Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The buying of art in Miami started Tuesday at the New Art Dealers Alliance Art Fair, known as NADA. Suzanne Murphy snapped up several drawings by Mungo Thomson featuring bumper stickers with witty sayings. “They make you stop and think. My collection focuses on text so these fit,” Ms. Murphy said near the pool of the Delano Hotel, after she had left the packed fair for the Art Basel Miami Beach Welcome Party. Here, with the help of her friend Lori Van Dusen, she remembered a saying: “If you plan to fail and you are successful, did you fail or succeed?”
Failure seemed far from the minds of most people attending the first night of parties. Charles de Gunzburg, a board member of the U.S.S. Intrepid, said he had very happily witnessed the moving battleship as he departed La Guardia on Tuesday morning. Now he was ready for some art and great weather, and Miami was ready: Though winds were strong Tuesday night, rain never came, and yesterday, the sun broke full-strength.
Lawrence Weiner invited me to the opening of his exhibit at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach on Friday. Meanwhile, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan hit the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami to celebrate the opening of “Elusive Signs,” an exhibit of neon signs by Bruce Nauman. Designer Yves Behar sparkled at an exhibit of chandeliers made with Swarovski crystals.
New York collector Hubert Neumann said he was at the fair to find art he loved. So far so good: He had already found some in private meetings with dealers. Mr. Neumann was also looking forward to spending time with the “incredibly creative” Raphaela Platow, the chief curator at Brandeis University’s Rose Museum. Mr. Neumann is lending a few works to a spring show she is working on.
The chief executive of NetJets, Richard Santulli, was glowing at his cocktail party for artist Richard Prince. As of Tuesday, there had been 200 takeoffs and landings through Miami, and the company had handed out 400 VIP passes to its customers.
Mr. Prince was excited about his new association with NetJets. “Now maybe I will visit New York more often,” he told the chairman of the Guggenheim, Jennifer Blei Stockman.
Last night the whirl of parties continued, with Jimmy Choo creator Tamara Mellon hosting a dinner for the Whitney Contemporaries.
