Enduring a charity art auction, whether live or silent, is no rarity on a Monday evening during gala season. Much more interesting—unique, even—is a charity art fair. The Tribeca Ball, the New York Academy of Art’s annual fund-raiser at the school’s Franklin Street home, offers just that—a chance to discover an emerging artist in her studio, put a red dot on a new painting, momentarily return to cocktails and canapés, and then do it all again. Each year, patrons squeak past each other in the NYAA stairway to meet over 100 MFA students in their studios spread across five enormous floors. “Get there on time,” the Academy’s president David Kratz once advised me, as work goes quickly. “All the big collectors do.”
Perusing the booths last night were Robert De Niro; Brooke Shields; Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy; Parker Posey, a longtime friend of the NYAA; and Peter Marino, who not surprisingly ignored the “Regal Hues” dress code in favor of his inveterate leather vest. Other variations on the theme—“Once Upon a Time,” based on Van Cleef Arpels’s latest collection—came by way of NYAA board chairman **Eileen Guggenheim’**s caped Valentino dress, **Rachel Feinstein’**s 100-karat aquamarine ring (rivaled only by **Marjorie Gubelmann’**s emerald one), and **Beatrix Ost’**s fuchsia turban, not to mention an entire wall of the dining room emblazoned with the Château de Chambord.
When it came time to honor Peter Brant, the indomitable collector who was last night joined by his family (wife Stephanie and children Peter Jr., Harry, and Dylan) and favorite artists (Dan Colen, Adam McEwen, and Julian Schnabel, represented by his own kids Vito and Stella), event chair Bob Colacello had plenty to say. Colacello recalled that when Brant took over Interview magazine at “24 or 25 years old” and renamed it “Andy Warhol’s Interview,” “it always struck me that Peter was equally interested in architecture, landscaping, decorating, and art . . . . There just weren’t that many straight guys that were aesthetes back then!” Brant, for his part, took Colacello’s recollections in stride as he accepted an honorary doctorate in fine arts. And then it was back to the art on hand—and the opportunity to become the next big collector.
