NEW YORK ACADEMY OF ART’S “TAKE HOME A NUDE”: 20TH EDITION
Sponsored by VandM
Anticipation and spirits were high as collectors, artists, designers and celebrities gathered at Sotheby’s New York for “Take Home a Nude,” New York Academy of Art’s provocative fundraiser on October 17.
Collectors, artists and celebrities browse and socialize at “Take Home a Nude.”
“‘Take Home a Nude’ started as a small event, an auction of student art held at the school,” said David Kratz, president of New York Academy of Art. “Two decades later, it’s graduated to a big event at Sotheby’s with over 160 works of art, by students, alumni, faculty and top artists who believe in what the school is doing.”
David Kratz, president of the New York Academy of Art, addresses “Take Home a Nude” dinner guests.
Big is perhaps an understatement: The seventh floor galleries of the über-auction house were filled with collectors, artists, designers and New York glitterati, many of whom were on the benefit’s committees: Eileen Guggenheim, Angela Bassett, honorees Jenny Saville and John Richardson, Mary-Kate Olsen, Peter Marino, Marcus Samuelsson…the list was as long as the evening.
NYAA board of trustees chair Eileen Guggenheim, center, with Padma Lakshmi, left, and Maureen Chiquet.
Honorees Jenny Saville and John Richardson.
Angela Bassett
Mary-Kate Olsen and Peter Marino.
The show has morphed from one of all nudes and many scantily clad students to a provocative mix of nudes (art works, that is), portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, mixed media sculptures, even neon. “The show, like the school has grown past that,” said Kratz. “We’re intimately tied to a dialogue with contemporary art.” Art works, selected by a panel of faculty members, were hung with an enlightened, often light-hearted, spirit: “We completely mix the students in with faculty and star artists. We don’t consider their reputations, but what works look good together,” explained Kratz, adding with a chuckle: “We also try to have some fun.” Hence two beautiful drawings of pit bulls flanked a portrait of a bunny; Sante D’Orazio’s arresting photo of a woman dressed as a devil being escorted by two lusty sailors was paired with a sweet drawing of a calf.
Nan Golden, Valerie Floating in the Sea, Mayreaux (2001), Cibachrome, 11 of 15. Courtesy of Peter B. Lewis.
Patrick Demarchelier, Nude, New York 1995, 1995, selenium toned silver gelatin print.
There were, of course, nudes: classical sketches; a floating bather by Nan Goldin; Patrick Demarchelier’s photo of an eerily angular nude torso; a sea full of Ipanema sun worshippers by Kevin Tachman and, keeping the animals in the mix, a pair of paintings by Harold Brooks, with a bifurcated horse, Appaloosa II, standing below a Saddle. Eileen Guggenheim, chair of NYAA’s board of trustees who once claimed that her entire apartment is hung with NYAA nudes, looked at them all. (No guests were in the buff, but stilt-walkers announcing closing times of galleries were suited out as if they were.)
There were favorites: An admiring crowd gathered around graduate student Alexander Barton’s oil painting Bubble Gum Syrup Sucker. Auctioneer Alexander Rotter, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of contemporary art, led a lively session for works by Jeff Koons, Vincent Desiderio, Stephen Hannock and Enoc Perez, among others; Joseph Kosuth’s white neon ‘Texts (Waiting for-) for Nothing’—which attracted viewers like a flame attracts moths—fetched the highest bid.
Joseph Kosuth, ‘Texts (Waiting for-) for Nothing’, Samuel Beckett, in play, 2011, white neon, dipped in black, transformers, certificate of authenticity. Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery.
In all, the evening—cocktail party, auctions and dinner—raised $750,000 for the school, which will go to funding scholarships, very important in these times (over half of the students receive at least a partial scholarship).
Jeff Koons, Monkey Train (Dots), 2007, silkscreen with archival pigmented inkjet on Somerset paper, 25 of 40.
R. Adam Smith, managing partner of VandM, and Heidi Lee of Heidi Lee Art Advisory.
“The evening was filled with lively socializing and bidding by New York’s most beautiful and talented artists, collectors and celebrities,” said art advisor Heidi Lee, adding: “Andy Warhol—one of the founders of New York Academy of Art—would have been pleased!” R. Adam Smith, managing partner of VandM, was certainly pleased: “As a long-time fan of NYAA, David Kratz, and in support of the amazing artists and dealers who shared their works, I am proud that VandM was a sponsor of this prestigious event.”
Photos of Olsen/Marino and Lee/Smith by Talis Lin.
All other photos by David X. Prutting, BFA Agency.
