Summer Inferno

“Inferno,” the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit.

“Inferno,” the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit, was held this past Saturday night in Water Mill. It is the top of the gala benefit social season in the Hamptons and there is a reason for it. It also raised a total of $1.4 million for the Center’s year-round international artist residencies and education programs.

The reason it enjoys its popularity is a man named Robert Wilson. An artist, librettist, collector, guru, fundraiser, Mr. Wilson is the art world’s version of a motivational speaker. He just gets those troops going and they turn out a wondrous time.

A major contribution to the evening was the silent and live auctions of artworks donated by the international artists’ community. Highlights included a Douglas Gordon portrait of Ingrid Bergman presented by Bergman’s daughter Isabella Rossellini. Also, Robert Wilson’s VOOM Portrait of the Black Panther. Peter Lindbergh’s commissioned portrait went for twice the expected value. A great success was the artist-in-residence auction item – guests had the opportunity to sponsor young emerging artist residencies at Watermill.

Other Auction items included works by Andy Warhol, Terence Koh, Elizabeth Payton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Neo Rauch, William Kentridge.

Artists-in-residence such as Sue de Beer, Riverbed Theater, Sophia Jones and En-Tzu Chang entertained the more than 1000 cocktail guests with installations and performances. Guests entered through Shige Moriya’s tunnel like installation the “Cathedral-within.” Shige is also the recipient of the Armani Design Award this year. Highlights included Sue de Beer’s “Ring of Trees, which projected light through 360 degree cylinder in the Knee Building. Yochai Matos created a 26-foot high light installation “The Flame” formed with fluorescent lights in the Watermill woods, Sophia Jones created a giant spider with over 10 puppeteers, children from the community, walking along the West terrace.

Young performance artist and upcoming Fall Watermill resident Stephen Vega performed throughout the silent auction tent, while Taiwanese Riverbed Theater staged various installations and performances throughout the platforms and woods. Aerial dancer C. Ryder Cooley dazzled the nearly 600 dinner guests as they entered the tent, decorated by Watermill participants, as projections flitted across the tent walls. Martha Wainwright delivered a show stopping surprise performance of “Stormy Weather” during the live auction. “A touch of Class” dj’d in the Auction tent after dinner.

All of the artwork was produced and installed at the Watermill Center with the help of over 60 participants from over two dozen countries in the Center’s International Summer Program.

Guests at the event included Isabella Rossellini, Calvin Klein, Rufus Wainwright, Laura Harring, Roger Waters, Marina Ambramovic, Terence Koh, Nacho Figueras, Ross Bleckner, Anne Hearst McInerney and Jay McInerney, Bob Colacello, Richard Meier, Lisa Anastos, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Klaus Biesenbach, Debbie Bancroft, Eric Ripert, Lisa de Kooning, Christophe de Menil, Tatiana and Campion Platt, Nicole Miller and Kim Taipale.

The Gala was supported by LVMH, with beverages generously provided by Bacardi, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Peroni and VOSS water. Olivier Cheng Catering and Events catered the event.

The participation of the Taiwanese Artists was made possible through the generous support of the Taipei Cultural Center in New York.

Arnault Sugarman, Kelly Sugarman, and Miles Sugarman

Blaire Voltz Clarke

Jay McInerney and Anne Hearst McInerney

Lisa Denison

Dorian Dittrich

Christina Rivert and Barbara Bulletti

Janna Bullock

Denise and Neil Archer

Graziano and Valerie De Boni

Coryn Nadeau, Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, and Victoria de Lesseps

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, George Farias, Alison Mazzola, and Robert Wilson

Joy Marks

Richard Meier

Ronnie Gensler and Brian Ramaekers

Mark Mullett, Lisa Anastos, and Keith Bloomfield

Calvin Klein, Robert Wilson, and Ross Bleckner

Jan Fletcher, Randy Slifka, and Wesley Fletcher

Somers and Jonathan Farkas

Keith Bloomfield, Lisa Anastos, Andrea Wahlquist, and Mark Mullett

Jane Scarnazzo and Skylar Mack

Debbie Bancroft, Will Bancroft, and Serena Bancroft

Christophe deMenil and Isabella Rossellini

Zaldy

Karin Dauch

Laura Harring

Beth Rudin DeWoody and Stephanie French

Margaux, Samantha, and Gabriel Schlumberger

Lisa de Kooning

Una McGough and Georgina McGeough

Kim Taipale and Nicole Miller

Austin Scarlett and Lisa Anastos

Daysee Olarte de Kanavos

Marina Abramovic

Gregory Speck

Richard Johnson and Sessa von Richthofen

Marshall York

Claude Morais, Brian Wolk, and Kyle DeWoody

Pauline Gentis

Denise Wohl and Ross Bleckner

Katheryn Winnick and Sumi Trenholme

Ramona Singer

Adi Nachman

Kathy Murphy and Michael Klug

Michele Gerber Klein and Peter Wolf

Jamee and Peter Gregory

Delfina Figueras

Beth Rudin DeWoody and Terence Koh

Kristin Bowler and Spencer Tunick

Virginia Coleman and Bob Colacello

Delfina and Nacho Figueras

Eric and Sandra Ripert

Sir Ivan Wilzig and friends

Carlotta Kohl and Kira Streletsky

Jeffrey Slonim and Michael Braverman

Rufus Wainwright, Terence Koh, and Jorn Weisbrodt

Simon de Pury

Sylvia and Alison Mazzolla

Phillip and Lisa Marie Falcone

Roger Waters, Katharina Otto-Bernstein, and Nathan Bernstein

Rufus Wainwright

Abdi Karya

Stephanie LaCava and Indre Rockefeller

Lisa Anastos and Patty Raynes

Magdalena von Behr

Jodie and John Eastman once again hosted a summer cocktail party at their house on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton for the New York Stem Cell Foundation. Guests were also given a brief update on the NYSCF's work and the latest developments in stem cell research.