In honor of The Royal Drawing School, founded by His Majesty King Charles III and artist Catherine Goodman, as well as Frieze Week’s Opening, Manfred Flynn Kuhnert and Peter Iacono opened their Bel Air home to unite the worlds of art, philanthropy and Hollywood for a night.
130 old friends flew in from London, Paris, Switzerland, New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco for a romantic dinner buffet & toasts on the eve of Catherine’s solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth. Former Harper’s Bazaar Editor-in-Chief Dame Glenda Bailey & Steve Sumner stayed with the hosts to get the merriment into full swing, while doyenne of British design Nina Campbell popped across the pond for a 4-day jaunt!
The hosts’ dear friends Chicago’s Rachel Kohler, San Francisco’s Maria Manetti Shrem, Elizabeth Segerstrom of Orange County’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Los Angeles’s Joan Hotchkis, Tara and Carey Hotchkis, Colleagues President Bridget Gless Keller, and Boston’s Hedy and David Adler ensured that for this magical night the “special relationship” in the arts between America & Great Britain … was thriving!
MOMA & Tate patron Sydney Picasso was there (admiring sweetly Manfred’s Michel Sima photographs of her late father-in-law Pablo Picasso). Also flying in from Switzerland to celebrate were Hauser & Wirth’s iconic founders Manuela Hauser and Iwan Wirth, along with their CEO Ewan Venters, President Marc Payot, and Director Joe Balfour. Architect Luis Laplace, designer of H&W’s newest Paris space & his partner Christophe Comoy, and Hammer Trustee Manuela Hertzer who also popped over from Paris for this global gathering.
Keeping the conversation rollicking were Manfred’s old Harvard friends Craig and Anne Turk (Creator of CBS’s FBI), Kayla Alpert (Exec. Producer of Netflix’s global hit Wednesday) and Peter O’Meara. Former Lifetime Network Chair & NBC President Carole Black, Cosima and Beau Swayze and Julia Sorkin joined in the wit too!
Writers James Cahill, whose novel Tiepolo Blue took London by storm last season, joined with his partner tech entrepreneur Alexander Caplan; as did architectural historian Andrew Jones, with his wife photographer Laura Hodgson. Ian Kelly (biographer of Beau Brummel, Casanova, & creator of a new TV series for AppleTV) all crossed the pond to attend. The night was bursting with creative voices like an 18th century salon.
Other guests included Gagosian’s Bernard Lagrange, celebrity floral designer Eric Buterbaugh and Patrick Hilgart, fashion world figures Marvelle and Serge Azria, and Suzy Kellems Dominik, magazine publisher Jennifer Smith, designer Molly Isaksen Sures and Natalie Fuller, equestrian patrons Ed and Lulu Hutley, philanthropists Suzanna Jackson, Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr, Annasue McCleave Wilson, and Eva Sweeny.
The RDS’s Julia Balchin (Principal), Fiona Fox, Sallie McKinney all contributed tirelessly to make the evening a huge success for the RDS, which provides free or low-cost tuition to over 1000 people weekly. The School will celebrate its 25th Anniversary in 2025 with a huge gala. In past years His Majesty the King, then The Prince of Wales, has celebrated the School at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
