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The Guggenheim. 11:30 PM. Photo: JH. |
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| July 16, 2009. Another amazing day in New York, all sunshine and deep blue skies and the kind of summer heat that makes New Yorkers want to get out and catch some rays. Last night The Frick Collection held a Garden Party on the lawn in front of the museum on Fifth Avenue, and it was a big success. No surprise; what could be better on a lovely summer night than a cool party on the lawn across the avenue from the forest we call Central Park? It was a benefit reception, ultimately, proceeds supporting the full range of programs of The Frick Collection, including educational and curatorial initiatives, and the Frick Art Reference Library. More than 200 attended. And many guests were Fellows, Young Fellows, but also the neighbors from all over the city. Some boys and girls dressed up, some dressed down, and everyone looked cool and happy. |
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On the Fifth Avenue lawn of The Frick. |
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| Among the guests: Frick Chairman Margot and Jeremiah Bogert; Catherine Cahill and Bill Bernhard, Annika Connor, Brigitte and William Crovello, Frederick de Sibert, Barbara G. Fleischman, Nina Griscom and Leo Peraino, Agnes Gund, Jake Bright, Nick Stevens, Doug Dechert, Joanne and Warren Josephy, Rod Keenan, Elena Kornbluth, Lucy J. Lang, Harry LeFrak, Wendy Moonan and Duncan Darrow, Amanda Mallan, Sloan McClure, Clare E. McKeon, Gillian and Sylvester Miniter, Lisa Morse, Laura Pels, Frick Director Anne Poulet, Lisa and Amy Springsteel, Philip Thomas, Thorne and Tatiana P. Perkin, Summer W. Rej, Andrew and Zibby Right, Sylvana Soto-Ward, Georgina Schaeffer, Cator Sparks ... and many more. The jazz quartet of Michael Arenella set up under one of those magnolias and provided a vintage vibe from the American Songbook. With occasional vocals. Refreshments (the Frick’s word for it) and hors d’oeuvres were provided by Sonnier and Castle caterers. The signature cocktail was the cucumber gimlet , sipped upon the portico or next to some of the oldest magnolias (planted almost 75 years ago) by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the man who designed the Park across the way. There were tables set up for those who wanted to sit, and there were even those getting a private tour of the current Whistler exhibition. |
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| It was a garden party at a gentleman’s house on Fifth Avenue transmogrified to another century. That’s the Frick. It’s what sets it apart from any other museum in New York. That is not to make comparisons in terms of quality, connoissership, collection and curatorial. That is just to say that there’s nothing else quite like the Frick. It welcomes you very democratically, although you know you are entering a “gentleman’s house.” It then enthusiastically demonstrates its qualities of Art and Culture and Connoisseurship and they’re staggering. And its garden parties are very civilized, great to just look at. Up above the clouds yet also right down there on the lawn. Like the Collection, and cool. As it was last night. |
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| Heidi Rosenau and Alexis Light | Phillip Thomas, Georgina Schaeffer, and Nick Stevens | Nina Griscom and Leonel Piraino |
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| Doug Dechert and friend | Not so chintzy | Wendy Moonan and Duncan Darrow |
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| I left the Frick about eight, in a hurry to get down to the Four Seasons Restaurant where another major museum in New York was having its event. The Guggenheim was hosting a “Summer Celebration” to honor the 50th anniversaries of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Four Seasons Restaurant (and the Seagram’s Building). The evening was a benefit for the Architecture and Design programs at the Guggenheim. The dinner’s program included a “conversation among Richard Armstrong, the Gugg’s Director, Phyllis Lambert, the daughter of Samuel Bronfman of Seagrams for whom Mies van der Rohe designed the building, and Martin Filler, architecture critic and author. |
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The invite. |
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| Mrs. Lambert’s interest in architecture is evidently with a curator’s sensibility and commitment. The three talked about the similarities of the two buildings – both recessed from the main sidewalk and street, both breaking the façades of the avenues they sit on. It occurred to me that this was also true of the Frick. The conversation turned to the how’s and why’s of these buildings. Both changed their neighborhoods forever (as does the Frick). Both were created by masters whose creations mark their careers and reputations. Mrs. Lambert pointed out that these buildings were constructed in a new era, after the Second World War when there was an “idea” of a new world, fresh and innovative, prosperous and energetic. Change was taking place and in the case of the Guggenheim and the Seagrams, the new remains fresh a half century later. |
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The Poolroom of the Four Seasons Restaurant with Phyllis Lambert, Richard Armstrong, and Martin Filler discussing the architecture and history of the restaurant. |
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| They also talked about the rooms of the Four Seasons restaurant. They are grand and modern and, in a manner of speaking, clubby in style. A Picasso tapestry hangs in the gallery between the two dining rooms. A Rothko was commissioned for the poolroom’s private dining room. Philip Johnson designed the interior. Mrs. Lambert who was there during the planning, construction and completion of the building, recalled the creators and their thoughts about what they were doing. The dinner met the standards of the evening, as it always does at the Four Seasons. Chilled pea soup with chanterelles, a Lobster salad, Roast duck and Strawberry Shortcake. With excellent red and white wines. Last night was one of those evenings that defines for me so much of what New York is in its perfection. It was an evening reflecting culture but under auspices of the personalities who drive and support that behemoth we call Culture. So the atmosphere, the spaces in which I was present and therefore the company we were keeping, was, in its way rarified. |
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| Phyllis Bronfman Lambert and Richard Armstrong, Director of hte Guggenheim | Greg Kelly and his father, Commissioner Ray Kelly |
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| It’s normal to lose sight of these things, but it is special to have the pleasure of making oneself at home, so to speak, at the Frick. It is a pleasure to be seated and dined and wined in this great and elegant restaurant whose rooms reflect the quintessence of an Age of advancement now historical. It is a pleasure to listen to a conversation between three people who can convey through memory or knowledge the How’s and Wherefore’s of the progress of architecture in the metropolis. This is real luxury. These are great good fortune actualized. We are all witnesses to our history, and last night was one of those nights in New York where the truth was both awesome and inspiring. And historical. Leaving you thinking: it can always happen. |
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| David Van der Leer, of the Guggenheim | Aaron Fleischman and Jennifer Stockman. | Denise LeFrak Calicchio and William Mack |
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| Phyllis Mack and John Calicchio | Juan Ignacio Vidarte of Bilbao and Wendy L.J. McNeil |
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