Shandaken. (Courtesy Kickstarter)

The Shandaken Project, an artist residency program located in the Catskill Mountains in Shandaken, N.Y., today announced its 2013 artist residents.

The residency lasts two to six weeks, depending on how long the artists would like to stay. Each was nominated by a peer group and then chosen by a "secret jury of art professionals," according to Shandaken Director Nick Weist.

The full list follows:

Saul Becker
Travis Boyer
Sophia Cleary
Bruno Coviello
Brian Droitcour
Laura Frantz
Stefan Gunn
Frank Haines
Elizabeth Hirsch
Riitta Ikonen
Shaun Krupa
Sophy Naess
Carmelle Safdie
Cori WIlliams

Atmosphere. (Courtesy Billy Farrell)

The mood at the Dia Beacon benefit on Sunday should have been dreary. In the basement of the old factory in Beacon, a man and a woman read years past and future into an empty, columned parking lot, a piece by On Kawara that, coupled with the nature of Sundays, threatened to lend to the proceedings a literal undercurrent of ennui. Plus it was raining.

Instead the collectors, artists and dealers who mingled on the first floor seemed content, their spirits lifted by the bloody marys at the door and, undoubtedly, the architecture of Robert Irwin, who was honored at the lunchtime gala.

“If I had a dollar,” Dia Director Philippe Vergne said in his welcome address, “for every time someone told me, ‘God, the light is beautiful, God, the space is so fluid, God, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about Dia Beacon that makes the experience so clearly in the service of the art…’” Here he trailed off. The point was, he said, most people seem to attribute Beacon’s success to a lack of human intervention, “and they’re wrong.” Such was the soft touch of Mr. Irwin, who declined to comment except to say that he actually hadn’t been back since he built the thing.

“Yeah, so, he has a really big penis,” said Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, finishing a story as I approached (“We’re talking about Philippe,” he joked, after I said I was a reporter). Everything really does look better at Dia, lighting-wise, the photographer said, except perhaps the Warhols that surrounded us at that moment. “And I love Warhol more than my mother.”

“If we’re talking about light, the Agnes Martins do so well here,” said his daughter Isca, also an artist. “Because the light changes the painting.” Mr. Greenfield-Sanders agreed, and he’d seen the works currently on display in something like ideal circumstances.

“These paintings I’ve seen at her house,” he said. “In a barn, she had a barn—they look better here—but it had kind of a skylight. She gave me a Valium. We each took a Valium and sat there looking at her paintings, and then we had lunch.”

“Does a minimal painter only take minimal drugs?” asked Isca’s husband, Sebastian Blanck.

“Right,” Mr. Greenfield-Sanders said. “It was a blue one, I think that’s only five milligrams.”

Mr. Vergne had also talked up another Dia project during his introduction: Thomas Hirschhorn’s monument to Antonio Gramsci, which opens at the Forest Houses projects in the Bronx this summer. Mr. Hirschhorn, Mr. Vergne said in his address, had taken a break from hauling “thousands and thousands” of wooden pallets to the Bronx to spend the day in Beacon.

“Philippe,” Gavin Brown said as the reception wound down, greeting the director with a complicated handshake that required some snapping and instruction on his part. “I’m never going to the South Bronx.”

“Oh, you live in Harlem anyway,” Mr. Vergne said. “So shut up.”

You guys Yankees fans?

“Is that basketball?” said the Brit.

“No, iz ice hockay,” said Mr. Vergne, heavily frogging his accent. “You know, I was a figure skater when I was a kid.” He turned to Mr. Brown. “I know you might not be surprised.”

“Next year I want you to make your remarks on a cordless mike,” Mr. Brown said, “Skating around the room.”

Then everyone scooted to a well-lit room around the corner to eat lunch amid the John Chamberlains. Valium was not on the menu. —Dan Duray

(Courtesy Getty Images)

Anish Kappor's wax cannon in Berlin requires ear plugs. [Bloomberg]

Two new curators with very Met-sounding names, Peter Barnet and C. Griffith Mann, are hired by the Met. [Artforum]

François Pinault is a contemporary art god, says The WSJ in the first paragraph of this profile. [WSJ]

Are trophy art works good investments? [Forbes via AMM]

Peter Schjeldahl visits the Met's newly renovated European art galleries. [The New Yorker]

Anthony Byrt at the Fifth Auckland Triennial. [Artforum]

Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO. (Courtesy Getty Images)

Last week, the online retailer Amazon reached out to a number of prominent art galleries (and some not-so-prominent ones) to invite them to a meeting in New York this Wednesday where it plans to unveil a new project called the Amazon Fine Art Gallery.

The e-mail, which you'll find in full below, was sent by James Erickson of Amazon business development and is scant on details. It mainly just invites galleries to the unveiling of the project this Wednesday, though the email does suggest that the project might hope to compete with other art vendor start-ups like Artspace and Artsy, both of which have recently received bundles in fundraising.

Mr. Erickson referred us to a company spokesman. When asked for comment, the spokesman himself was unavailable for comment at the time of this writing. The full e-mail follows:

From: Erickson, James

Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 3:42 PM
Subject: Amazon Fine Art Online Gallery Event - NYC, May 22 Reminder

Good Afternoon James,

I hope this email finds you well.

Last week you were contacted by my colleague, Angela, regarding an invitation to join Amazon in New York City for a presentation on the launch of our new Fine Art Gallery.

I want to reach out to you and see if you plan on attending our event on Wednesday, May 22nd. The details are below my signature. I am also more than happy to discuss this event and the details of Amazon’s Art Gallery more in depth with you over the phone.

Please let me know if you are planning to attend and if you would like to schedule time to talk over the phone.

Regards,

James Erickson
Business Development | Amazon Services
Email: jamee@amazon.com
2201 Westlake Avenue, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98121

This summer Amazon is planning to launch a Fine Art Gallery where customers will be able to purchase original artwork offered by a select group of invited galleries via Amazon.com. You are cordially invited to a special event in New York where we will introduce the Amazon Art marketplace to New York galleries.
We’re inviting you and a select group of your peers to join us for light snacks and refreshments on Wednesday, May 22, to learn more about connecting with new customers and driving sales on our platform. We have received overwhelming support from the galleries that have already joined the platform and we would love the opportunity to offer your gallery’s selection in the Amazon Art Gallery.

Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Location: Sun West Studios | 450 West 31st Street 10th Floor | NYC
Please RSVP by replying to this email with:
Your name
Gallery name
Your role or position at the gallery
How many people from your gallery will be attending (if applicable)
Names of others from your gallery who will be attending (if applicable)

We look forward to seeing you!

Update 5:21 p.m. Updated with response from Mr. Erickson.

Update 6:16 p.m. Turns out Hyperallergic beat us to this one, if you're keeping score! Though obviously we weren't working from their piece, which doesn't feature the whole email.

Update 8:48 p.m. Just received a comment from Amazon spokesman Erik Fairleigh: "Thanks for your interest in Amazon. We have not made any announcements about Art. Stay tuned."

(Courtesy the museum)

The Miami Herald reports that the Pérez Art Museum, set to open in Miami this fall, has just received an anonymous $15 million donation that places the museum 85 percent of the way to raising the $220 million it had allocated for construction, according to the museum.

The gift takes the form of $12 million in cash and $3 million in art. "I can say almost nothing about it except that I’m thrilled,” the museum's director, Thom Collins, told The Herald.

Read more here. Thanks to Artforum for pointing us to the story.

Benefit: Fire Island Pines Performance Series Benefit Party
A benefit that includes performances by Tyler Ashley, Megha Barnabas and Ryan McNamara, plus music by Thinner, Lauren Dillard and JD Samson. Hosted by John Early and Ladyfag. —Michael H. Miller
209 Elizabeth Street, New York, VIP 6-8 p.m., after party at 8 p.m. Tickets $25 to $100, available at iheartfireisland.org

Inaugural Hyperallergic ArtTalk: Klaus Biesenbach
Want to hear Klaus talk about "Expo 1?" Want to drink some Pernod? Want to high five Hrag Vartanian? Sure you do! —Dan Duray
The Bedford, 110 Bedford Avenue, entrance on North 11th Street, Brooklyn, 7–9 p.m., tickets cost money and are sold out but you never know

TUESDAY, MAY 21

Party: Cousin George, "Coming Out," at Santos
Art collector George Haddad re-invents himself as Cousin George with this party for his debut album Coming Out. Videos by Luis Gispert, Kalup Linzy and Nate Lowman. Open bar from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. —D.D.
Santos Party House, 96 Lafayette Street, New York, 8–11 p.m.

Talk: Matthew Barney in Conversation with Paul Holdengräber at the Public Library
Matthew Barney at the NYPL, pegged to his new show at the Morgan Library and a new book by Rizzoli. —D.D.
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Celeste Bartos Forum, New York, $25

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22

Panel Discussion: “62 Years Later” at Robert Miller
In conjunction with its "Untitled (Hybrid)" exhibition about Lee Krasner, which is curated by Kate McNamara, Anne Pasternak, Heather Watts, Lauren Flanigan, Laurie Simmons and RoseLee Goldberg will discuss gender politics in the arts. —M.H.M.
Robert Miller Gallery, 524 West 26th Street, New York, 6-8 p.m.

Opening: Amy Yao, "Skeletons on a Bender," at 47 Canal
Amy Yao, who may be familiar to riot grrrl aficionados for her work in the very catchy 1990s group Emily's Sassy Lime (their records are still available through Kill Rock Stars website), makes unabashedly elegant, beautiful art out of things like umbrellas, chairs, sticks and pearls. The title alone suggests this will be a strong show. —Andrew Russeth
47 Canal Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

Screening and Conversation: Dennis Oppenheim at EAI
Curator Jenny Jaskey will introduce early films and videos by Dennis Oppenheim, which will be screened as he meant them to be shown, as multiple projections, and then lead a discussion with an exciting bunch of young artists— A.K. Burns, Ajay Kurian and Yve Laris-Cohen—about Oppenheim's work, and its connection to their own. —A.R.
Electronic Arts Intermix, 535 West 22nd Street, Fifth Floor, New York, 6:30 p.m., $7/$5 students, RSVP to rsvp@eai.org

THURSDAY, MAY 23

Opening: Takuma Nakahira, "Circulation: Date, Place, Events" at Yossi Milo
Japanese photographer Takuma Nakahira generated his work for the 1971 Seventh Paris Biennale over the course of a week during the exposition itself, spending seven consecutive days documenting everything he encountered, from breakfast to bouquinistes, and seven nights developing the photographs, which were exhibited the following day. We're eager to see the show, which will include 75 pictures (and to learn his secrets for staying up all week). —Zoë Lescaze
Yossi Milo Gallery, 245 10th Avenue, New York, 6-8 p.m.

Panel: "Where Is Jack Goldstein?" at the Jewish Museum
Art historian Douglas Crimp, who included Jack Goldstein in his seminal 1977 "Pictures" show at Artists Space, and Jens Hoffmann, the deputy director of the Jewish Museum, which is hosting a Goldstein retrospective through Sept. 29, will "discuss Jack Goldstein as a pioneer of conceptual art practices." —A.R.
Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, New York, 6:30 p.m., free with pay-what-you-wish admission, RSVP required

SATURDAY, MAY 25

Opening: "Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series" at MoMA
Ellsworth Kelly spent 1971 creating L-shaped works, each composed of two monochrome canvases, in his Chatham, N.Y., studio, but barely anyone has seen the complete series since. In celebration of the artist's 90th birthday (coming up on May 31), MoMA is reuniting the 14 paintings in its fourth-floor galleries. —Z.L.
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West  53rd Street, New York, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Update, May 21: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the dates for the events at Electronic Arts Intermix and 47 Canal. They take place Wednesday. We apologize for the error.

The work in question. (Courtesy The Independent)

You may have heard that the artist Peter Doig is currently involved in a lawsuit with a Canadian parole officer who claims that Mr. Doig sold him a painting in 1975, while incarcerated at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre as a teenager. The Independent has just posted an image of the work in question.

The officer, Robert Fletcher, says Mr. Doig was 17, and doing time for LSD possession when he encouraged Mr. Doig's art studies in the facility. Mr. Doig (then, apparently, "Doige," according to the signature on the canvas) then sold him the above work for $100, according to Mr. Fletcher.

We hadn't seen the work until just now. Hm. The Independent's critic thinks it looks nothing like a Doig. Also let's not forget that his name is misspelled in the signature.

(Courtesy Getty Images)

The New York Times reports that the artist and political activist Ai Weiwei was walking to meet his mother at a restaurant on Mother's Day when he encountered a fight on Ghost Street in Beijing.

He filmed it. The resulting video was violent, and popular. Read more here.

Apart from that, no other lot sold for above $4.09 million, the figure reached by a Cor-Ten steel Thomas Schütte sculpture and paintings by Christopher Wool ("AND IF YOU DONT LIKE IT YOU CAN GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE," it reads), Jean-Michel Basquiat and Roy Lichtenstein. (All prices include buyer's premium.) Seven of the 37 lots offered failed to find bidders, leading to a respectable 81 percent sell-through rate by lot. The night's overall hammer total, $67.9 million, fell below the sans-premium pre-sale estimates, which ranged from $77.5 million to $105.5 million.

"For all the volume of the week, it was a very good result," said Phillips CEO Michael McGinnis, referring to the three other major auctions this week, which included Leonardo DiCaprio's at Christie's on Monday. People seemed tired, and chatted amongst themselves despite the enthusiastic auctioneering of Alexander Gilkes.

Warhol's Four Marilyns (1962) sold without many bids to a woman on a mobile phone not far from the front who sat with three others: another woman, Chrissie Erpf (an employee of Larry Gagosian who frequently accompanies him at auctions) and Mr. Gagosian himself. When the woman on the phone won the lot, Mr. Gagosian, who was seated next to Ms. Erpf at the end of the row, held her paddle aloft for her. As he left the room he told reporters, "She bought it! She bought it!" Mr. Gagosian is of course deeply involved in the Warhol market, and the painting in question was sold by his frequent business partner Alberto Mugrabi, with whom he owns many works of art.

A Nate Lowman bullet hole piece, extremely similar to one that set a new record for the artist at Sotheby's Tuesday, sold for $545,000, around $100,000 less than the one at Sotheby's. One surprise of the evening was that a figurative Philip Guston work from 1969 of a can of paintbrushes failed to find a buyer at $550,000, despite another Guston work (this one from his abstract period, from 1958) having set a new record for the artist last night at Christie's record-breaking auction, going more than $10 million over its top estimate to sell for $25.9 million.

"I saw the condition report on that one, it was cracked," said collector John Allen outside after the sale, referring to tonight's Guston. "And the color's all wrong. But a good painting besides that."

Paula Cooper Gallery director Steve Henry bought a 2004 Franz West sculpture for a client at $461,000. Art consultant Eve Reid purchased a portfolio of 10 Warhol prints from 1967 featuring Marilyn for $2 million (an edition of 250 plus 26 APs) and a Jeff Koons cut-out for $521,000. After a good amount of bidding Leslie Rankow bought a Wayne Thiebaud cityscape from 1993 for $893,000.

On Park Avenue after the sale Mr. Henry said that Phillips had, in his opinion, made great efforts, and largely succeeded, in "getting better quality works."

Mr. Allen, also outside, had a different take.

"Last night was exciting," he said. "This was dull."

Tate Americas Foundation

A few blocks uptown, as the Vito Schnabel/David Rimanelli affair was getting underway in a disused space on the south end of the James A. Farley Post Office, guests for the Tate Americas Foundation’s triennial artists dinner—Anne Hathaway, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bravo’s Andy Cohen and an array of artists (Lawrence Weiner, Julie Mehretu, Frances Stark and Charline von Heyl) and their dealers—were streaming into the Skylight event space on the north end for cocktails.

“Art matters—art changes lives, it changes opinions, it changes points of view—and you all have changed Tate and all of us for the better,” the foundation’s chair, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, told the hundreds of guests. Nicholas Serota, Tate’s director, credited Ms. Fisher with insisting, “even in the middle of what in Europe we continue to regard as a recession, to do an evening of this kind.” And then Simon de Pury, perhaps missing his days as an auctioneer, put in what was, even for him, a positively relentless performance for the charity auction, selling off a variety of experienced-based lots.

The chance to have Nathan Carter assist with Christmas decorating sold for $11,000. A “career-guidance lunch” with the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Glenda Bailey (“that’s something I’m particularly keen on having!” Mr. de Pury crowed), made $15,000.

The next lot was a day of shopping with Sarah Jessica Parker, plus a $5,000 gift certificate for Dior, a big Tate sponsor. “Sarah Jessica Parker is a person oooozing, oozing, oozing unbelievable charm," Mr. de Pury offered. "I mean, it's incredible. I once had the privilege in my previous life…to spend a split second with Sarah Jessica Parker in a reality TV show, Bravo, which changed my life.” (The two were on Work of Art together.) That topped out at $45,000, with Ms. Parker agreeing to two shopping trips.

For the last of the six lots, Mr. de Pury turned to Greek collector Dakis Joannou and his wife Lietta: “You know what's good, you know what's important, you know what's beautiful, and you know it long before anyone else! What you have done over the years is nothing short of amazing. And, amongst other things, you have an incredible yacht, the 115-foot yacht Guilty. Now, you know, there are one or two people who have even longer or bigger yachts than yours, but nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody else in the world has a yacht that was designed by Jeff Koons!” A week aboard the boat sold for $170,000. “The Phelans and the Rachofskys are going to have a divine, unforgettable time all aboard the Guilty!"

Curatorial travel donations were hammered off at $20,000 one by one. Suddenly R. H. Quaytman was out of her seat and making a donation, bringing the whole artist theme of the dinner full circle. Using Mr. de Pury’s mike, she dedicated her donation to Tate curator Mark Godfrey. “But I don’t think you should auction off curators!” she said, completely deadpan.

“No, no, we’re not auctioning off curators, we’re auctioning off tickets for curators,” Mr. de Pury said. He brought his hammer down on Ms. Quaytman’s table and then bounded away.

“Thank you so, so much, Madam. Another $20,000. Thank you!”

A Second Anniversary for Artspace

On Thursday, Frieze opened at 11 a.m. to torrential downpours that quickly cleared, and by mid-afternoon the sun was shining over the East River, as the first groups began decamping by ferry and car from Randall's Island for openings and celebrations around town. Mr. Koons's show at Gagosian's West 24th Street space opened right on time, a line stretching down by the block by half past 6.

In the stately James Burden Mansion on East 91st Street, the newly minted strategic director of Artspace, collector and patron Maria Baibakova, hosted a dinner in honor of the art-commerce site's second anniversary. At the risk of sounding naive—I've seen lots of beautiful things!—it was easily one of the most beautiful spaces I have ever been in in New York. Warren and Westmore, the architects of Grand Central Station, designed the building in 1901, which is now home to the Sacred Heart school.

Ms. Baibakova toasted the crowd of dealers (Marc Glimcher, Thaddaeus Ropac, Dominique Lévy), museum directors (Thelma Golden, Chris Dercon, Philippe Vergne) artists (Wangechi Mutu, Angel Otero, Ryan McNamara) and investors. Husband-and-wife artists Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian had made a special print for the occasion. Artspace is all about collaboration, Ms. Baibakova said, "and what’s a better collaboration than a marriage?" Artspace, she added, "combines the good will we want to create with a viable business." And after two years at Harvard Business School, she said she's excited to be "coming back to the art world."

The crowd lingered over chocolates. There were still four more days of Frieze. No doubt there would be more reunions to come.

Artists Space Toasts Douglas Crimp

The Artists Space gala honoring Douglas Crimp on Saturday night was broken into two parts, the first held at the nonprofit's storefront space at 55 Walker Street, where multiple copies of multiple volumes of In Search of Lost Time sat just behind the bartender's heads.

After a performance by Suzanne Sachsse and Marc Siegel, Cindy Sherman, Gabriel Orozco and Lawrence Weiner mingled at the back of an exhibition on André Cadere. Up by the front was Michael Stipe, who wanted to talk about the sculptures he's been making, but was clearly trying not to ruin some kind of exclusive he had with Vanity Fair, or wherever.

"It's just something that happened," he said. Recently? "No, seven years ago." Big or small? "Big." Had he ever shown them? "No." Was he going to? "I can't tell you that now, but I will be able to tell you where I'm going to show them in November of this year."

Then it was time to go two doors down, where we were to eat. This required everyone to head out to the sidewalk. Some weren't sure it was time to leave yet, they thought there would be some kind of signal. "Maybe Irving Sandler heading over there is the signal," a colleague speculated.

"Is this where we go?" asked Clarissa Dalrymple, near a door.

"No, those are the steps to the basement," said Stefan Kalmár.

Everyone had to cluster outside at the second door as they waited for admission, and seemed equally obliged to smoke a cigarette as they did so. Inside the second space they ate duck and carrots and drank red wine.

The artist, writer and AIDS activist Gregg Bordowitz then gave a passionate introduction for Mr. Crimp which began, in part, "I am who I am today because of Douglas Crimp."  He'd introduced Mr. Crimp to those fighting the spread of HIV in the city, and Mr. Crimp taught him how to be passionate about art.

"This is a man who once reported that he desired to lick the surface of a Brice Marden painting," Mr. Bordowitz said.

Mr. Crimp gave his speech afterward, which mostly thanked people like Mr. Bordowitz and Helene Winer, a former director of Artists Space. "I've been extremely lucky in my life with my friendships," he said.

Mr. Crimp curated the "Pictures" show at Artists Space in 1977, which featured Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo and Philip Smith, and led to the development of the term "Pictures Generation." The show's legacy still surprises him, he said at his table, especially since most people didn't even see the show, but only read his catalogue essay for it in October.

"It was a time when there wasn't really a sense of direction in the art world and there had been up to that point, this movement followed that movement," he said. "I guess it was my  understanding of the task of criticism at the time, which was to say, 'this follows this,' so I guess I gave it some kind of coherence. But also the artists were doing something legitimately new."

"To tell you the truth I wouldn't even presume to answer what the role of art criticism is anymore," he added. "I'm working on a memoir so I'm more interested in how I became a critic. Plus the art world is way, way, way, way, way bigger and there's way, way, way, way more money. I don't think there is such a thing as an art world. I think we can say at that time it felt like there was, but now there are hundreds of art worlds."

It was certainly the week for that sentiment. Robert Longo gave the evening high marks, saying he normally avoided Frieze-related events, and had only gone to one other one in the past week. What did he think of the fair itself?

He looked at me over his tinted lenses and said, "Artists don't go to art fairs, bro."

'Expo 1' Arrives

The main room of the Museum of Modern Art looked like it was underwater Saturday night, illuminated by cyan lights and studded with round tables that glowed like bioluminescent jelly fish. Perhaps the effect was intentional, given the ecological slant of "Expo 1," for which the dinner was being thrown by Klaus Biesenbach, Glenn Lowry and Volkswagen's Hans Dieter Pötsch and Jonathan Browning.

A series of speeches began after the guests—James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Adrian Villar Rojas and Doug Aitken—took their seats. Mr. Biesenbach discussed the urgency of the exhibition. "CO2 levels are at an all-time high in three million years," he said, eliciting an ironic cheer from artist Meg Webster. It wasn't until the end of his speech that he explained why a bright yellow plastic flower was dangling around his neck, which earned giggles from the crowd whenever the half-dozen flat screens installed around the room showed  it close up. It turned out to be a solar-powered Little Sun designed by artist Olafur Eliasson, who is distributing them in off-grid areas of the world (and to MoMA's dinner guests as party favors). Mr. Eliasson's work in "Expo 1" consists of 850-year-old chunks of Icelandic glacier. "I like to call them our little ice cubes," said Mr. Biesenbach.

Once the crowd worked its way through dinner, Martha Wainwright took the stage in cat-eye makeup and a black jacket bedecked with sparkly orange birds. "We tried to find three songs that fit with the theme of the show, which was hard because most singers tend to sing about themselves," she said. Not even the wonky acoustics of the space could detract from her voice as she belted "Country Roads" for her final number.

Dessert was paired with another performance, this one from an artist who more than a few people thought was Mr. Biesenbach's niece after his slightly accented introduction. Her name, in fact, was Mileece, and she sang ethereal vowel sounds while controlling loops by stroking fake flowers equipped with sensors. "I hope this exhibition is as fantastic as it's expected to be," she said in conclusion.

By the time dinner ended, a crowd was already swirling around the sculpture garden for the after-party. Volkswagen logos were visible everywhere, even at the bottom of the shallow pool leading to Aristide Maillol's sculpture of a falling woman.  "It's like Gatsby," said one guest, of the highly visible sponsorship. As the hour grew late, party-goers slipped out one by one to visit the Rain Room, before heading off into the night.