After a week s worth of previews, dinners, and curatorial sneak peeks, the Whitney Museum of American Art celebrated its new home at the base of New York City’s High Line on Friday night. Dakota Fanning wearing Max Mara, St. Vincent, Zoë Kravitz, andSarah Jessica Parker all came to poke around the Rauschenbergs, Eva Hesses, and Ed Ruschas. Italian architect Renzo Piano, who designed the new building, could be found perusing the galleries with Alba Clemente. Tiffany Co.’s Francesca Amfitheatrof gave an impromptu tour to a group, which included Prabal Gurung and Barbara Bush. Knight Landesman’s cerise suit matched **Jessica Joffe’**s ginger mane. Solange Knowles swanned like Big Bird nearby Mark Rothko’s 1958 masterpiece, Four Darks in Red. The inaugural show “America Is Hard to See,” which assembles more than 600 works of all mediums, including film and video, seemed outnumbered by the sheer mass of people shuffling around the galleries. (It turns out that when the Whitney is that crowded enough, America really is hard to see.)
Nonetheless, the fact that so many partygoers were intent on seeing the art—rather than finding the bar, or staying in to watch **Bruce Jenner’**s interview with Diane Sawyer—portends a healthy future for the new Whitney, which officially opens this Friday, May 1.
