Kanye West will give a guest performance at next week’s Watermill Center Benefit, an event to help fund the institution’s continued expansion and library construction. “If we lose our history, we lose our memory,” artistic director Robert Wilson says. “So we try to have here some awareness of what happened in the past.” (more…)
Desi Santiago’s mass 2 (2012), image: Aniko Berman for Art Observed
On Saturday, July 28th, the Watermill Center hosted The Big Bang, its 19th Annual Summer Benefit. Held on the performance art center’s expansive Southampton grounds, the event commenced with cocktails for over 1,200 guests, all of whom were invited to explore over twenty site-specific performances and installations scattered throughout the center’s indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as to bid in a silent auction featuring works by Marina Abramovic, Sandro Chia, Shirin Neshat, Dennis Oppenheim, Terry Richardson, Will Ryman, Spencer Tunick, and Aaron Young, among others. A tented dinner for over 650 guests followed, including a live auction led by Simon de Pury, where works by artists such Michelangelo Pistoletto, Anselm Reyle, and Willem de Kooning were offered. Inclement weather threatened the evening, with unwelcome downpours impeding the guests’ ability to view the outdoor works. Nonetheless, the event raised more than $1.5 million for the center, which has actively promoted the creation and dissemination of performance art since its founding by leading “theater artist” Robert Wilson in 1992.
Guests in front of Paul McCarthy‘s Butt Plug (2012)
All photos by L. Streeter for Art Observed.
At six o’clock on Saturday evening, throngs of guests could be seen gathering at the entrance of Robert Wilson’s art compound in Watermill, New York, awaiting entrance to “Voluptuous Panic.” Patrons of the arts gather here once a year to support the foundations ongoing effort to “provide a unique environment for young and emerging artists to explore new ideas and foster their career development” (via Watermillcenter.org). Artists from over 30 different countries living at the estate as a part of the Watermill International Summer Program Residency were asked to create installations and performances overlaying the six acre estate. Guests were invited to wander the grounds and woods exploring the various installations. This year, the attending crowd fit right in with the somewhat manic works themselves; the dress code, entitled “Fearless” allowed for a very flamboyant, almost surreal flock of guests.
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Installation view of Elemental at Paula Cooper Gallery. All images via Paula Cooper Gallery.
On view now through April 16th at the Paula Cooper Gallery is a group exhibition titled Elemental. What binds the selected works of Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Donald Judd, Sherrie Levine, Sol LeWitt and Robert Wilson is the use of “repeated elements arranged in a sequential structure.” The gallery notes that this strategy is often associated with minimal art, and the show pairs pieces by three pioneers of Minimalism with works by what the exhibition is defining as representatives of the second (and possibly third) generation of Minimalists.
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Terence Koh and Simon De Pury at the 16th Watermill Summer Benefit. Photo by Patrick McMullan
Robert Wilson greeted his guests as they arrived at the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit- an event he choreographs every summer in order to raise funds for the artistic community to which he is the director. The evening included a silent auction, a live auction hosted by Simon de Pury – Chairman of Philips de Pury auction house, over 10 art installations interpreting this years theme “Inferno,” dinner, theater performances of various genres and attendance by many from the worlds of art, fashion and music.
Related Links:
Hot as Hell At Watermill [ArtInfo]
Fire Starters at Watermill Benefit [WWD Lifestyle]
Isabella Rossellini shows for Water Mill Benefit [Newsday]
Flaming Creatures [ArtForum]
The 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit Hot As An “Inferno” [Hamptons]
About Watermill Center [Watermill Center]
The 16th Annual Watermill Summer Auction and Benefit [Art Observed]
Attendees walk the trails behind the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit and Auction at the Hamptons, all photos by Art Observed unless noted
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Manaus, Christophe Schlingensief. Inferno, this year’s theme of the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit. Via Hamptons
The Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation’s sixteenth Annual Summer Benefit will take place on July 25th in the Hamptons. Robert Wilson, its Artistic Director, envisages an event that will include various installations, theatrical performances and auctions all framed by this year’s theme- Inferno. An auction in support of artistic programming at the Watermill Center conducted by Simon de Pury, Chairman of Phillips de Pury auction house, will certainly be one of the highlights of the evening.
Related Links:
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Inferno: The Sixteenth Annual Watermill Summer Benefit [Artdaily]
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Sixteenth Annual Watermill Summer Benefit [The Watermill Center]
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About Watermill [the Watermill Center]
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16th Annual Watermill Center Benefit [Artinfo]
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Summer Is a-Kooning In: We Preview Watermill Benefit Goodies! [NYObserver]
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Simon de Pury [Bigthink]
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Welcome to Watermill – a review of last year’s (2008) Watermill Benefit [BIZBASH]
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Julian, Elizabeth Peyton. At the Annual Watermill Benefit this year. Via Watermill Center
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Jessica Joffe at the 15th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit via Park Ave Peerage
Fashion dazzle at Robert Wilson’s annual Watermill benefit [Park Avenue Peerage] more boldfaced names here [NYMag] and swanky goings on here [Papermag] and here [Artnet] and here [Art Forum]
A Private Contemporary Art collection in a eerie WWII Berlin bunker [Bloomberg] also coverd here [NYSun] and by Art Observed previously here [AO]
Damien Hirst’s controversial, straight-to-auction sale at Sotheby’s, previously covered by AO here, will be followed by more of his works for sale amongst others, again directly, in October [Sotheby’s] [AO] [Bloomberg] more here [NY Sun]
London: Tickets are now available for Frieze Art Fair 2008’s Frieze Projects and Frieze [Frieze Art Fair 2008] Tokyo: Takashi Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki announces GEISAI #11 [Artipedia] 8/6
Indian contemporary art is on the rise [How to Spend It, FT]
An Economist’s qualitative approach to works by great masters [NYT]
Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron via Financial Times
On Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Swiss architects of the Tate Modern [Financial Times]
Amy Cappellazzo of Christie’s entertains in her home to support Pratt Institute [NYSun]
French designer Agnes B.’s other hat: art dealer [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s reprises monumental sculpture exhibition and sale in Chatsworth, UK [Art Daily]
German artist Jonathan Meese remixes Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, underwear stapled to walls involved [NYTimes]
