Hermes and Halloween

Click the title of this post to go to the NYT's article about the Baroness and the book!


I never heard about Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter before the exhibition of her polaroids at the Hermes Gallery uptown on 62nd Street. Her granddaughter had written a preface for the book entitled Three Wishes, which chronicled three wishes of jazz greats such as Thelonius Monk. It was a wonderful exhibit, full of the life force I imagine the Baroness possessed, and which she shared so generously with her Cats (jazz slang). I'm sure too they shared lots of their creative energy with her. Her children said she was a wonderful mother.
Later that night I ran downtown to see Banksy's exhibition. It was well worth the trip. My girlfriend worked the exhibition and this was the last night so the line was long. Banksy is so smart, funny, and irreverent. His street art, in this case art you can see from the street, really democratizes art. He makes it for everyone, shares it with everyone, it is about everyone, and he doesn't seem to give a damn about the so-called art market!
Halloween fell on a Friday this year so there was no reason to curtail the festivities. I partied till 4 am with some good friends, first at a loft in Soho, then finished off the night at the Box. I had started off the night at the Chelsea Hotel, where a friend of mine has a loft with a roof deck. Him and his neighbor collaborated on the party, but it was too cold for me. Funny to see a certain auctioneer from Sotheby's and his very cute boyfriend there. Who knows how everyone in NYC and the art world are connected?
Here are some pics from those evenings, as well as some from Honey Space, Tom Beale's chameleon performance/gallery space on 11th Ave between 21 and 22 Streets, and a random one of my little niece Haylie.
Last night I went uptown to see the opening of the Giacommetti:Bacon exhibit entitled "Isabel and Other Intimate Strangers". Another strong, museum caliber show. I've started calling it the Gagosian museum or Gagosian mausoleum up there. We can't calculate the gallery space in square footage anymore but should start doing so in terms of acreage, as now he's taken over the 4th Floor of that building on Madison too!
Next I went to the cocktails at Sotheby's for the Impressionist and Modern sale. There was an Edvard Munch, estimate on request, as the center piece of the sale, but other strong works too, by Dali, Magritte. In the side room, a John Currin, Yves Klein. I'm exhausted thinking about the next few weeks; sales;sales;sales...Christies was quieter, but they had a dinner after, to which of course I was not invited.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/arts/design/02voge.html?sq=malevich&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all