Party Mirrors
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.
RELATED: Photos from a Whitney Museum trustees’ holiday party
Before we know it, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial will hit town like a hurricane. So the holiday party thrown by two Whitney trustees, Raymond Learsy and Melva Bucksbaum, a husband and wife team, was a calm diversion before the storm.
Curators, collectors, artists, dealers, and famous restaurateur Michael McCarty (whose wife, Kim, had art on display at the party) came together, not to raise money or opine on or sell art, but for the fun of it.
Some wondered aloud about who will win the museum’s Bucksbaum Prize, which Ms. Bucksbaum established in 2000. The prize comes with a $100,000 purse and will be announced in conjunction with the Biennial.
An editor of the New Criterion and the publisher of Encounter Books, Roger Kimball, talked up the book he edited by Mr. Learsy, issued in paperback this year. “Over a Barrel: Breaking Oil’s Grip on Our Future” offers an explanation of the oil markets and how they threaten American security.
The hosts had fun posing in front of a portrait of themselves by Francesco Clemente, which, having never been displayed before, was hung for the party.
Collectors Susan and Michael Hort hit the event early, before heading uptown for an opening reception at the Whitney for Brooklyn-based artist Beth Campbell.
Whereas the art on display at the Learsy-Bucksbaum party became merely a backdrop for conversation, Ms. Campbell’s site-specific installation, “Following Room,” curated by the Whitney’s senior curatorial assistant, Tina Kukielski, induced silence. The work consists of a reading room replicated in mirror image to fill the gallery. The display tricks the eye into believing there are mirrors where there are none.
The parties themselves were mirror opposites. The Learsy-Bucksbaum party gathered an art establishment devoted to the new. Ms. Campbell’s opening was an example of the rewards of their efforts: new work that is provocative and creative, with a whole new crowd gathered to appreciate it.
Next year, we expect to see Ms. Campbell and Ms. Kukielski at the Learsy-Bucksbaum party.
agordon@nysun.com
