello, Martine Assouline, and Alexandre Assouline 58 QUEST
Liz Nightingale
Charles Rockefeller and Abby Caulkins
Mattias Geise and Stephen Shackelford
Shirin von Wulffen
Taylor Roach
John Michael Schert and Candace Beinecke
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A D I N N E R TO C E L E B R AT E H A N L E Y M E L L O N ’ S S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 C O L L E C T I O N AT T H E H U D S O N M E R C A N T I L E
Nicole Kotovos and Zani Gugelmann
Marcy Warren, Frederick Anderson and Kat Cohen
Vikram Chatwal
60 QUEST
Edward Tricomi and Tommy Silverman
Tinsley Mortimer
Emily Smith
Donna D’Cruz and Joseph Koyie
Maria Macamara and Alisha Smith
Merrill Curtis with Lee and Allie Hanley and Nicole Hanley and Matthew Mellon
View from the Hudson Mercantile
Karen Larrain, Micol Sabbadini and Virginia D’Nori
B FA NYC . CO M
Priya Chatwal and Katherine Wong
D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A N E W YO R K P H I L H A R MO N I C O P E N E D W I T H P E R FO R M A N C E O F L A D O LC E V I TA
Stephanie Sirota and Courtney Lewis
Woody Allen and Karen LeFrak 62 QUEST
Richard LeFrak and Alan Gilbert
Daisy Soros and Oscar Schafer
Gerald and Agnes Hassell with Thomas and Beth Renyi
Kajsa William-Olsson and RenĂŠe Fleming
Jane Chu and Matthew Van Besien
J U L I E S K A R R AT T; L I N S LE Y L I N D E K I N S
Jamie Bernstein, Josh Groban and Jeffrey Stock
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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A COUTURE COUNCIL LUNCHEON TO HONOR C AROLINA HERRER A
Grace Meigher and Mariana Kaufman
Marigay McKee 64 QUEST
Valerie Steele
Caroline Brown and Marc Puig
Seth Meyers, Alexi Ashe and Patricia Lansing
Celerie Kemble
Meredith Melling, Chloe Malle and Valerie Boster
Ralph Lauren
Anna Wintour and Oscar de la Renta
Rachel Heller
Liz Peek
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Carolina Herrera
H A R RY B E N S O N
IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY “YOU KNOW I HATED POSING for photographs when I was younger.” Princess Caroline told me that when she was a schoolgirl her mother, Princess Grace, would make her miss school to pose for pictures for Look or Life magazine, and it was the last thing she wanted to do. She said to be hauled out of school to pose for photographs was not fun for her, and that she missed doing everyday things with her school friends. These photo sessions would take all day and sometimes continued to the next day as well. But now, she said, as I photographed her in 1986, she understood why people had their portraits done. She enjoyed being the patron of several charities including the Princess Grace Foundation, saying, “It made my father happy.” After I spent a busy day at the palace in Monaco photographing the princess going about her daily routine, she asked what time I wanted to start the next day. Half-jokingly I said 8:00 a.m. The next morning, I thought I had better get there early just in case she had taken me seriously. I arrived at quarter to eight, and at 8:00 a.m. on the dot she came down dressed in a satin ball gown, and said, “This is how a princess dresses for breakfast. Mr. Benson,” and we all had a great laugh. Then we headed to the Royal Box at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo where the photograph you see was taken. Not knowing what to expect before I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by her gracious manner and her amusing wit. She was serious, hardworking, and could speak five languages fluently—while I am still struggling with one. u 66 QUEST
Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1986.
OCTOBER 2014 67
TA K I
A GREEK MEMOIR
This page: King George II of Greece, who reigned until his death in 1947 (left); Athens, the city that holds many memories for this author (left).
ATHENS—THIS GRIMY, semi-Levantine
ancient city—has its beauty spots, with childhood memories indelibly attached. A turn-of-the-century apartment building, across the street from my house, where in 1942 or ’43 I watched a daughter and wife scream in horror from their balcony as three nondescript assassins executed a man as he bent over to get into his chauffeured car. His name was Kalyvas and he was a minister in the Vichy-like Greek government of the time. 68 QUEST
He was bald. From my vantage point, I saw the three red spots as the bullets entered his skull. His wife and daughter wore black from that day onwards, the daughter being a teenager (and a pretty blonde one at that). I was six and have never forgotten them or their screams of anguish. Last week, I looked up at the third floor and it was all closed up. I wondered what has happened to the daughter. If alive, she’s in her late 80s. Athens is full of ghosts for me. One is
the greasy haired man wearing a raincoat and carrying a rifle when someone from my house killed him as he ran towards us in the black Christmas of 1944. He lay in the street for days. Was it my father, the policeman guarding us, or the red-beret British paratrooper who later crashed through our kitchen skylight (shot dead himself)? He was barely 18 according to my mother. Or the man who lay close by, dying from hunger, whom my older brother and I tried to help by putting
TA K I a yogurt underneath his chin. But he never touched it. Fraulein wistfully said we wasted a yogurt. Then there was the priest who stole a small loaf of cheap bread at the height of the hunger and was chased down the street by the baker for it. Funny how childhood images remain undimmed. I had a front-row seat when the wartime King George II died in 1947. There were thigh-high boots and even purple Prisoner of Zenda - like uniforms, all adding to the royal mystique. Last month I looked at pictures on a menu of the royal wedding of fifty years ago, that of King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie, both then in their early twenties and by far the best looking royal couple in the world. They gave a reception and dinner dance at the Royal Yacht Club, overlooking Tourkolimano, where, 54 years ago, the king returned
ceur,” as when dancing under the stars in the yacht club overlooking Phaleron Bay. The queen gave a wonderful speech in impeccable Greek, noting the extreme happiness of these fifty years, plus the heartbreaks, and her five children recited their father’s speech, as I suspect King Constantine II gets emotional when speaking of the country he so loves, one that has treated him as shabbily as it had. For starters, most Balkan royalty— including Bulgarian, Romanian, and Serbian—have had their properties and palaces returned, and are treated with great respect. In my country, royal properties paid for by their own funds, have been expropriated without compensation by the crooks that rule the olive Republic of Hellas. I know Constantine well, but cannot figure him out. At times his expression shows the imperishable pain that his destiny
with poor Greeks, hence the power of monarchy. And no, he does not possess the macho primitivism of Prince Harry, nor do his three sons. But then why should they? They’re born far more royal than anyone of their Brit cousins, and then some. Athenian democracy was the first ever. It emerged after the last tyrant, Hippias, was thrown out in 507 B.C. Once tyranny was abolished, the fear of wise men was that power would revert to the rich that had opposed Hippias. Enter Cleisthenes, who had a stroke of genius. In the words of Herodotus, “he took the people into partnership.” The system worked for close to 2000 years and spread in the West. It’s now about to disappear again, with bureaucrats and special interests replacing the demos. King Constantine II had great powers in Greece, and voluntarily gave them up after he moved
This page: The beautiful port of Tourkolimano, in Greece (left); Cleisthenes, who is considered the father of ancient Athenian democracy (right).
in triumph after winning a gold medal in the Rome Olympics of 1960. There were European royals galore, two reigning queens, and also the uncle of King Abdullah of Jordan, Saeed Hussein, who had to fly over Israel in order to attend. There was a great orchestra that played haunting old Greek tunes that only added to my nostalgic memories of Athens and the sweetness of life that was in one of Europe’s most romantic cities. No longer, and yet there are snatches of that “dou-
forced upon him. Losing the throne of Greece is not like losing that of, say, Albania. But he never mentions his sadness, never hints what could be going through his mind, but always insists that being in Greece is the only thing that makes him happy apart from his family. He remains an enigmatic character, at least to me, because although he does not have a compulsion to connect with people, and can even be distant, he nevertheless does connect, especially
militarily against the colonels in 1967. Successive politicians have made sure to steal from the royal family and to keep the people from embracing the monarchy. The press and media have been the enforcers. All I can say is how much better off we’d be if the monarchy was restored. At least our head of state could exchange ideas with his counterparts without using only his hands. u For more Taki, visit takimag.com. OCTOBER 2014 69
JEROMACK
THE EMPEROR’S (LACK OF)
CLOTHES BY PAUL JEROMACK ONE OF THE GREAT pleasures in visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art is encountering shocking and beautiful works by artists one has never heard of, such as the Flemish painter Bartholomeus Spranger (1546–1611). Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of him. Trust me, most people who work in museums probably haven’t! He isn’t usually mentioned in many college surveys on European paintings and there are very few of his works in American collections. Looking over the paintings, drawings, and prints of the Met’s new retrospective exhibition, “Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague” (November 4 through February 1), it is easy to see why. And artist of exquisite refinement and wit, Spranger specialized in sex, producing mythological pictures of a sinuous, tactile eroticism—seldom seen north of the Alps—made for the delight of his enthusiastic patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612). The Court of Rudolf II in Prague was considered in its day to be the most exciting in Europe. While ineffectual as a politician, Rudolf was perhaps the most enlightened and progressive of European rulers. At a time when religious strife was felt across the continent, Rudolf made Prague a haven for free-thinkers, Protestants, and Jews. If you were Bartholomeus Spranger’s “Angelica and Medoro,” from the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. 70 QUEST
Clockwise from top left: Bartholomeus Spranger’s “Self-Portrait” (1585-86), oil on canvas; “Hercules and Omphale” (1585); the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague,” a major exhibition devoted to Bartholomeus Spranger, will be on view
CO U RTE S Y O F T H E M E T RO P O L I TA N M U S E U M O F A RT
from November 4 through February 1.
artistically talented or deeply learned, Rudolf wanted you at his court. His interest in natural sciences, rare plants and animals, horology, astronomy, and the occult was surpassed only by his obsession with collecting works of art, chasing down pictures and sculptures from all over Europe, sometimes waiting years to obtain them. It is recorded that when presented with a bronze he had long coveted, Rudolf jumped from his chair, crying with glee: “At last, it is mine!” His taste was superb: He owned several of the Met’s most famous and beautiful pictures including Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Harvesters,” Paolo Veronese’s “Mars and Venus United By Love,” and Joachim Wtewael’s “The Golden Age.” Among the painters of Rudolf’s
court, including the landscape specialist Roeland Savery and the master of anthropomorphic fantasy heads of fruit and flowers Giuseppe Archimboldo, Spranger was supreme. While producing devotional paintings for the Emperor and his friends, the artist was especially regarded for “sensual subjects.” Among the 27 paintings are such titillating treats as “Angelica and Medoro” from the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, a scene of Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso, where Medoro is interrupted in carving the equivalent of “A + M 4EVER” on a tree by his sexually aggressive lover who slings her thigh over his while pressing his head to hers. The jewel-like “Hercules and Omphale” (from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
depicts a slightly kinkier, even sexually ambiguous scene of the muscular hero, a slave to the Lydian Queen Omphale, dressing him in woman’s clothes, making him work a spinning-wheel while she saucily proffers her pert, ivory-white backside to the viewer, her torso draped in the hero’s lion skin and slinging his exceptionally long club over her shoulder. Spranger’s fluent mastery of pen and wash was as celebrated as his handling of paint, and the exhibition features 42 of his rare drawings, nearly his entire output. The Met owns three, the most impressive being a sheet of “Diana and Actaeon,” a rare salute to chastity as the virginal goddess transforms the peeking hunter into a stag to be devoured by his own hounds. u OCTOBER 2014 71
CANTEENS
MILAN VIA MIDTOWN, DOWN TO AN ART BY DANIEL CAPPELLO
IT SAYS SOMETHING for a restaurant when a gal who’s gotten gussied up in a new dress and heels to trek from the uber-chic, gallery-dotted fringes of West Chelsea all the way to midtown lingers delightedly at the bar as her date keeps texting every half hour on the half-hour to say he’s running yet another half-hour late. And, when he does arrive, greeted by a perfectly chilled, lemon-twisted vodka martini, it speaks volumes when the restaurant staff stays beyond closing time to ensure that this couple—who love art as much as food—can take in all the culinary and artistic offerings on hand.
Then again, Casa Lever isn’t your ordinary New York restaurant. Outside, on the investment-banking stretch of Park Avenue it calls home (in the famous, first-of-its-kind curtain-walled-structure skyscraper known as the Lever House building), blue business suits and predictable ties are just as bountiful as yellow-lighted taxis are scarce. Inside, however, the William T. Georgis Architects–restyled space (as of 2009) is elegantly edgy, fusing a spaceship-like design (the honeycomb booths look a bit like pods) with all the warm qualities of Mid-century Milanese design: the rust-red
CO U RTE S Y O F C A S A LE V E R
CANTEENS
carpeting, a glossy-wood bar, Venini glass chandeliers, mossgreen leather on the chairs. Oh, and the art. The restaurant boasts one of the world’s largest and most prestigious collections of original silkscreen portraits by Andy Warhol, which recently expanded from 19 to 32 paintings, pushing its value over the $50-million mark. Guests now dine under the watchful eye of some of Warhol’s most celebrated subjects, including Dolly Parton, Jerry Hall, Giorgio Armani, Lynn Wyatt, Ernesto Esposito, Aretha Frank-
bed of beets mixed with snow peas and pea shoots. Be prepared for all table conversation to come to a halt when the homemade squid-ink pasta mixed with Maine lobster, zucchini, and saffron sauce is served. The deliciousness of flavor meeting texture is a bit overwhelming, but prepares the palate well for any of the meat or fish secondi. Veal Milanese is on offer, yes, but the wild Dover sole with piccata sauce is so delicate, so refined, and so gratifyingly glazed, it makes you want to dispense with dessert. But if the cheery and accom-
lin, and Alfred Hitchcock, among many others. To be sure, removing the art from the equation in no way minimizes the value of the food. Long recognized as midtown’s go-to destination for authentic Milanese cuisine, Casa Lever is all you could ask for in a high-caliber Italian restaurant. Classic antipasti selections hover in the comfort zone of starters, but are spruced up with just enough inventiveness to keep them modernly Milanese. The requisite beet salad with goat cheese is reimagined here as a Rainbow Beet Salad, with the goat cheese taking the form of foam over a
modating staff who’ve stayed beyond closing hours have their way, you won’t run off from your escape pod without at least a little something dolce, like the gianduia or panna cotta—and they’re right, you shouldn’t. u This page: Andy Warhol’s silkscreen portrait of Lynn Wyatt, ca. 1980, is among the art on the walls; part of the dinner menu (inset). Opposite page: The dining room, lined with original Warhols. Casa Lever: 390 Park Ave. (at 53rd St.), 212.888.2700 or info@casalever.com. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bar, Monday–Friday; dinner on Saturday also, until 11 p.m. OCTOBER 2014 73
QUEST
Fresh Finds
You’ll pounce for the Panthère de Cartier bracelet in 18-kt. white gold,
BY DA N I E L C A P P E L LO AND ELIZABETH MEIGHER
onyx, emeralds, and diamonds. Price upon request. Cartier: At 800.CARTIER and cartier.us.
OCTOBER CAN BE the busiest month, with fall’s chilly evenings ushering in a packed social calendar of gala benefits and an equal dose of back-to-school functions, which means the need for new accessories. It’s also a time to remember women everywhere who have suffered from breast cancer, with national Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Several designers are offering products with a punch of pink that will benefit cancer research, so don’t blush away from the perennially feminine color—embrace it.
Bold structure is the season’s strongest statement—especially in pink, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month—with the Pink Pony Soft Ricky 27 by Ralph Lauren Collection. $2,250 at ralphlauren.com.
This black and silver Carolina Herrera dress is perfectly proportioned and appropriate for all occasions. $2,490.
tourmaline with amethyst and white diamonds set in white
Carolina Herrera:
gold. Price upon request. de
954 Madison Ave.,
Grisogono: 824 Madison
212.249.6552. 74 Q U E S T
A melody to her ears: de Grisogono’s Melody of Color drop earrings in cut
Ave., 212.439.4220.
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Estate Area Modern - Four breathtaking acres. Sophisticated Mid-Century design with walls of glass to take in phenomenal property views. 4200 square feet of style with high ceilings, clerestories, oak floors and an open floor plan. Visually stunning Great Room with Fireplace. Family Room with Fireplace. Four Bedrooms. Separate Office Suite. Mahogany Deck. Terrace with fish pond. $1,149,000
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Long, gated drive to private hilltop setting. Nearly 15 breathtaking acres meticulously planned by legendary landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates. Natural rock escarpments, cascading pools and three-tiered pond. Gorgeous gardens. Impressive Shingle and Stone Country House, designed by renowned architects Shope, Reno & Wharton. Classic style, high ceilings, handsome millwork and gleaming hardwoods. Guest House. Sparkling Pool with Pool House. $5,850,000
An absolutely stunning renovation. Rocking chair porch, floor-to-ceiling windows, Venetian plaster, wide plank floors and French doors. Center Entrance Hall. Elegant Living Room with Fireplace. Formal Dining Room. Gourmet Kitchen. Library. Four Bedrooms. Two acres in a top Bedford estate location. Terrace with outdoor fireplace. Sparkling Pool. Convenient to schools, shops, restaurants and commuting arteries. $2,995,000
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Fresh Finds
They’ll be green with envy over your Courtney frames by MOSCOT in green moss. $240. MOSCOT: At MOSCOT shops, moscot.com, and specialty optical boutiques worldwide.
A subtle undulant pattern enlivens Tufenkian’s Billow Taupe Rust carpet with a watercolorlike shimmer of linen over wool. For more information, visit tufenkiancarpets.com.
Slip into style with Ghurka’s Nevis three-button gloves, from the recently introduced women’s collection. $275. Ghurka: 781 Fifth Ave. (212.826.8300) or 65 Prince St. (212.334.4000). “Flatiron” silkscreen-transferred and hand-painted mono-print by Philip
Layer up for fall in Bally’s
Tsiaras (30 x 22”), currently on
suede dress with back
view in the lobby of 184 Fifth Avenue,
zip ($3,495), military green
available for lease and for sale
cable-knit scarf ($495),
($5,000). For more information,
Cairo belt ($395), Corner
contact Cindy.Glanzrock@BACP.com.
handbag ($1,695), and Besna calf heels ($650). Bally Client Services: 844-44-BALLY.
The warm, woody, and floral scent of Agraria’s Cedar Rose AirEssence diffuser now wafts out of pretty sola flowers. $120, with 35% of proceeds benefitting the
Your foot will fit like a pea in the pod in the “piselli” suede
Breast Cancer Research
Queen heel by
Foundation this month
Stuart Weitzman.
when ordered at agrariahome.com.
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$375. Stuart Weitzman: At stuartweitzman.com.
ROBERTA.McCAFFREYREALTY ROBERTA.McCAFFREYREALTY Garrison • Cold Spring, NY • 60 Mins NYC Westchester,Putnam,DutchessMLS Garrison • Cold Spring, NY • 60 Mins NYC Westchester,Putnam,DutchessMLS
GARRISON, NY - Enjoy the ultimate in condo living in THE CASTLE, a well-known landmark high above the Hudson River. This luxurious 2 floor, 2 bedroom unit offers breathGARRISON, NY - Enjoy the ultimate in condo living in THE CASTLE, a well-known taking views from Bear Mountain Bridge to Newburgh Bay. It has huge open rooms, 12 to 15 landmark high above the Hudson River. This luxurious 2 floor, 2 bedroom unit offers breathfoot ceilings, 4 fireplaces, gourmet kitchen, and sumptuous baths. It also offers outdoor spaces, taking views from Bear Mountain Bridge to Newburgh Bay. It has huge open rooms, 12 to 15 central air conditioning, and garaging for 2 cars. Offered at $2,999,999 foot ceilings, 4 fireplaces, gourmet kitchen, and sumptuous baths. It also offers outdoor spaces, central air conditioning, and garaging for 2 cars. Offered at $2,999,999
143MainStreet,ColdSpring,NY10516 143MainStreet,ColdSpring,NY10516 Tel:845.265.4113•www.mccaffreyrealty.com Tel:845.265.4113•www.mccaffreyrealty.com info@mccaffreyrealty.com info@mccaffreyrealty.com
EAST FISHKILL, Dutchess County, NY - Wiccopee House. Circa 1894, this beautiful estate on 17.6 acres, includes the 7000 square foot Georgian style main house featuring EAST FISHKILL, Dutchess County, NY - Wiccopee House. Circa 1894, this beau6 bedrooms, gleaming wood floors, multiple fireplaces, period details and a gourmet tiful estate on 17.6 acres, includes the 7000 square foot Georgian style main house featuring kitchen. Additional features include a 100’ x 30’ barn with a 2 bedroom apartment, pad6 bedrooms, gleaming wood floors, multiple fireplaces, period details and a gourmet dock, pool, and tennis court. Offered at $2,495,000 kitchen. Additional features include a 100’ x 30’ barn with a 2 bedroom apartment, paddock, pool, and tennis court. Offered at $2,495,000
GARRISON, NY - Spacious and open country home with fabulous HUDSON RIVER COLD SPRING, NY - Masterfully designed contemporary offers massive two story VIEWS to the west and north to Storm King Mt and Newburgh Bay. The living room features entry, living room and dining room sharing a grand floor to ceiling stone fireplace, large GARRISON, NY - Spacious and open country home with fabulous HUDSON RIVER COLD SPRING, NY - Masterfully designed contemporary offers massive two story cathedral ceiling and stone fireplace, and all living areas enjoy the views and access to stone terchef’s kitchen and 4 bedrooms. Walls of French doors lead to deck cantilevered over rushVIEWS to the west and north to Storm King Mt and Newburgh Bay. The living room features entry, living room and dining room sharing a grand floor to ceiling stone fireplace, large races. 4 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths, includes huge master suite privately located on its own level. ing mountain stream. Delightful details and high quality materials are evident throughout cathedral ceiling and stone fireplace, and all living areas enjoy the views and access to stone terchef’s kitchen and 4 bedrooms. Walls of French doors lead to deck cantilevered over rushThe in-groundVALLEY, pool and cabana further enhance the 5.6 acre property. Offered atThis $1,995,000 the home which is sited on almost 5 acres.square Offered at $1,875,000 PUTNAM NY “Every man’s home is his castle. ” beautiful lakeside home of almost truly fits the bill. Formerly races. 4 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths, includes huge master suite privately located on its own level. ing mountain stream. Delightful6000 details and highfeet quality materials are evident throughout in-ground pool and cabanarebuilt further enhance the 5.6 acre property. Offered $1,995,000 the home which sitedwith on almost acres. ceiling Offeredand at $1,875,000 aThe chapel, it was totally and renovated in 2004. Theatliving room measures 20 byis 30 a 305 foot features a stone fireplace.
A formal dining room and large open kitchen with gas fireplace complete the main floor. The 4 bedrooms include a large master suite with walk-in closet, gas fireplace and balcony. Additional rooms include a library and “tower room” surrounded by windows. Several balconies and porches provide outdoor living spaces. This lovely compound, which also includes a one bedroom guest cottage and an un-renovated stone building, sits on the shore of glorious Indian Lake, a mile long, spring fed lake that spans the Garrison/Putnam Valley border, and is shared by the 12 properties that border it. This private oasis is only 1 hour from Manhattan. Offered at $5,900.00.
GARRISON, NY - Courtside. This rustic stone barn, whose distinctive architecture sets it apart from the ordinary, has been converted into 10,000 square feet of luxurious GARRISON, NY - Courtside. This rustic stone barn, whose distinctive architecture living space. The home features large public rooms, country kitchen, 7-8 bedrooms and sets it apart from the ordinary, has been converted into 10,000 square feet of luxurious a separate 2 bedroom apartment. The beautifully landscaped 4 acre property also offers living space. The home features large public rooms, country kitchen, 7-8 bedrooms and a tennis court and gunite pool. Offered at $1,650,000 a separate 2 bedroom apartment. The beautifully landscaped 4 acre property also offers a tennis court and gunite pool. Offered at $1,650,000
Putnam Valley, NY - Lovely country retreat on almost 5 acres. This C. 1935 home offers 4356 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 ½ baths, 2 working fireplaces, hardwood floors, and numerous Putnam Valley, NY - Lovely country retreat on almost 5 acres. This C. 1935 home offers window seats, nooks and crannies for added character. The glorious backyard features an in4356 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 ½ baths, 2 working fireplaces, hardwood floors, and numerous ground pool with spa and sizeable barbeque and patio area. The property also includes a forwindow seats, nooks and crannies for added character. The glorious backyard features an inmer dairy barn and pond. Offered at $1,300,000 ground pool with spa and sizeable barbeque and patio area. The property also includes a former dairy barn and pond. Offered at $1,300,000
Member of Westchester/Putnam, MLS • Mid-Hudson MLS (Dutchess County) Greater Hudson Valley MLS • (Orange, Rockland, Ulster, Sullivan Counties) Member of Westchester/Putnam, MLSand • Mid-Hudson MLSmany (Dutchess County) Greaterand Hudson • (Orange, Ulster, Sullivan Counties) For more information on these other listings, with full brochures floor Valley plans, MLS visit our website:Rockland, www.mccaffreyrealty.com For more information on these and other listings, many with full brochures and floor plans, visit our website: www.mccaffreyrealty.com
Fresh Finds
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them an original story all their own. $847. Bouvier: At bouvier.com.au.
At dothetuck.com.
Sign up by November 30 for the Spring, Sports & Savings offer from Casa de Campo (for travel March 16–April 19, 2015) and enjoy a fourth night free, plus $100 sport credit: 800.877.3643.
Personalize any of the eco-friendly, Vermont-poured Palm Wax Candles from Pickett’s Press with a monogram She’ll be over the moon for Ivanka Trump’s inspired Metropolis Lune ring with pavé diamonds in 18-kt. yellow gold.
or design of your own. Pickett’s Press: 212.249.1959 or pickettspress.com.
$8,900. Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry: At ivankatrumpcollection.com. One hundred percent of proceeds from each of the unisex Key to the Cure tees, designed by Rag & Bone for Saks Fifth Avenue, will benefit women’s cancer charities. $35 at saks.com.
It’s anchors aweigh for a good cause with Kiel James Patrick’s Ocean Lilly bracelet, sales from which will benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. $40 at kjp.com.
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Ajit Hutheesing accepting the 2014 Giving Back Gala award from Phylicia Rashad on behalf of Nimesh Kampani
Meera Gandhi, General Chair 2014 Giving Back Gala
Barbara Tober, 2014 Giving Back Gala Honoree, with Meera Gandhi
THE GIVING BACK FOUNDATION “We are to the universe only as much as we give back to it.” Meera Gandhi, CEO & Founder We are excited to announce that
THE GIVING BACK FOUNDATION 2015 GALA will be held on Wednesday, April 15th 2015 at the Pierre Hotel, with a star lineup of guests already confirmed. Tickets are $1250 each To book your tickets contact Ellen@TheGivingBackFoundation.net
Fresh Finds
J.Crew’s series of silk and wool English ties in rich aubergine ($69.50), heritage navy diamond check ($69.50), and copper ore microdot ($75) add character with subtle flecks of pattern. Available at jcrew.com.
The Oyster Perpetual Day-Date II in 18-kt. white gold with fluted bezel and President bracelet is the handsomest new face for telling time. $37,550. Rolex: Visit rolex.com for official retailers.
Tod’s knows how to dress the man: brown leather jacket ($3,345), green wool pants ($595), burnt orange leather briefcase ($1,425), and brown Chelsea boots ($845). At Tod’s boutiques or 800.457.TODS. Handmade in Italy, Daniel John Moore’s wool-cashmere hopsack weave blazer— like all his suiting—is redefining luxury. Price upon request, with private fittings in home or office: 212.595.1918.
Add a touch of elegance The MHA100 is McIntosh’s first dedicated headphone amplifier, ensuring that every headphone will produce the best possible listening experience: 800.538.6576.
with Roberto Coin’s Pois Moi cufflinks in 18-kt. yellow and white gold with diamonds. $4,800. Roberto Coin: 212.486.4545.
There’s still a dressed-up feel to the Mr. Casual brown lizard calf shoe from Belgian Shoes—a perfect staple for any man. $415. Belgian Shoes: 110 E. 55th St., 212.755.7372. 80 QUEST
s tatement made of light and air. 24 full and half floor residences from one to three bedrooms,
A neighborhood s teeped in his tor y welcomes a contemporar y architec tural
ranging from $1 to $8 million. Sales by appointment begin Summer 2014.
2 1 2 . 3 8 1 . 2 5 1 9 1 9 P P T R I B E C A .C O M
The complete offering terms are in an offering plan available from sponsor. File no. CD13-0284. All rights to content, photographs, and graphics reserved to ABN Realty, LLC. 3D illustrations courtesy of McAuley Digital. Artist renderings and interior decoration, finishes, appliances, and furnishings are provided for illustrative purposes only. Artist renderings reflect the planned scale and spirit of the building. Sponsor reserves the right to make substitutions of materials, equipment, fixtures, and finishes in accordance with the terms of the offering plan. Equal Housing Opportunity.
21 FLO ORS FACING THE FUTURE
E XC LU S I V E M A R K E T I N G & S A L E S
H E A LT H
“WHAT WE REALLY wanted to do was recreate a village in which women could support one another,” explains Nitzia Logothetis, founder and executive chairwoman of the Seleni Institute. “Whether they’re coming to breastfeeding class, or sleep support class, or a new mom’s group, or a working mom’s group—and if they need extra support they can see a psychotherapist—but if they just need that little bit of support to stay above the water then our groups are great.” That concept is the driving force behind the Seleni Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by Nitzia and her husband, George Logothetis, in 2011. Their goal was to create a unique place that would serve the mental health care needs of women, particularly those arising from reproductive and 82 QUEST
maternal matters. Then in May 2013, the Seleni Institute opened its doors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and women around the city began to take advantage of all the wonderful programs that the mental health and wellness center offers. At Seleni, there are experts for just about everything: psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, lactation consultants, sleep experts, massage therapists, and acupuncturists. Stepping into the center, with its palette of cream, brown, and green, immediately puts you at ease. This is a place designed to nurture and comfort; a tranquil oasis from the stress of urban living. Seleni provides over 30 percent of clients with financial assistance. As well as the center itself, Seleni offers extensive support online with resources
for women and families at seleni.org. The website is full of reliable information, personal stories, and ask-the-experts columns. The Institute also supports innovative research for the diagnosis and treatment of women’s mental health disorders. “It’s creating a space that’s universal,” says Nitzia. “Anyone who is going through any of these issues, we’re really the only specialized place in New York City—nobody really does everything that we do. It’s giving all these women a voice, being able to have a space where they can come and talk about these reproductive issues that in the past had been so hushed.” u For more information, visit the Seleni Institute at 207 East 94th Street, or seleni.org.
CO U RTE S Y O F T H E S E LE N I I N S T I T U T E
WELLNESS AT THE SELENI INSTITUTE
This page: The Seleni Institute waiting area puts visitors at ease right away (above); one of the Institute’s corner therapy offices where clients can speak with one of the many experts on staff (below). Opposite page: The group therapy rooms allow women to express their feelings in a supportive environment (above); Nitzia Logothetis, founder and executive chairwoman of the Seleni Institute (inset).
TOUCHES OF BEAUTY BY ALEX R. TRAVERS
where he attended law school, legal career options would have been plentiful. But after graduation, he chose a rather different path. He created a handcrafted carpet business, where rugs are constructed using ages-old Tibetan and Armenian techniques. And since its launch in 1986, Tufenkian Artisan Carpets has grown by leaps and bounds. The business now employees 3,000 workers in its Nepalese factories and has 150 distributors around the world. Add the six company-owned showrooms in the Untied States and one in London and it’s easy to see just how valued the brand is globally. This is because James Tufenkian is a humanitarian, a visionary, absorbed in his work, which includes boutique hotels, gourmet foods, fashion-oriented rugs, and a philanthropic foundation that focuses on activities in Armenia and the Nagorno Karabagh Republic. But his worldly, diverse vision stems from Tufenkian Artisan Carpets, his first venture aimed at reviving the art of Tibetan rug weaving. The rugs, handcrafted entirely from renewable materials, are both elemental 84 QUEST
and abstract, a combination not easily achieved. Manufacturing a Tufenkian carpet is meticulous, 10-step process that can take up to 3,000 man-hours to create a 9-by-12-foot rug. Each step promotes the carpet’s individuality. But in the language of weaving, there’s a technique called trimming, an essential part of the grammar used to add subtle abstractions to the design. It’s where you see the hand’s touch, the carpet’s human element. In the Meadow Oatmeal rug, pictured on the opposite page, wool, silk, and linen blend together comfortably, creating a style that continues pasts the rug’s borders and expands visually to fill the carpet like weather coming across a plane. Be honest. Did you ever think a contemporary carpet could be so artistic? u This page: A weaver working on a loom. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Using foot-powered wooden wheels, wool is spun into yarn; James Tufenkian, founder of Tufenkian Artisan Carpets; the art of making carpets by hand using the finest materials is cherished and nurtured by Tufenkian; the Meadow Oatmeal rug (background).
CO U RTE S Y O F T U F E N K I A N
WERE JAMES FRANCIS TUFENKIAN a lawyer in New York,
DESIGN
OCTOBER 2014 85
PHOTOGRAPHY
CATCHING STARS: NANCY ELLISON This page: Harrison Ford (above); Glenn Close (below). Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Richard Gere; Maude Adams; Don Johnson; Hume Cronyn as Manet’s “Olympia.”
IN HONOR OF her upcoming show “Nancy Ellison Egos: Unique Iconic Photographs,” Nancy Ellison reminisces about the stories behind the scenes of her dramatic photographs. Harrison Ford: Working on film sets with him is easy—wonderful, in fact— but shooting him at home is a bit different. He can be private and shy, and those sessions can be more difficult. But not this time: after a fun, wacky day, he was relaxed with me in his space. I love that he is so at one with the decor around him: the simple, clean aesthetic of a man who loves the sensual quality of beautiful wood. (My address book had Harrison listed under “C” for carpenter.)
N A N C Y E LL I S O N
B Y L I LY H O A G L A N D
Glenn Close: When she arrived at my Malibu studio, we were both horrified by the clothing that had been “styled” for her. I gave her one of my old coats, and we went out onto the beach to find a location. As soon as I placed her in this set up, she morphed into Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman. She was having fun, playing, and I was given this romantic, heroic image. Richard Gere: On the set of Intersection, Richard Gere challenged me to a game he called “Piggy Basketball,” which was woefully similar to strip poker. I’d clearly have to pass this test before we did our session. I had one bank shot I’d perfected in high school, and, crawling on my hands and knees, somewhat naked and oinking, I nailed it. Maud Adams: Maud Adams brought all the composure and glamour of a
supermodel to our photo sessions. Via her gelid gaze, she would allow you to look at her, but not touch. Maude was remarkable to work with: serene, professional, and probably the only actress in the world who could carry the name Octopussy with grace! Don Johnson: While waiting to do a take, he appears lost in thought. Lost perhaps, but he chose a perfect location and light in which to lose himself! Hume Cronyn: Hume Cronyn and his wife, Jessica Tandy, were the noble couple of both Broadway and Hollywood. However, it was Ms. Tandy that received the most accolades, and the couple were loving but competitive. By the time Jessie was being fêted for her brilliant Oscarwinning performance in Driving Miss Daisy, Hume was beginning to bristle at the attention given to her. Hume grum-
bled to me that he felt like a courtesan. “Let’s shoot it,” I said. I gathered up all I could find in my closet to match the clothing in Manet’s “Olympia,” and I literally pulled a young lady off the street to be his attendant. Hume kept a remarkable straight face as the rest of us fell to the floor in laughter. Jessie, not to be upstaged, informed me that she too wanted to be photographed—as Napoleon! u “Nancy Ellison Egos: Unique Iconic Photographs” opens October 16 at the Taglialatella Gallery and will move to Paris in November.
OCTOBER 2014 87
R E A L E S TAT E
MAGNIFICENCE IN THE OCEAN STATE A property that does justice to Newport, Rhode Island: “Grey Walls”—on the grounds of the historic Arthur Curtiss James estate—offers a bird’s-eye view of the town.
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build the entrance to the 4.27-acre estate. The architecture is defined by a classic shingle-style façade, as punctuated with modern accents. Outside, the gardens are resplendent with features such as a boxwood-hedge knot garden, an orangerie, a swimming pool, and a variety of terraces, while offering a sense of privacy. Located in the heart of the Ocean Drive area, “Grey Walls” is within proximity of the Newport Country Club and the New York Yacht Club. The property is one-of-a-kind, a commingling of Newport past and Newport present. u For more information, contact Kathleen Kirby Greenman of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty at 401.848.6727 or kgreenman@gustavewhite.com.
MICHAEL OSEAN
“GREY WALLS,” AT 86 Beacon Hill Road, presides over the town of Newport, Rhode Island, from the top of Telegraph Hill. Constructed in 1980 on the grounds of the historic Arthur Curtiss James estate with its Beacon Hill House, the property is the epitome of magnificence—honoring the past while harkening the future. The 6,275-square-foot home boasts seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, and one half-bathroom with features including an apartment for guests, cathedral-style ceilings, an eat-in kitchen, a studio for painting, and two fireplaces. And, of course, there are a variety of areas for entertaining in style! Throughout, the interior is sun-filled, offering sweeping views of Block Island, the Newport Bridge, and more. “Grey Walls” was named for the stone that was used to
This page, clockwise from top: The classic shingle-style façade at “Grey Walls” is punctuated with modern accents; the property offers a view of “Blue Gardens,” which is an abutting property; the swimming pool; greenery decorates the property; a view of the Newport Bridge from Telegraph Hill. Opposite page: “Grey Walls” at 86 Beacon Hill Road in Newport, Rhode Island, is listed for $4.2 million.
OCTOBER 2014 89
E N T E RTA I N M E N T
LOOK WHO’S WATCHING
BY ELIZABETH MEIGHER
NAME
EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT what shows they watch. We live in a Netflix nation where setting up Apple T.V. is as simple as tuning in with any program just a click away. And who needs a television when we have digital delivery and streaming media in every form of ultraportable, handheld, mini, weightless, wireless, one-touch, piece of computerized aluminum that anyone could possibly imagine? Thanks to folks like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the list of what we can possibly conceive continues to grow at lightening speed. It was only 15 years ago that we began putting our lives on hold for 30 minutes a week to watch Carrie Bradshaw stumble down the street in her Manolo stilettos, pondering the problems of friends, guys and Fendi, in a world where “Big” will forever remain a noun. A year later, we were willing to devote a full hour to Tony Soprano—watching him “wake up this morning” and drive from New York to North Caldwell, New Jersey, eager to check out the latest news in the Star-Ledger. However, those days of scheduling our plans around our programs are long gone. Today we watch what we want, when we want. “Binge watching” has become a phenomenon, as full seasons of our favorite shows lie just beneath our fingertips. The content of the popular shows we watch influences everything from fashion (think Olivia Pope’s enviable wardrobe in
Opposite page: President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and Vice President Johnson watch the launch of Freedom 7 from the White House Situation Room, May 5, 1961 (above); multiple TV sets. This page, top to bottom: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg watching a modified video of the LCROSS mission through 3-D glasses; Orange is the New Black, a Netflix series created by Jenji Kohan starring Taylor Schilling as convicted criminal Piper Chapman. OCTOBER 2014 91
E N T E RTA I N M E N T Scandal) to politics (President Obama watches Kevin Spacey play ruthless Whip Frank Underwood on the dark hit, House of Cards) to the economy (reality T.V. has resulted in countless billions, for both producers and reality “stars”). To find out just how widely watched today’s popular on-demand T.V. shows have become, we reached out to a number of well-known influencers and tastemakers—across various industries and age groups—to learn who is watching what. VERONICA MIELE BEARD AND ANSON BEARD With the help of her sister-in-law (Veronica Swanson Beard), Veronica Miele Beard launched American sportswear brand Veronica Beard in 2010. The brand is currntly carried in Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and Nordstrom. Veronica and her husband, Anson H. Beard, Jr., love coming home to a new show. Their list includes: Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Silicon Valley, Veep, Nurse Jackie, Parks and Recreation, Girls, Hung, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Real Time With Bill Maher and Weeds. MARSHALL HEYMAN Wall Street Journal Columnist Marshall Heyman is an avid reader, but also keeps current on today’s popular shows. He enjoys tuning into AMC, FX, Netflix, HBO, Showtime, and any number of network stations. Here’s a sampling: Orange is the New Black, Girls, Veep, Silicon Valley, Mad Men, The Strain, Fargo, American Horror Story, Homeland, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Scandal, Please Like Me, The Real Housewives. MARIO BUATTA Known as the “Prince of Chintz,” the interior decorator’s clients have included Mariah Carey, Henry Ford II, Malcolm Forbes, Barbara Walters, Nelson Doubleday, S.I. Newhouse, Charlotte Ford and Billy Joel. He recently published Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration. Buatta reads the papers in the morning with coffee and finds nightly news too depressing. He prefers watching: I Love Lucy, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Honeymooners and Patricia Routledge as Mrs. Bucket (aka: “Bouquet”) on Keeping Up With Appearances. NINA GRISCOM Former model (she was one of Bill Blass’s muses) and current lifestyle expert and advisor Nina Griscom enjoys a select list of shows: An Honorable Woman on BBC (Amazon Prime), House of Cards, Vicious on PBS, Rush, Downton Abbey, Homeland, and The Rachel Maddow Show. RICHARD JOHNSON The New York Post columnist, who spent nearly a quarter of a century turning Page Six into America’s premier tabloid gossip column, actually finds time to watch T.V. His favorite current shows: Game of Thrones, Mad Men, The Blacklist, The Walking Dead, Ray Donovan, The Following, Elementary, Orange is the New Black and True Blood (athough the latter “jumped the shark a couple seasons ago”). He is a big 24 fan, but doesn’t think it’s coming back. He missed House of Cards because his wife Sessa couldn’t wait for him and binged watched it. They just finished The Killing together, which they found extremely depressing with a “crazily happy ending.” Johnson also enjoys Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Masterpiece Mystery in general. He thought Rake, starring Greg Kinnear, should have been a hit and is still wondering why it received such low ratings. 92 QUEST
Paul playing Bryan Cranston and Aaron ter White and Jesse crystal meth chemists Wal akin g Bad ; Pink man in a scen e from Bre us callo Whip Frank Kevin Spacey in character as s; Lad y Edit h Und erw ood on Hou se of Card Carm icha el) bein g Craw ley (pla yed by Lau ra adv entu rous foot man gree ted by han dso me and by Ed Speleers) James “Jimmy” Kent (played er as sweet Sansa at Downton Abbey; Sophie Turn mal evo lent King Star k and Jack Glee son as of Thrones. Joffrey Baratheon on Game
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N ; B I LLY FA R R E LL A G E N C Y
KAREN AND RICHARD LEFRAK Real-estate titan Richard LeFrak and his lovely and talented wife, Karen (who has pubished three children’s books), were glued to Breaking Bad. They also enjoy Masterpiece Mysteries, and watching old films on the Turner Classic Movies channel. They just laughed their way through The Pink Panther for the fourth time! IVANKA TRUMP Mother, wife, businesswoman, entreprenuer and author (as well as former model and reality T.V. star) Ivanka Trump says that she is “addicted to Game of Thrones.” Her entire team watches too, which makes tuning in to the series especially fun and engaging. Trump starts her day reading the papers and catching up on emails, and then switches over to Squawk Box. In her spare time she checks out the Real Housewives series. As a star of The Celebrity Apprentice, she predicts that viewers will be especially entertained by the upcoming season. HILARY AND WILBUR ROSS Private equity mogul Wilbur Ross and his beautiful wife Hilary (whose second book, Palm Beach Palm Beach, will be out in January!) were so riveted by the entire English series of House of Cards that they began to watch the American version and have been enthralled by that as well. On Sunday nights in Palm Beach, they rush home from dinner at the PB Grill to catch Homeland, and in the moning they never miss Squawk Box and Fox Business News. AMY FINE COLLINS The published author and Vanity Fair special correspondent (as well as International Best-Dressed List judge), is inclined to only watch films from Hollywood’s Golden Age on TCM. However, Collins admits to binge watching Orange is the New Black with her teenage daughter, Flora, who was preparing for an internship with the show’s costume designer. Collins’ Vanity Fair article “The Girls Next Door” has been optioned for a scripted series and her 2011 memoir The God of Driving: How I Overcame Fear and Put Myself in the Driver’s Seat (with the Help of a Good and Mysterious Man) will be made into a film next year. JAMEE AND PETER GREGORY Author, wife, fashion maven, mother and grandmother Jamee Gregory and her husband Peter (whose doting granddaughter calls him “Buckys”), have good reason to remain current on the latest shows: their son-in-law Roberto Benabib produced Weeds and is currently filming his new HBO series The Brink. Jamee and Peter are addicted to the English House of Cards, Inspector Lewis, Inspector Morse, and Doc Martin. Jamee loved True Detective and Peter adores Mad Men. Both watch Blue Bloods (from the writers of The Sopranos). CAROLINA AND THOMAS DE NEUFVILLE Thomas de Neufville, senior advisor at Wellford Energy Group and Partner at Revlyst, and his lovely wife Carolina, watch Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Jimmy Fallon and Charlie Rose (Thomas’ favorite). Carolina (not Thomas) is a fan of Scandal and recently got hooked on science documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Carolina also also enjoys watching Dinosaur Train with her adorable little three year old. u
This page, from above: Clai re Danes as CIA agent Carrie Matheson and Man dy Patinkin as her mentor Saul Berenson on Hom eland; Donald Draper (Jon Hamm) surrounded by his bevy of women on Mad Men ; Ker ry Was hin gto n pla ying styl ish cris is man age r Olivia Pope on Scandal; The girls of Girl s: Allison Wil liam s as Mar nie Mic hae ls, Jem ima Kirk e as Jess a Joh ans son , crea tor Len a Dun ham as Han nah Hor vath, and Zosia Mam et as Shosha nna Shapiro .
OPEN HOUSE
LAKE VIEWS IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY A ROOM—OK, 10 ROOMS—with a view! The property in Warren, Connecticut, offers vistas of Lake Waramaug, and more. Nestled on 9.25 acres in Litchfield County, the home includes five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms. Constructed in 1999, the structure boasts 6,358 square feet. Throughout,
features such as cathedral-style ceilings and expansive windows encourage light and a sense of airiness. The kitchen is eat-in, and includes a bay window, granite counters, an island, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and Viking appliances. The living room features two 20-foot fireplaces with stonework. Other amenities include an audio sys-
This page, clockwise from above: A view of Lake Waramaug; the living room with cathedral-style ceilings and two 20-foot fireplaces with stonework; the master suite includes a sitting area; the heated gunite pool; the sitting room with a fireplace and wood paneling. Opposite page, clockwise from above: The covered stone terrace is decorated with greenery; the attractive exterior of the 6,358-square-foot home in Litchfield County; the third bedroom boasts a balcony with views; the driveway is
CO U RTE S Y O F K LE M M R E A L E S TATE
lush with trees; the living room, from another angle.
tem, central air, french doors, a security system, and skylights. Outside, there’s a screened porch and a covered stone terrace as well as a heated gunite pool with a covered cabana and a sculpture. And don’t forget the tree house! This property is one-of-a-kind, because of its wealth of amenities inside
and its surroundings outside. The views of Lake Waramaug are sensational—an example of Litchfield County at its very, very finest. u For more information, contact Carolyn Klemm of Klemm Real Estate at 860.868.7313 or carolyn@klemmrealestate.com.
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MARRIAGES BY ELIZABETH QUINN BROWN
Jessica Reed & Amos Amit May 17, 2014 • Southport, ConneCtiCut
The couple danced to “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley before enjoying the cake, which was salted caramel. They honeymooned at the Four Seasons Resort in Bora Bora.
At the wedding, Elijah Smith served as best man and Lindsay Reed served as maid of honor. The bride wore a dress by Amsale and the bridesmaids wore dresses by Alfred Sung that were purchased at the Wedding Library in New York.
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TO RY W I LL I A M S P H OTO G R A P H Y
The wedding took place at the Country Club of Fairfield, where parents Raphael and Aya Amit and David and Janet Reed celebrated the bride and groom with 155 guests.
WEDDINGS
MARRIAGES Lavinia Lowerre & Maximilian Klietmann June 21, 2014 • Lenox, MaSSaChuSettS
At the wedding, Grey McCune served as best man and Cornelia Lowerre served as maid of honor. The bride wore a dress by Judd Waddell and the bridesmaids wore dresses by Jenny Yoo.
S COT T W Y N N P H OTO G R A P H Y
The bride carried a bouquet of white peonies down the aisle. At the reception, a dulce de leche cake was served— echoing the dulce de leche cake from the engagement in Rio de Janeiro!
The bride and groom were married at the Blantyre Resort, with 170 guests in attendance for the occasion.
The bride danced to “Tupelo Honey” by Van Morrison with the groom and to “Moon River” by Henry Mancini with her father.
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MARRIAGES Sara Elliott & William Haydock JuLy 12, 2014 • Quogue, new york
Tkkk Text bride wore a dress by Modern Trousseau and carried a bouquet of garden roses and hydrangeas. Modern Trousseau and carried a bouquet of garden roses
At the wedding, the groom’s twin brother, Oliver Haydock, served as best man and the bride’s sister, Alexandra Young, served as matron of honor.
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The bride and groom danced to “Warm Love” by Van Morrison at the reception. Instead of a cake, they served vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.
JNOAT HN U -RPAU A L ELXTE P RUETO S SNI O I CO N S P H OTO G R A P H Y
The bride wore a dress by Le Spose di Giò and carried a bouquet of green and white hydrangeas, freesia, and white roses. After the wedding, the couple honeymooned at Jumby Bay in Antigua.
The ceremony took place at the Church of Atonement with receptions at the Quogue Beach Club and the Quogue Field Club. There were 150 guests in attendance to celebrate the couple.
WEDDINGS
MARRIAGES Christina Murphy & Albert Pisa MarCh 1, 2014 • paLM BeaCh, FLorida
J U L I A D U R E S K Y & C H R I S S A L ATA / C A P E H A RT
The couple was married at St. Edward Roman Catholic Church in Palm Beach. The bride wore a custom-made dress by Valentino.
The reception was held at a private club in Palm Beach. Two cakes, including one of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, were executed by master pastry chef Chris Northmore.
After the ceremony, the bridal party— including groomsmen Owen Pisa (left) and Aidan Pisa (right) and ringbearer Miles Murphy (center)—made a spontaneous trip into Green’s Pharmacy for milkshakes.
The couple danced to “You and Me” by the Dave Matthews Band before 150 guests, who included matron of honor Carrie Moore Becker and best man Marc Pisa. Two days later, Christina and Albert went on a honeymoon to both Turks & Caicos and Costa Rica.
The bride carried a bouquet of freesia, white peonies, and white roses, and was walked down the aisle by her eldest brother, Norman. Above: The bride with her father, Norman Murphy.
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MARRIAGES Su Anne Huang & Winston Mi June 14, 2014 • LoS angeLeS, CaLiFornia
The bride wore a dress by Anna Maier and carried a bouquet of peonies, and the couple danced to “You Are The Best Thing” by Ray LaMontagne.
At the reception, guests were treated to a cake by Sweet Lady Jane in lemon and triple-berry flavors.
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The couple plans to honeymoon with an adventure in Argentina, filled with activities like skiing and tangoing.
N AT U R A L E X P R E S S I O N S
M I B E LLE P H OTO G R A P H E R S
The ceremony took place at the Bel-Air Bay Club, where Nicholas Regas served as best man and Piedra Lightfoot served as maid of honor. Jia Ying Huang, Isabelle Mi, and Lauren Welch were the flower girls.
WEDDINGS
G E N E V I E V E D E M A N I O P H OTO G R A P H Y ( PA PA N I CO L AO U / S H A H E E N )
ENGAGEMENTS
Courtney Dolan & Page Leidy
Alexandra Papanicolaou & Edward Shaheen
Sarah Yoder & Teddy Kunhardt
Courtney Dolan and Page Leidy will be married in November 2015 at the Harvard Club in Boston, Massachusetts. “There is something nice about candlelight, fireplaces, and a warm, romantic setting,” they explain. “Boston is a very charming city at that time of year.” The bride (a graduate of Syracuse University from Boston, Massachusetts) and the groom (a graduate of Gettysburg College from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) met when they were set up on a date by Courtney’s colleague at W magazine, who introduced them via email. The match was a success, and for their second date, Page bought tickets to an Old Crow Medicine Show concert in Central Park. Page proposed to Courtney in Palm Beach, Florida, where they were visiting his family. The question was popped during a walk on the beach at sunset. The proposal was followed by pitchers of “Ranch Water” and Rocco’s Tacos. The couple lives on the Upper East Side—but they have downtown personalities!
Alexandra Papanicolaou and Edward Shaheen III will be married on October 4 at the summer home of the bride’s maternal grandparents, the late Tatiana and George Peabody Gardner, Jr., in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts, with a reception following at Myopia Hunt Club. The couple met through a mutual friend in New York. Edward proposed to Alexandra on Via Mizner in Palm Beach, Florida, after the couple finished dinner celebrating their three-year anniversary. Alexandra’s sister, Tatiana Perkin, will be her matron of honor and Edward’s brother, Brett Shaheen, will be his best man. Alexandra grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in Palm Beach, Florida. She is currently studying for her master’s degree at Columbia University and received her bachelor’s degree from University of Miami. Edward grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.
Sarah Yoder and Teddy Kunhardt will be married on June 6, 2015, in Locust Valley, New York. The wedding will take place at the Piping Rock Beach Club, where the bride’s grandfather, Henry Darlington, Jr., is a member. The maid of honor will be the bride’s best friend, Claire Learmonth, and the best men will be the groom’s brothers, George Kunhardt and Peter Kunhardt, Jr. The couple plans to honeymoon in Hong Kong and Indonesia. Sarah (a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and Teddy (a graduate of Skidmore College from Chappaqua, New York) met in 2009 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. On July 5, Teddy proposed to Sarah at his house in Hancock, Maine, during a power outage caused by Hurricane Arthur. The couple lives on the Upper West Side with their four-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Eleanor Rigby. The groom is the the grandson of Philip Kunhardt, Jr., who was an editor of Life magazine. u
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CALENDAR
OCTOBER
On October 22, the American Ballet Theatre will host its fall gala at the David H. Koch Theater, featuring a world premiere by Liam Scarlett at 6:30 p.m. This year, the American Ballet Theatre will celebrate its 75th anniversary. For more information, call 212.496.0600.
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The Mental Health Association of New York City will host its gala at the Mandarin Oriental at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.805.8800.
Ronald McDonald House New York will host its “Power of Your Purse” auction and reception at Doubles at the Sherry-Netherland at 6 p.m. The evening will feature a silent auction of new and gently used handbags. For more information, call 212.639.0203.
Phillip James Dodd will talk about his recent book, The Art of Classical Details: Theory Design and Craftsmanship, at Sotheby’s Institute of Art at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the lecture. For more information, call 212.517.3929.
The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival will take place in New York from October 13–19. For more information, call 917.558.5205.
IN GOOD HEALTH
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JUNIOR MEMBERS
BUYING POWER
LESSONS IN ART
The American Museum of Natural History will hold a screening of Great White Shark at the museum at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.769.5100.
WILD CINEMA
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A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
The Gotham Chamber Opera ‘s 2014-2015 season will open at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in New York. A special performance of El Gato con Botas will take place at El Museo del Barrio. For more information, call 212.868.4460.
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TIME FOR DANCING
Rolex will present its special “New York New York” event at 151 West 55th Street at 7 p.m. The event will be followed by a dinner at the Grand Ballroom at the Hilton. For more information, call 212.581.3836.
The inaugural gala of Friends of Hermione Lafayette in America will take place at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. For more information, call 512.773.6679.
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THE “PAW-FECT” DATE
SCIENCE ROCKS
The Rockefeller University will hold its “Celebrating Science” benefit at 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.327.8000. 102 QUEST
On October 11, the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra will hold two concerts at the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. For more information, call 212.247.7800.
PetsDating.com will host its “Doggie Date Night” at Honda of Manhattan (627 11th Avenue) at 5 p.m. For more information, call 908.202.4528.
CO U RTE S Y O F A M E R I C A N B A LLE T T H E AT R E
FRIENDS AND FÊTES
CALENDAR
OCTOBER NOVEMBER 3 AGING WELL
The Carter Burden Center for the Aging will host its gala at the Mandarin Oriental at 7 p.m. For more information, call 212.921.9070. DELICIOUS EATS
Autism Speaks to Wall Street will celebrate its celebrity chef gala at Cipriani Wall Street at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 646.385.8545.
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LEGENDARY LADIES
The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund will hold its annual Legends gala at the Pierre at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.669.7819.
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CIVIC LEADERS
On October 16, the Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center will host its preview party for the International Fine Art and Antiques Show. Held at the Park Avenue Armory, the show will feature many of the world’s most prominent art and antique dealers. For more information, call 203.588.1363. LADIES WHO LUNCH
The Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy will host its annual fall luncheon at he Mandarin Oriental at 11:30 a.m. For more information, call 212.310.6642.
21 CO U RTE S Y O F T H E S O C I E T Y O F M E M O R I A L S LO A N K E T T E R I N G ; CO U RTE S Y O F P H I LL I P J A M E S D O D D
SAVING OUR SKIN
The Skin Cancer Foundation gala will take place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.725.5176. LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
The Open Road Aperture Foundation will hold its benefit party at Terminal 5 at 6 p.m. For more information, call 212.505.5555.
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HEADING UPTOWN
The annual Harlem Luncheon will take place at 310 Lenox Avenue at noon. For more information, call 212.725.5176.
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HUMANITARIAN SPIRIT
The American Red Cross will celebrate its 2014 gala at 1356 Broadway. The “red-tie”
The New York Landmarks Conservancy will host its “Living Landmarks” celebration at the Plaza at 7 p.m. For more information, call 212.921.9070.
affair will honor the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and Patrick Durkin. For more information, call 212.725.5176. CULTURAL TOUCHSTONES
The American Museum of Natural History will present its Margaret Mead Film Festival, themed “Past Forward,” at the museum from October 23–26. For more information, call 212.769.5100.
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GO BROOKLYN
The Brooklyn Center for the Preforming Arts will kick off its 2014-15 season. For more information, call 718.951.4500.
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LOVE AND COMMUNIT Y
The Associates Committee of Fountain House will host its fall fête at 370 Park Avenue at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.874.5457.
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MISCHIEF NIGHT
The masquerade-themed fundraiser for the Park Avenue Armory will take place at 643 Park Avenue at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 212.616.3961.
On October 9, Phillip James Dodd will talk about his recent book, The Art of Classical Details: Theory Design and Craftsmanship, at Sotheby’s Institute of Art at 6 p.m. For more information, call 212.517.3929. OCTOBER 2014 103
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TRIUMPH ON EASTERN PARKWAY
J O N G H E O N M A RT I N K I M
BY MICHAEL THOMAS
The lobby of the Brooklyn Museum, an oft overlooked gem that has both interesting classical works and cuttingedge contemporary pieces. OCTOBER 2014 105
This page: The Brooklyn Museum attracts members of the new demographic in the borough. Opposite page: The Museum’s Beaux-Arts court.
IN 1999, WHEN I MOVED TO BROOKLYN, I knew relatively little
about the Brooklyn Museum. In a way, this was odd. Museums and art history have been a vocation with me; my first New York job after college was on the curatorial staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over the ensuing four decades, I ventured across the East River perhaps a dozen times, and visited the august building on Eastern Parkway on only a few occasions. The fact was the museum’s strengths—notably its collections of Egyptian, Pre-Colombian, and African art—weren’t to my taste. (It did, however, possess marvels of American art from the days of the Pilgrims into the 20th century.) There was also the problem of location. As the years passed, the character of Brooklyn had changed, in particular the BM’s purlieus, to the point where one felt that a Sherman tank might be the preferred mode of transportation when making the museum excursion. As it happened, 1999 was a watershed year for the BM, too. That October, when I was signing my lease, the museum opened an exhibition that became notorious overnight: “Sensation,” a show of contemporary art from the collection of the controversial London patron Charles Saatchi. Among the works was a painting by the artist Chris Ofili which featured a glob of elephant dung. Even before “Sensation” opened, the nay-sayers were out in force, clamoring for the scalp of the BM’s director, Arnold L. Lehman. He had come up from Baltimore to begin a run whose end, ironically, was announced just as this piece was being written. Lehman intends to retire in September 2015. The good news is that he’ll have more time for me. Lehman arrived to take the reins of what was then generally regarded as a troubled institution, beleaguered by the sorriest demographic this side of Detroit. Among the loudest of his critics was the late Hilton Kramer, former art critic of the New York Times and my then colleague at the New York Observer. With “Sensation,” he became so overwrought, I thought he might have to be hot-walked around the block. OCTOBER 2014 107
Others joined Hilton in deriding the show and Arnold Lehman. Then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani attempted to have the city’s annual subvention to the BM withdrawn, and my longtime friend, the Met’s admirable Philippe de Montebello, wrote a daft Times op-ed that argued the work on exhibition didn’t qualify as true “art.” A soul less polite than I might observe that “Sensation” was precisely the kind of art favored by the brandname collectors of today. The BM and Lehman had their supporters, too. Karen Brooks Hopkins, the head of Brooklyn Acacdemy of Music (and quite simply the greatest arts administrator of my lifetime) spoke up strongly on their behalf. My own view was measured. I saw the show and thought it no better than O.K., better than what one saw at the Whitney on a good day. And fair is fair, after all. As I told a friend, “Philippe walks out onto the steps of the Met, looks up and down Fifth Avenue, and sees buildings whose inhabitants’ net worth runs into the hundreds of millions; Arnold Lehman walks out onto his steps and sees a million and a half poor people.” Post “Sensation,” my first encounters with the BM were mixed. Shortly after I moved in, in the summer of 2000, the BM mounted a show of William Merritt Chase landscapes that was breathtaking, both aesthetically and historically. A couple of years later, friends brought me along to a benefit evening in conjunction with the opening of a “Star Wars” exhibition that struck me as something one goes to Florida theme parks to see; for that one, the BM got a lot of stick. Still, I fancied I understood what Arnold Lehman was up to: he had a number of constituencies to serve. Not an easy job. I work with a philanthropy that is active in the arts, and thought that we might be helpful to the BM, so I made a date to go out to see him. We became fast friends. It was clear to me that he was, above all, a singular combination of idealist and realist. He believes that a museum must serve as large a slice of the communities in which it finds itself. Attract, engage, enlighten: that might be his motto. He believes that this can be accomplished without descending into cultural and aesthetic whoredom, as long as you know your customers. Demographic tides ebb and flow. The massive westward gentrification of the borough (the transformation of “Brooklyn” into the international brandname “BROOKLYN!”) might be moving the local cultural life toward more traditional museum norms, but the lately-arrived BM constituencies aren’t people whose idea of heaven is an hour among mediaeval chalices; these are people who favor places and styles of art that are “happenin’.” Today, the BM, with its “First Saturday” community gettogethers (think of square dancing to a hip-hop tempo), its varied palette of exhibitions, and its unmistakable grasp of the now, is definitely a happenin’ place. I have been around museums and cultural institutions for more than six decades; such places have a distinctive vibe. You can feel it in the air: the mood of the staff, the comfort level of the visitors, and the buzzy feeling that suffuses the galas. Stroller moms from Park Slope, kids from the projects, hipsters from Greenpoint and Williamsburg, patricians from Brooklyn Heights—the museum is there for all of them. All in all, the vibe at BM right now deserves an A+. The key isn’t raw box-office numbers, which are often cited 108 QUEST
This page, clockwise from top left: The “Connecting CO U RTE S Y O F T H E B RO O K LY N M U S E U M
Cultures” installation; Director Arnold Lehman; Nick Cave’s “Soundsuit,” 2008; a performance for the “First Saturday” series; the museum’s shop; having fun at “First Saturday”; the museum’s café; “Figure of a Cat” from the Roman period; one of the many programs that the museum offers; chef Saul Bolton in front of Saul Restaurant, which serves fine dining next to wonderful art; a platform sandal by Salvatore Ferragamo as part of the “Killer Heels” exhibit.
as the foundation of Arnold Lehman’s thinking by people who don’t get it. Yes, museums exist to be visited. People go to see what they’ve heard about, no matter from where the news comes. The Frick was swamped by people who turned up to see an exhibition of masterworks from the Mauritshuis in the Hague; many (if not most) because of two works in the show, Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Fabritius’s “Goldfinch” (subjects of two middlebrow bestsellers.) Considered simply as “go-see” stimulus, the difference between these and “Star Wars” is one of degree not substance, if you ask me. The museum hasn’t really benefited from the Bloomberg mayoralty’s tourism initiatives, which created a museum pilgrimage route, exclusive to Manhattan. Located as it is in interior Brooklyn, and lacking a “must see” blockbuster (if BM owned the “Mona Lisa,” I believe it would draw more than 5 million visitors a year, based on the Louvre’s figures), it’s no surprise that BM’s gross numbers pale beside those of Met or MoMA. And yet if we think in terms of penetrating markets consisting of people who might be expected to visit this or that 110 QUEST
museum, BM seems to be about where you’d expect it to be. Box office can be misleading. The Met’s Alexander McQueen show drew some 600,000 visitors, which were regarded as hallof-fame numbers. What went largely unmentioned was that in the mid-1960s, the “Mona Lisa” visited the Met for six weeks in the dead of winter and drew over 1,000,000 visitors. BM remains a first-class art museum. Its new display of American art is outstanding; it’s not too much, not overfurnished. Right now, BM is exhibiting “Killer Heels: The Art of the HighHeeled Shoe,” which compares favorably to the schmatte shows at the Met—to which, a couple of years ago, the BM transferred its costume holdings. This made sense, as Manhattan is the fashion capital. The terms of the trade permit the BM to borrow stuff back from time to time. Arnold Lehman is often accused of being a populist, as if that’s a bad thing (which presumably makes “elitist” a designation to be coveted). Well, so what? Given its cultural and geographic situation, it would seem clear that the BM has to be an institution for its people, the polychrome population of Brooklyn. Rich and
Given its cultural and geographic situation, it would seem clear that the Brooklyn Museum has to be an institution for its people, the polychrome population of Brooklyn.
This page: The scenic lobby of the museum is light, modern, and representative of the visionary style that has made it so popular recently.
poor, FOMO (for readers over fifty, this means “Fear Of Missing Out”) or fuddy-duddy, the ’hood or the Heights, you name it. Arnold Lehman saw back then what museum people are now accepting. Those who were on his case about “Sensation” now grudgingly mutter the word “visionary.”Arnold has a fine, free, flexible eye that isn’t constrained by the aesthetic proprieties of the moment. He isn’t doctrinaire, or rooted in the past. It helps that he’s supported by a committed board led by an energetic president, Stephanie Ingrassia. I’m not one of those people who regards the simple fact of Brooklyn residence as a singular form of virtue. Still, to see what’s happened to the BM in my 15 years here is pride-making. The Michelin-starred restaurant Saul has moved to the museum from Smith street’s restaurant row. A major show of homegrown talent, “Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy and Beyond,” will have opened by the time this is published. This is the kind of exhibition the museum must do, no matter how socially grand it becomes. Speaking of which, take note of the enormous growth of personal wealth in Brooklyn: when I moved
here, I doubt there was a single billionaire in the borough; today I know at least one, and could point out others. What this might mean for the BM requires no great brainpower to estimate. What is really impressive is that recognized major players from the city’s cultural establishment are signing on. Elizabeth Sackler, a member of one of New York’s most notable collecting families, has just become Chair of the Board, the only woman in BM’s 200-year-history to be so honored. And Shelby White, who with her late husband Leon Levy, has been one of the city’s greatest patrons of art and culture, has created the position of Shelby White and Leon Levy Director, specifically to honor Arnold Lehman. Couldn’t happen to a nicer chap. Or a nicer museum. Postscript: When Arnold announced his intended retirement next year, I asked him what would be at the top of his to-do list if he gave himself another 10 years. His answer: “1) make certain that the 4/5 subway stops in front of the Brooklyn Museum; and 2) finally completing our total climate control program so that both our art and our visitors can always be more comfortable.” u
Instant Gratification BY ALEX R. TRAVERS
This page: Rachel Lee Hovnanian fueling up on instant gratification; “Foreplay: Zoe and Susie” (2014) (top); “Foreplay: Helen and Travis” (2014) (middle); “Foreplay: James and Emil” (2014) (bottom). Opposite page: “Foreplay: Hamilton and Rebecca” (2014). The “Foreplay” series underscores the irony of society’s infatuation with hyper-connectivity. 112 QUEST
R AC H E L LE E H OV N A N I A N
WEARABLE TECH IS HITTING stores. Genetically modified babies are being produced. The Internet is monitoring our every move. It appears that the opening of artist Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s exhibit, “Plastic Perfect,” a look at the relationship between digital technology and human interaction, couldn’t have come at a better time. Right now, we are infatuated by ever-improving media, marveling at its advances. But her show’s title poses an implied question: Is all this in any way perfect? It seems worth finding out. “I’m addicted to my phone,” says Hovnanian when I admit that I often feel anxious without checking emails and text messages. We’re at Leila Heller’s West 25th Street gallery, and she’s directing me to a room where hospital gowns hang on a coat rack and hand sanitizer is mounted on the wall. Inside are two
rows of lifelike baby dolls, each framed by open glass boxes. A glowing menu offers some of their names: #TheAlex, #TheChris, #TheJoey. Wallpaper, patterned with electrical outlets, lines the room. The feeling is eerie, sterile. It’s as if you’re in a bizarre hospital nursery, watching a group of genetically perfect babies, and, as part of the experiment, you naturally mimic the behavior of a nervous parent about to adopt a child. “First sanitize your hands, then put on an isolation gown,” she instructs, smiling at me. “Then pick your perfect baby.” After a few apprehensive moments, I choose #TheJoey. He weighs about eight pounds and he’s warm from the glow of the lights underneath him. Now #TheJoey is in my arms while the rest of the babies lie motionless, their heads resting on translucent plastic pillows filled with Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, or Fruity
Pebbles. As if she can read my thoughts, Hovnanian explains that we might be able to pre-select genetically perfect babies one day. I put #TheJoey back against his confectionary headrest and she hands me a fact sheet which maps out his future. The first line reads: “The Joey is a Tony Award–winning masterpiece.” I also learn he’ll take first place at the 2020 Iron Man competition in New York City. Not bad, kid. A lot of contemporary art can be tediously didactic. Hovnanian’s work is playfully interactive, imprinted with theories about pop culture, technology, and narcissism. But it never feels like it comes as a lesson, warning, or an I-told-you-so. It’s about sharing an experience. Even our initial conversation is more of a dialogue than a one-way interview. “I want people to pause and think about how technology has impacted our lives,” she tells me. She’s not trying to say our devices are bad, however. In fact, a smartphone adds to the exhibit’s experience. “Four men walked into the show, sanitized their hands, and then put on isolation gowns and chose perfect babies,” she says. “They were strangers, but holding the babies brought them together. They posed together for a selfie like proud fathers.”
Hovnanian’s work is playfully interactive, imprinted with theories about pop culture, technology, and narcissism.
R AC H E L LE E H OV N A N I A N
This spread: Featured in “Plastic Perfect” is “White Narcissus Panel with Mice I” (2014), a mixed media work by Rachel Hovnanian. (above); Hovnanian working in her New York studio (below).
On my first visit to “Plastic Perfect,” a few days before I meet Hovnanian, the space is full of activity for the opening, guests hovering outside the small entranceway to the “Perfect Baby Showroom,” the standees clamoring for a chance to take their picture with one of the dolls. Waiters pass out Wheaties and other sugary treats rather than offering water or wine. And guests, myself included, are all glued to their mobiles, snapping photos of the art and the people who are engaged with it. I mention my experience to her, confessing I was using my phone as a crutch, a tool to subliminally avoid conversation. “The next generation is not going to know what it’s like not to be connected all the time,” she responds, leading me to a room that proves her theory. In the back of the gallery is “In Loco Parentis,” an installation where an iPad, projecting an eightminute loop of a baby playing with an iPad, sits in a booster seat. Behind her is chaos: The fridge is wide open. The floor is littered with Cheerios. A digital mouse gnaws away at some cheese. And the parents are in the other room, occupied with their own digital dilemmas. The kid’s alone, consumed. But she doesn’t seem to mind. “During the entire time I filmed that girl”—90 minutes—“she never once looked up,” Hovnanian adds, then makes an interesting remark: “I have been told that parents have seen children take a book’s pages and swipe them like and iPad.” As we walk out of “In Loco Parentis,” toward another section of the gallery, I don’t doubt her statement’s validity for a second. Up next is “Poor Teddy,” a mixed media work where a knife sticks through the heart of a teddy bear, his camaraderie replaced OCTOBER 2014 115
“The next generation is not going to know what it’s like not to be connected all the time.”
This page: In “Perfect Baby Showroom,” the ideal human is available in a laboratory-meets-shopping-mall setting, where parents determine the lives and physical characteristics of their babies (above); “Poor Teddy” (below). Opposite page: Rachel Hovnanian stands in her “Perfect Baby Showroom.”
R AC H E L LE E H OV N A N I A N
Hovnanian’s “Plastic Perfect” exhibition will be on view at Leila Heller Gallery (568 W 25th St, New York, New York) through October 18.
by technology’s allure. A group of mice herd the incapacitated toy as if they’re ready to consume it. According to Hovnanian, the mice represent technology. And, she says, humans are being tested like lab rats, which is true: “There is much research on our behavior using technology.” In another nook of the gallery is “Foreplay,” a video featuring a few distracted couples in bed. It’s projected on a mattress. “I shot them on this bed,” she exclaims. That zany notion is countered by a meditative mood: “Isn’t It Romantic,” a song from the 1930s, plays softly on the line of a rotary phone when you pick it up. At first, it’s voyeuristic—and then you realize that these couples aren’t really doing anything worth spying on. They’re lying in bed, illuminated by the glow of their mobile phones. Then their restlessness kicks in. They fidget, scan, scroll...too engrossed in their devices to talk, sleep, or have sex. As we walk back into the main gallery space, Hovnanian tells me that technology is now marketed like sugary cereal once was—it saves you time and it’s healthy and fun. A few moments later, she pulls up her Instagram app, showing me a celebrity’s photograph of “Plastic Perfect,” which instantly got over 4,000 likes. Cleary, she’s thrilled. This is Instagram’s nutritious side, proof that the train runs on two tracks: Technology can help us, but it can also rob us from living in the moment. There’s more of Hovnanian’s art on the outside of the gallery, which I missed when I first saw the exhibit. As we walk outside, she points out three neon signs with kitsch-y phrases and their
respective acronyms. Two girls walk by and notice one. “I want to take a picture of that,” beams ones girl to her friend, pointing at the sign on the gallery’s Eleventh Avenue sidewall that reads, “I don’t give a fxxx. IDGAF.” In the adjacent windows: “By the way I think I am in love with you. BTWITIAILWY” and “Fxxxed up, insecure, neurotic, emotional. FINE.” The soup-to-nuts experience of “Plastic Perfect” brings out Hovnanian’s questing character and, most importantly, encourages conversation, interaction. Like the sugary cereals she features, “Plastic Perfect” offers a quick high, one that may have you feeling fucked up, insecure, neurotic, or emotional after your visit. Or fine. u
WELCOME TO MIAMI PRODUCED BY ELIZABETH QUINN BROWN
THE CITY OF MIAMI is becoming the definition of l’art pour l’art, or art for art’s sake. (Or maybe we should say arte por el arte, the phrase in Spanish?) The hub, which is characterized by its swirl of cultures, is excited about the commingling of influences from the Caribbean, North America, and South America—and what everything means for contemporary and modern art. The emphasis on art can, perhaps, be credited to fairs like Art Basel in Miami Beach. The event has drawn artists and collectors to the area, creating a haven for experts. Histori-
cally, the museums started to grow in the 1980s and 1990s, which were followed by the sprouting of galleries as the scene proceeded to flourish. For our story, Quest consulted with Nina Johnson-Milewski, director of Gallery Diet, who has been entrenched in the world for decades. Here, a roundup of the galleries and museums that are setting the tone in Miami—from the Bass Museum of Art to spaces such as Guccivuitton and Michael Jon Gallery. Take a look, whatever your expertise! u
This page: Art Basel in Miami Beach is among the fairs that have helped to define the city as an epicenter for contemporary and modern art.
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MICHAEL JON GALLERY 255 Northeast 69th Street / 305.521.8520 www.michaeljongallery.com Michael Jon Radziewicz, who received a MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago, established Michael Jon Gallery in 2012. Wooing talents such as Math Bass, Sayre Gomez, and JPW3 to his space, he has developed a reputation that will carry him to Art Basel in Miami Beach on December 4–7. It’s onward and upward for this gallerist, who has evolved beyond up-and-comer. > The “Summer & sUMMER” exhibition; a work by artist JPW3 from the “Solid Single Burner” exhibition (inset).
GALLERY DIET 174 Northwest 23rd Street / 305.571.2288 www.gallerydiet.com Under the direction of founder Nina Johnson-Milewski, Gallery Diet is a contemporary art gallery that, for the past six years, has presented a rigorous program of solo and group exhibitions by a wide, multigenerational mix of international artists. Gallery Diet has worked with a variety of guest curators, including Joshua Abelow, Van Hanos, Phong Bui, James Cope, and Mark Dion, to show the works of a range of artists, including Kristofer Benedict, Charley Friedman, Christy Gast, Benny Merris, Emmett Moore, and George Woodman. > The interior of Gallery Diet; “Slab Strike Table” (2014), an inkjet print on ash plywood by Emmett Moore (inset).
GUCCIVUITTON
PHU CO OTO RTECSRYEO D FI TTG HO E ERSE H SP EE RCET I V E G A LLE R I E S
8375 Northeast 2nd Avenue / www.guccivuitton.net The name, Guccivuitton, is a nod to the Miami-centric inspiration that compelled artists Loriel Beltran, Domingo Castillo, and Aramis Gutierrez to open a gallery. At Guccivuitton, they endeavor to speak to the mix of cultures that has come to define the city. The space, which is located in the neighborhood of Little Haiti, explores a range of contemporary art—while offering a visual commentary on branding and imitation. > The “Chayo Frank: Sculptures, 1969–2012” exhibition; “Sunrise Event II” (2014) by Scott Armetta from the “10a/10b “exhibition (inset).
PRIMARY PROJECTS 151 Northeast 7th Street / 786.615.9308 www.thisisprimary.com Primary Projects is a multidisciplinary project space, positioned at the heart of downtown Miami. The creative forces behind Primary Projects succeed as they unite commercial and critical efforts to offer an intelligent, alternative arts environment with a bold, urban sensibility delivered through a diverse range of media. > The “Agalma” exhibition; a work by Autumn Casey (inset).
LOCUST PROJECTS 3852 North Miami Avenue / 305.576.8570 www.locustprojects.org Founded by a trio of artists (Elizabeth Withstandley, Westen Charles, and Cooper), Locust Projects opened in 1998 in a converted warehouse in the once depressed Wynwood neighborhood. The not-for-profit organization flourishes with grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and more. It has garnered recognition, presenting ambitious works by a diverse group of international artists at critical stages in their careers. > A view of Locust Projects; a work by Simón Vega (inset).
EMERSON DORSCH
Emerson Dorsch was founded by Brook Dorsch in the Wynwood district, where it is a central figure of its internationally acclaimed art scene. In 2008, art historian and curator Tyler Emerson-Dorsch joined as partner, pushing its program to the forefront of the avant-garde discourse. Emerson Dorsch fosters a diverse roster of emerging and established international artists. > The “we float about the spit and sing” exhibition at Emerson Dorsch; a work by Beatriz Montevaro (inset).
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151 Northwest 24th Street / 305.576.1278 www.dorschgallery.com
MOCA 770 Northeast 125th Street / 305.893.6211 www.mocanomi.org The Museum of Contemporary Art of North Miami (or MOCA) started as the Center of Contemporary Art, a modest space that opened in 1981. In 1996, the museum moved to a building designed by Charles Gwathmey. MOCA presents eight to 10 exhibitions annually, with recent shows including “Tracey Emin: Angel Without You” and “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey.” > The exterior of the Museum of Contemporary Art; A work from the “Third Space: Inventing the Possible” exhibition (inset).
BASS MUSEUM OF ART 2100 Collins Avenue / 305.673.7530 www.bassmuseum.org The Bass Museum of Art, located in Miami Beach, offers a dynamic calendar of contemporary exhibitions, with artists’ projects, educational programs, lectures, and concerts to complement the works on view. The museum was founded in 1963, when the City of Miami Beach accepted a collection of Renaissance and Baroque works of art from collectors John and Johanna Bass. Exhibitions to visit include “Gold” and “One Way: Peter Marino.”
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> The exterior of the Bass Museum of Art; The “One Way: Peter Marino” exhibition is scheduled to open on December 4 (inset).
PÉREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI 1103 Biscayne Boulevard / 305.375.3000 www.pamm.org Pérez Art Museum Miami (or PAMM) is a modern and contemporary art museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting international art of the 20th and 21st centuries. A 29-year-old institution, it serves its community, where a unique confluence of Caribbean, North American, and South American cultures adds vibrancy and texture to the landscape. Miami’s growing art-engaged public continue to drive the demand for a world-class museum and dynamic center like PAMM. > The exterior of the Pérez Art Museum Miami; Jedd Novatt’s “Chaos Bizkaia” and “Chaos SAS” are on display (inset). OCTOBER 2014 121
THE ELEGANT EYE BY GEORGINA SCHAEFFER
This page: Bunny Williams in her office on East 61st Street. The main gallery is decorated in her signature style and often showcases new product from Bunny Williams Home. Opposite page: Williams uses the Litchfield Garden Bench, from her new collection of outdoor furniture for Century Furniture, in
B R I A N B I E D E R ; J O H N B E S S LE R
her own sunken garden in Connecticut.
interior designer Bunny Williams says. “A lot of it comes from solving practical problems,” she continues, with her trademark roll-up-your-sleeves attitude. A shelf with baskets might be the answer to clean up a room full of children’s toys or a larger buffet might be needed for more surface space while entertaining outdoors. Last month, Williams unveiled her latest collaboration, a new tabletop collection for Ballard Designs. This is hardly the designer’s first foray into the product arena. In the last three years, she has launched more than half a dozen licensed collections: paper goods with Caspari, mirrors with Mirror Image Home, indoor rugs with Doris Leslie Blau, outdoor rugs with Dash and Albert, decorative pillows and throws with Pine Cone Hill, mantles and fireplace tools with Chesneys, and an outdoor furniture collection with Century, which was the buzz among the design cognoscenti at last fall’s Highpoint Furniture Market. And that’s to say nothing of the furniture line that she designs and manufactures, which she started six years ago: Bunny Williams Home. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Williams began her interior design training at Stair & Co. Antiques and then continued to hone her skills at the venerated firm 124 QUEST
W H I TE O R A N G E P RO D U C T I O N S ; F R A N C E S CO L A G N E S E
“I DESIGN WHAT I THINK is needed and what I can’t find,” legendary
This page: The dining room Williams designed for a young family on the East Coast. Opposite page: The Bunny Williams Home Red Tape Bench and Red Tape Stool are at home in more modern or traditional settings (top); with its honed marble top and hand-applied reeded wood base, the Hourglass Table is a best-seller in the Bunny Williams Home Line (bottom).
This page: Williams and her husband, famed antiques dealer John Rosselli, in their home in Punta Cana. Washable slipcovers on the upholstery mean their dogs are always welcome; Williams always arranges furniture into seating groups to allow for easy conversation, and always mixes periods and styles. Opposite page: Shown in this living room is a 1950s lacquer screen with a Venetian sofa, a 19th-century chair, and
FRITZ VON DER SCHULENBURG
RIC ARDO L ABOUGLE;
a carved Italian mirror.
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of Parish-Hadley for 22 years. “I can still hear Albert’s voice in my head all the time,” she says of her mentor, the late Albert Hadley. “It was the greatest education I could ever have. He is with me every day.” In 1988, she founded her own firm, Bunny Williams Inc., and continues to be a leader in the design world receiving countless accolades, including being inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. As a designer, she is known for her classical approach, creating rooms with a mix of fine period pieces that she puts together with her well-trained eye. “I want houses that are unique and special, but also that work,” she says rather matter-of-factly. “I like a sofa to sit down on, a conversation group, a space to be comfortable in. Not everyone cares about decorating, but everyone cares about comfort.” The “Bunny Williams look” is as signature as the designer herself: refined without sacrificing ease, smart without coming off as pretentious, traditional without being boring. Williams’ deft hand at mixing styles and pieces establishes the soul of her rooms with the depth and richness of a luxurious eclecticism. On a perpetual quest for beautiful things, Williams takes her time finding the right pieces for a space. “I don’t do a whole room at once. I don’t always know what I am going to find,” she says. Whatever does not find a place in a client project might end up at Treillage, the home furnishings and garden shop she owns with her husband, antiques dealer John Rosselli. She and Rosselli share three homes together with their two rescue dogs, Annabelle and Bebe: an apartment in New York, a country house in Connecticut, and a villa in Punta Cana. Williams lives as she works, surrounding herself with beautiful and practical objects. “I think I am the luckiest person in the whole world,” she says of her work. “It’s what I love to do.” u
This page: Treillage, the antiques and garden store Willliams owns with Rosselli, has been a destination for designers and shoppers alike for over 20 years. Opposite page: the back garden at Treillage is an oasis within the city—always filled with interesting treasures found on Williams and Rosselli’s travels.
This spread: This Richmond, Va., living room shows Williams’ deft ability to mix pieces of varying provenance to create a timeless look.
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THE MANY LAYERS OF PETER SACKS B Y L I LY H O A G L A N D 132 QUEST
This spread: “Necessity Mandela,” a triptych by Peter Sacks,
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who was witness to the effects of apartheid as a child.
YOU SHOULD ALWAYS approach a painting by Peter Sacks in stages. First, from a distance, appreciate the large-scale abstract and cohesive whole. Step a little closer and you start to focus in on the piece’s sculptural elements: the relief of hills and valleys and shadows and peaks. Finally, once you’re right up against it, a treasure box of rich colors, antique lace, and type-covered textiles opens up to you. You can’t just glance at his work; you need time to absorb its complexity. Sacks’ art is deeply layered, both metaphorically and literally.
His paintings have the rare ability to appeal both to viewers whose primary concern is aesthetic, as well as those who prefer to appreciate a work after learning its context and significance. At the opening of Sacks’ new show, “Aftermath,” connoisseurs of art and history alike gathered at the Robert Miller gallery, proving his work can be examined through either lens. It stands to reason that the artist would be as multifaceted as his work; Sacks’ creative talent is paired with an exceptionally clever mind. As an academic: after Princeton, Oxford on a OCTOBER 2014 133
CO U RTE S Y O F P E TE R S AC K S
Rhodes scholarship, and graduate studies at Yale, he taught literature at John Hopkins and Harvard. As a poet: he wrote five critically acclaimed collections, and has been published in everything from The Paris Review to The New Yorker. Still, even after all those successes, as a writer-in-residence in Marfa, Texas, he discovered he yet another career to conquer, and picked up a paintbrush. (Poetry is still very present in his life in the form of his Pulitzer Prize–winning wife, the poet Jorie Graham.) Sacks is reluctant to admit how long it takes to create his enormous pieces, but the fastidiousness of his process reveals that this is no quick operation. He searches for original hand-made materials to layer, and has an old typewriter in the back of his studio in Martha’s Vineyard 134 QUEST
This page, clockwise from top left: “Aftermath 1, 7x7” is an example of the darker spectrum of Sacks’ work. He claims that it’s very telling whether people gravitate to his lighter or darker paintings; “Aftermath 9, 6x6”; the artist, who has also been an academic and a poet; the text on the cloth throughout “Kalahari, 6x6” comes from Sacks’ typewriter. Opposite page: The patterns of “Aftermath 6, 6x6” come from the handmade lace that Sacks includes in his paintings.
Peter Sacks’ art is deeply layered, both metaphorically and literally. It stands to reason that the artist would be as multifaceted as his work; Sacks’ creative talent is paired with an exceptionally clever mind.
that he uses to type on the cloth he carefully selects. He picks passages from speeches and biographies that reflect a well-developed social conscience, one that was profoundly affected by his childhood in South Africa. Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, he was witness to the atrocities of apartheid, so it comes as no surprise when words from Nelson Mandela’s life appear among the works of “Aftermath.” The mix of text and art in Sacks’ pieces create a visual language to which people seem to instinctually react. The sheer size of the paintings, the intricacies of the lace and fabric, and the topographical dimensions are as emotionally evocative as the words he chooses to pair them with—in short, they’re as gorgeous as they are meaningful. u OCTOBER 2014 135
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This spread: The “Inside Out” project in Times Square, where New Yorkers took oversized photobooth pictures of themselves that were then pasted to cover the sidewalk.
JR: FACING OURSELVES B Y L I LY H O A G L A N D
This page: The seperation wall on the West Bank, which JR covered in pictures of Israelis and Palestinians alongside one another, proving that these cultural enemies were often too similar to differentiate between. Opposite page: On the promenade of the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center, a
LAST SUMMER, HARRIED New Yorkers with the misfortune of crossing Times Square as part of their commute were suddenly brought up short by an unexpected sight: the sidewalk was being blanketed by oversized pictures of faces. In the middle of it, a mobile photo booth and the man responsible for turning the public space into an immense portrait gallery, an artist known as JR. As part of JR’s “Inside Out” project, New York was in fact late to the party. He had been covering cities—sidewalks, rooftops, facades of entire neighborhoods—with these pictures for years. After winning the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Prize in 2011, he set out to create the world’s largest participatory art project. “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world inside out,” he said then. The message behind his projects changes according to where they are situated. For the “Inside Out” series in Times Square, it was a statement about how advertising assaults us from all sides; in Johannesburg, the pictures of children with AIDS were selected to be prominently displayed in hopes of removing the disease’s stigma and presenting the subjects as heroes. When he was doing his “Face 2 Face” project in the West Bank, he pasted pictures of Israelis and Palestinians interspersed with one another, to prove that the citizens of the 138 QUEST
two warring sides were too similar to tell apart. As part of one of his “Women Are Heroes” project in Brazil, he wanted to show that places typically portrayed as violent and primarily masculine were in fact supported by the women therein. To do so, he covered the notorious favela in Rio de Janeiro, Moro de Providencia, with the faces and eyes of local women. Back in New York, where he keeps a studio, he has been working on collaborations with artists of all mediums. One look at his highly followed Instagram account (which he updates at all hours of the night) shows him working alongside musician Pharrell Williams, actor Robert De Niro, and magician David Blaine. This past spring, he created a massive trompe l’oeil picture for the New York City Ballet of an eye made up of the dancers, laid out along the Lincoln Center promenade, as well as a giant photo pasted to the front windows of the David H. Koch Theater. On October 1, his latest project in New York will be open to the public: “Unframed—Ellis Island.” He worked with the nonprofit organization Save Ellis Island to bring to life the history of the abandoned hospital through which immigrants would be processed. He had chosen archival photographs of people who had passed through a century before and pasted them on the crumbling ruins of the site. Ironically, for someone whose art is primarily focused on putting faces on display, JR hides himself behind a hat and
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6,500-square-foot vinyl photograph of more than 80 New York City Ballet dancers, roughly life size, who are arranged in the form a gigantic eye.
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sunglasses at all times. In the tradition of street art, he prefers to remain “semi-anonymous” (although a recent appearance on The Colbert Report might make it slightly more difficult) in part because of the questionable legality of some of his early work and the oppressive regimes that occasionally take offense to his current projects. In a way, we have all become part of JR’s art. He has created a studio out of the entire word and wants everyone to interact with his images and message. As he said, “What we see changes who we are. When we act together, the whole thing is much more than the sum of the parts.” u
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The notorious favela of Rio de Janeiro, Moro de Providencia, is most often associated with the violence that arises out of the clashes between the (primarily male) drug dealers and police. By covering the place with faces and eyes of local women, JR paid tribute to the strong community of women that refute that stereotype.
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I HEART NY GALLERY GUIDE An insider’s look at some of the most compelling art galleries in the city—and the works you should be sure to see this fall.
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U N T I T LE D , N E W Y O R K
CO U RTE S Y O F I A N T W E E DY A N D
PRODUCED BY ALEX R. TRAVERS
UNTITLED / 30 Orchard Street; 212.608.6002 Prior to UNTITLED, Joel Mesler founded and ran Rental Gallery, which had locations in Los Angeles and New York. First aimed at giving out-of-town galleries an exhibition space in New York and Los Angeles, UNTITLED, located in the Lower East Side, soon began representing artists and mounting shows such as Brendan Fowler’s and Matthew Chambers’ New York debuts. Since its opening, the gallery has continued to nourish the careers of Rental’s artists, giving Chambers and Fowler their sophomore New York shows and mounting Henry Taylor’s ambitious sculpture show (which coincided with his survey at MoMA PS1) and has added new blood to this core group, including David Adamo, Ian Tweedy, and N. Dash. This spread: Ian Tweedy’s current installation at UNTITLED; the gallery’s façade (inset).
A look inside RH Contemporary Art, located at 437 West 16th Street; the gallery’s façade (inset).
RH CONTEMPORARY ART
CO U RTE S Y O F
RH Contemporary Art is a dynamic and multichannel platform that offers a new way to view, learn about, and acquire contemporary artworks. The program includes the RH Contemporary Art Gallery, located in New York’s Chelsea art district; a distinctive online gallery featuring a series of artist documentaries; and an art journal written by acclaimed curators, critics, and artists. The gallery provides the opportunity to acquire original works of art by international artist and purchase bodies of work directly from the artist, seeking to create greater visibility for artists and their practices. Its focus on newly created contemporary works offers an uncommon opportunity to convey a fresh narrative, providing unprecedented access to the artistic process for audiences and art lovers.
R H CO N TE M P O R A RY A RT
437 West 16th Street; 212.675.4200
“Snow” (1960) by Saul Leiter, whose exhibition is on view through October 25; the inside gallery space (inset).
HOWARD GREENBERG GALLERY / 41 East 57th Street; 212.334.0010 Since its inception over 30 years ago, Howard Greenberg Gallery has built a vast and ever-changing collection of some of the most important photographs in the medium. Maintaining diverse and extensive holdings of photographic prints, the gallery includes such masters as Eugène Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertész, William Klein, Gordon Parks, and Paul Strand on its roster of artists. More recent additions include Edward Burtynsky, Joel Meyerowitz, and Vivian Maier. The gallery’s collection acts as a living history of photography, offering genres and styles spanning from Pictorialism to Modernism, in addition to contemporary photography. 144 QUEST
CO U RTE S Y O F H O WA R D G R E E N B E R G G A LLE RY
at Howard Greenberg Gallery
ACQUAVELLA GALLERIES
© WAY N E T H I E B AU D ; CO U RTE S Y O F AC Q UAV E LL A G A LLE R I E S
18 East 79th Street; 212.734.6300 Acquavella is a family-owned gallery, founded by Nicholas Acquavella in 1921. The gallery first specialized in works of the Italian Renaissance, but in 1960, when William Acquavella joined his father, the focus of the gallery expanded to major works of the 19th and 20th centuries, including masters of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. Recently, William Acquavella has been joined by his daughter Eleanor and sons Nicholas and Alexander, and the entire scope of the 20th century is now represented, including Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. On October 1, the gallery will show an exhibition of works by Wayne Thiebaud, featuring 35 paintings and 14 works on paper. Many of the works included are being shown to the public for the first time. This will be Thiebaud’s second exhibition with the gallery.
Beginning October 1, Acquavella Galleries will feature an exhibition with works by Wayne Thiebaud, including “Referee,” pictured here; the gallery’s façade (inset).
PETZEL GALLERY
CO U RTE S Y O F S E A N L A N D E R S A N D P E T Z E L , N E W Y O R K
456 West 18th Street; 212.680.9467 Friedrich Petzel Gallery, founded in 1993, first opened on Wooster Street in the SoHo area of New York City. In 2000, the gallery moved to 537 West 22nd Street in Chelsea and, in 2006, it expanded to include a separate space next door dedicated to smaller exhibitions, artists’ projects, and performances. In the fall of 2008, Friedrich Petzel Gallery opened a joint gallery with Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. This new gallery, called Capitain Petzel, is housed in a glass-encased gallery located in Mitte section of Berlin and presents exhibitions of established international artists. After 11 years on 22nd Street, Petzel Gallery closed this space, expanding into a new location at 456 West 18th Street in 2012. The move to the new, larger 18th Street location continues Petzel Gallery’s commitment to develop its program upon the scope, diversity, and ambitions of the artists that it represents.
From left: Petzel Gallery’s entrance at 456 West 18th Street; a work by Sean Landers, who will have a show at the gallery from November 13 through December 20. OCTOBER 2014 145
G U I LL AU M E Z I CC A R E LL I ( A RT WO R K ) ; G E N E V I E V E H A N S O N ( FA Ç A D E ) ; CO U RT E S Y O F G A LE R I E P E R ROT I N
John Henderson’s “Untitled Painting” (2014); Henderson’s show at Galerie Perrotin will run from October 9 through November 15; Galerie Perrotin’s 909 Madison Avenue façade (inset).
GALERIE PERROTIN / 909 Madison Avenue; 212.812.2902 Founded in 1989, Galerie Perrotin has proceeded to open 14 different spaces in 25 years, with the aim of continuing to offer increasingly stimulating environments to its artists. Adding to its three gallery spaces in the Marais area of Paris, Galerie Perrotin launched a new space in May 2014—the Salle de Bal, a former ballroom set in a 17th-century Hôtel Particulier (Hôtel du Grand Veneur), inaugurated with the group exhibition “G I R L” curated by Pharrell Williams. In May 2012, the gallery opened a space in Hong Kong on the 17th floor of 50 Connaught Road Central. Galerie Perrotin New York opened at 909 Madison Avenue on September 2013 in the former 1932 Bank of New York building, a historic landmark on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Be sure to visit John Henderson’s upcoming exhibition, “A Revision,” on view from October 9 through November 15. 146 QUEST
G E N E V I E V E H A N S O N ; CO U RT E S Y O F H AU S E R & W I RT H
HAUSER & WIRTH / 511 West 18th Street; 212.790.3900 With locations in Zurich, London, New York, Somerset, and Los Angeles, Hauser & Wirth is a globally recognized name in the art world. Founded in Zurich in 1992 by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth, and Ursula Hauser, the gallery’s first permanent location, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, opened in the former Löwenbräu brewery building. The exhibitions are one-of-a-kind. On view through October 25 at the gallery’s 18th Street location is Monika Sosnowska’s “Tower,” a mammoth new work that conjoins architecture and sculpture in order to explore the politics and poetics of space. Known for large-scale, site-specific installations, Sosnowska creates psychologically charged art rooted in existing structures and influenced by the built environment.
Installation views of Monika Sosnowska’s “Tower” (2014); Hauser & Wirth’s 511 West 18th Street gallery façade.
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BROWN
YGL
THE YOUNG & THE GUEST LIST BY ELIZABETH QUINN BROWN
Lindsay Ellingson and Sean Clayton attended the U.S. Open
GETT Y IMAGES
with Moët & Chandon.
Jason Sudekis and Olivia Munn took in some tennis from the Moët Suite at the beginning of September.
Josh Groban and Jay Pharoah “play for a living,” with or without Moët & Chandon. Phil Winser and Princess Eugenie of York attended the U.S. Open with Moët & Chandon.
Andy Gale and Lo Bosworth hung out at the Moët Suite during a day session at the U.S. Open.
Alexa Chung popped into the Moët Suite for some champagne and tennis.
Constance Jablonski and Elsa Anna Sofie Hosk were
Lizzy Kaplan toasts with Moët & Chandon
among the bevy of models at the Moët Suite.
Ice Impérial at the U.S. Open.
FALL IS MY FAVORITE, and I could quote F. Scott Fitzgerald
by saying, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall,” or You’ve Got Mail, when Meg Ryan’s character talks about a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils... But I’m going to wish you a Happy Fall, with so much cider and no pumpkin spice lattes! On September 1, a.k.a. Labor Day, a.k.a. Day 8 of the U.S. Open, I dashed from the Hamptons to attend the evening session with Alex Miller and celebrate the birth—belatedly—of
Carson Griffith. Like, what better way than with Moët & Chandon—the official champagne of the tournament—in their suite? I’m going to go with “non” (because, well, France). Anyway, we watched Victoria Azarenka whip (O.K., not whip) Aleksandra Krunic and we ate lobster rolls and we posed for a picture with Jay Pharoah from Saturday Night Live. On the 3rd, Graydon Carter and Chuck Townsend hosted a reception at the Waverly Inn, honoring Nick Voulgaris III for Hinckley Yachts: An American Icon. (You may remember OCTOBER 2014 149
to Air in SoHo on September 11.
mentary on love—and life after love—and, boy, is it beautiful. A must-see, really. The after-party took place at Indochine, where Tracy Eisenman and I joined guests such as Mamie Gummer, Matt Harvey, and Harvey Weinstein. A handful of hors d’oeuvres and I was on my way... On the 11th, Chromeo presented its collection for Surface to Air at the boutique in SoHo, because #FashionWeek. There, Dave One and P-Thugg modeled their looks: a leather jacket with leather pants and a patterned silk bomber with a patterned silk shirt. I indulged in a gin and tonic, mixed with Bulldog, before strolling to Atlantic Grill for oysters. (But, seriously, someone should buy me the leather jacket.) u
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N
the title from the June 2014 issue of Quest, where it was profiled by yours truly...) The author looked smashing in a bowtie and Martha Stewart was there. On the 4th, the lovely, lovely Stephanie Wu fêted the publication of The Roommates: True Tales of Friendship, Rivalry, Romance and Disturbingly Close Quarters. The event, which took place at the LOCL Bar at the NYLO Hotel, was attended by a swirl of friends, including Sam Dangremond and Micaela English from Town & Country. On the 10th, the Cinema Society and Prada hosted a screening of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy. The film serves as a com-
Arkan at the presentation of Chromeo x Surface
B FA NYC . O M ; M A R G A R I TA CO R P O R A N ;
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Frankee Grove, Christina Pacelli, and Abigale
Andrew Saffir and Jean-Marc Houmard at a Cinema Society after-party at Indochine.
Jess Weixler toasted her film, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, with Shane Kidd on September 10.
Zoe Kazan at the Cinema Society screening of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.
Jérémie Rozan of Surface to Air at the boutique in SoHo on September 11. Lauren Strong celebrates Stephanie Wu and the publication of her book, The Roommates, on September 4.
Dave One and P-Thugg partnered with Surface to Air on a collection of clothing for Fall 2014.
James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain fête their
Chuck Townsend, Nick Voulgaris III, and Graydon Carter
Mamie Gummer attended the Cinema
film, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.
toasted Hinckely Yachts at the Waverly Inn.
Society screening on September 10. OCTOBER 2014 151
SNAPSHOT
CURTAIN CALL IT WAS THE MOVE that launched a thousand ships (or a court battle, at least). “Le Tricorne,” a stage curtain painted in 1919 by Pablo Picasso for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, found what was thought to be a permanent home in 1959, hanging on a wall leading into the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building. But last year, after concerns about possible structural damage to the wall (and the possible implications for the painting), the Picasso was removed for what’s thought to be a permanent relocation to the New-York Historical Society. Like most New York moves, it wasn’t easy. The building’s owner, Aby J. Rosen, was worried for the tapestry’s safety and began planning its removal when, concerned it could crack like a potato chip, the New York Landmarks Conservancy (which owns the Picasso) began a fight to keep it in place. “But I knew it could come down,” Julian Niccolini, the longtime partner in the Four Seasons restaurant, tells me. 152 QUEST
“Everybody didn’t believe it was taken down before, but I knew it came down in 1974, when there was a leak and they had to take it down to clean it.” It almost came down again, in 1982, due to another leak. “But they didn’t take it down that time. They just took six months to fix it up there on the wall.” As for the recent furor over the move, Niccolini seemed to be having none of it. “What happened was,” he says, “they were trying to make us believe there was no wall behind it.” You mean, no wall for it to be hanging on? “You must be joking me. You think Philip Johnson’s going to build this place without a wall there for support?” he laughs. Now, after all’s said and done, the tapestry is gone from the Four Seasons. “People come every day and say, ‘Where is it? I can’t believe it’s gone!’” Niccolini says. Instead, they stare at an empty wall. You mean there was one? “Of course there was!” he laughs. Yes, there was, and still is, a wall; now, there’s just no Picasso. —Daniel Cappello
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