August 4 through 6 marked the sixth year of the annual summer benefit gala, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM)’s artCRUSH. The event housed over 350 top art collectors, artists, gallery owners, curators and celebrities, each invited to a weekend of wine tasting, beautiful art, dinners, and auctions. Among the guests were New York collectors Jill and Jay Bernstein, Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J Learsy, Los Angeles collectors and arts patrons Maria and Bill Bell, and Bob and Linda Gersh, as well as collectors and patrons form Chicago, Aspen, Dallas, and Vail. Museum directors Richard Armstrong of the Guggenheim Museum and Klaus Biesenbach and Peter Eleey from PS1 Contemporary Art Center; gallerists Rachel Lehmann, Sarah Gavlak,and Richard Edwards; and artists Will Cotton, Josephine Meckseper, Nir Hod, and, Mickalene Thomas were also in attendance.
ArtCRUSH began with a fabulous dinner followed by the presentation of the Aspen Art Award to Marilyn Minter. The award was followed by an auction – the main event of the night – which featured one-of-a-kind works by Mamma Andersson, Kiki Smith, Ed Ruscha, and Damien Hirst, among others. Auctioneer Tobias Meyer (Sotheby’s principle auctioneer) racked in a record $1.5 million. Top-ticket pieces that brought in big results were Marilyn Minter’s Parted, which sold for $120,000 and Damien Hirst’s work on paper Beautiful All Tomorrow's Parties Will Look LikeThis Drawing, which sold for $78,000.
An announcement by AAM that they will begin construction of a new museum building designed by Shigeru Ban ended the night with great excitement and much to look forward to.
Carmen Mcleod, Mickalene Thomas, Jeanne Greenberg, Rohatyn, Annie Philbin.
Rod Waywell, Lisa Dennison.
Marilyn Minter, Vivian Blizzard, Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson.
Anne Pasternak, Bill Miller, Marilyn Minter, Stavros Merjos.
Frank Herzog, Dorene Herzog, Tony Karmen.
Donald Rubell, Mera Rubell.
Bill Miller.
