Traffic Snarls Didn’t Stop Guild Hall Aug. 2
By Linda Lee —
It was a smashing success, raising $950,000. A few weeks earlier, the Longhouse Reserve had raised $800,000 in a laid-back affair (but that included an online art auction of 50-plus works by people like Robert Wilson, Cindy Sherman, even an NFT donated by the gallerist Kenny Schacter) . The Parrish Art Museum raised $1.2 million, but it had taken two nights. Guild Hall’s fund raising from this one event seems impressive.
Some members of Guild Hall, the jewel of East Hampton, could walk to the annual gala, held on Friday, August 2. The lucky ones.
Jimmy Cass, Andrea Grover, director of Guild Hall, and Laurie Anderson (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
Others, trying to get there in time for the cocktail hour, which began at 5:30, those who were starting from Southampton, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, or, heaven help them, New York City, were stuck at police barriers, even on small roads, in Westhampton, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Shinnecock Hills, North Sea, Water Mill, and Bridgehampton.
Why? Former President Donald J. Trump was due at a fund raiser at Howard Lutnick’s home on Halsey Lane in the hamlet of Bridgehampton; tables for the Trump event cost $250,000.
So the Guild Hall cocktail hour had some people looking worse for wear when they arrived, telling war stories of traffic jams, driving the wrong way on the shoulder, having a glass of wine on the lawns of strangers, as they entered Guild Hall’s Minikes Garden.
Immediately they were met with a movie scene: draped greenery, wicker chairs, the tinkle of cocktail glasses and lanterns swinging overhead. It was a re-creation of the Colony Hotel, which was a Guild Hall gala sponsor, complements of Sarah and Andrew Wetenhall.
Sarah and Andrew Wetenhall (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
Sarah, who arrival in the Hamptons two years ago, is the owner and CEO of the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach. This year she was voted a Guild Hall “Visionary”
Joanne McDonald and the artist Ross Bleckner (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
The Guild Hall gallery (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
After a few libations and some hors d’oeuvres by Acquolina, even the most frazzled late guests were ready to step inside the galleries to look at a preview of Guild Hall’s new exhibition: “Julian Schnabel: Selected Works from Home.” Included was one of his many broken plate paintings. He did several of Van Gogh, especially when he was making the movie “Eternity’s Gate” with Willem Dafoe.
Julian Schnabel and his girlfriend, Louise Kugelberg (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
Julian Schnabel was full of bonhomie, greeting guests as if it was his own party, which, in a sense, it was. He brought along his companion, the Swedish interior designer Louise Kugelberg, and his sons 11-year-old Shooter Sandhed Schnabel (from a liaison with the Danish model Lykke May Andersen) and 38-year-old gallerist Vito Schnabel (one of four children with his first wife).
Gallerists Tripoli Patterson and Vito Schnabel (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
In attendance also was the curator of the show, Melanie Crader, who is the director of visual arts for Guild Hall.
Hilarie and Morgan Mitchell (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
Guests were invited into the Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater for a short program of remarks. Laurie Anderson presented a multimedia program in honor of Julian Schnabel. And Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan were thanked once again for their contribution, which made the new theater possible. A short film was shown.
Schnabel spoke. And then guests were invited to go to the tent, which had been arranged with beautiful table settings, a flower chandelier and soft lighting. All was not gazpacho and Penne alla Nerano, though.
(Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
About half way through the mean Kristin Eberstadt, the chief philanthropy officer, took to the microphone and said that she wanted to find 20 more people to pledge $5,000 in the next two minutes and 50 seconds. She got 28.
Kristin Eberstadt (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
Now that is fund raising. Then it was on to Flourless Lemon Caprese Cake and Three Chocolate Mousse.
Peter Marino and Barbara Tober (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
The event was attended by notable members of the East End creative community, including guest of honor Julian Schnabel and Louise Kugelberg, honorees Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Board Chair Marty Cohen and Michele Cohen, Executive Director Andrea Grover, architect Peter Marino, writer Bob Colacello, gallerist Vito Schnabel and Helena Althof.
The film director Sophie Chahinian and the artist Robert Longo (Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC and Jessica Dalene Photography)
Other artists in attendance included Laurie Anderson, Alice Aycock, Ross Bleckner, Brian Hunt, Joel Perlman, Ralph Gibson and Robert Longo.
There were media people including Florence Fabricant from the New York Times, the art advisor Kim Heirston and Stefano Tonchi — honestly, we can’t keep up with him.
The film director Sophie Chahinian was there as was the costume designer Mary Jane Marcasiano, Tutto il Giornos’ Gabi Karan de Felice and Gianpaolo de Felice, the Colony Hotel’s Sarah and Andrew Wetenhall, and art world luminaries Milly and Arne Glimcher, David Maupin, Sandy Brant, and Barbara Tober of the Museum of Arts and Design.
Dessert was not the end of things. There was dancing too. Those Guild Hall folks know how to cut a rug, and how to stop before the East Hampton designated hour on a Friday night.
“Julian Schnabel: Selected Works from Home” will run at Guild Hall through October 27. There is a pop-up book store, skateboards, and plenty of merchandise related to the show.
There is also parallel programing in Sag Harbor. Schnabel’s film “Basquiat” was sold out for August 8 at the Sag Harbor Cinema. Schnabel’s film “Before Night Falls” will play on August 15 with a Q and A with Schnabel.
