AIPAD opened last Wednesday night at The Park Ave Armory, the highlight of a week of auction previews and the opening of the Metropolitan Museum’s “Photograph and the American Civil War”, curated by Jeff Rosenheim. Busy, busy, busy. (Le Journal’s Elizabeth Avedon was the perfect date for the latter.)
By 7 PM the place was full and completely upbeat, a benefit for InMotion, which provides legal services for women. The seemingly tireless and charmingly unflappable Cathy Kaplan was manning the front door. She is a serious collector and Co-Chair (with Bob Mann) of InMotion’s upcoming 2013 annual benefit auction on Monday, April 22nd. They have invited me to make my auctioneer debut succeeding Denise Bethel (Sotheby’s) and Daile Kaplan (Swann Galleries). Kaplan is also the Vice Chairman of Aperture.
In two hours I managed to barely make it around the perimeter of the fair, catching up with old friends, dealers and collectors and editors and photographers and everyone else that makes the world of photography pulse with life.
Who? The French. Julien Frydman (Paris Photo) was in every stand. Charming, easy, just right. Baudoin Lebon, Gilles de Camp, Viviane Esders, Martine Fougeron. Fantastique. The Dutch. Dana Lixenberg. Jacqueline Hassink. The Japanense. Yuichi Hibi.
The Stalwarts. Joe Baio and Anne Griffin. Leon Constantiner. Joe Cohen. Richard and Ronay Menschel.
Blue chip, class acts. Bruce SIlverstein, James Danziger, Hans Kraus, Tom Gitterman, Edwynn Houk. David Zwirner.
Fresh. Paul Kopeikin (Tabitha Soren), Robert Morat (Christian Patterson – Redheaded Peckerwood), KlompChing’s Darren Ching and Debra Klomp (Helen Sear, “Beyond the View” No. 5, 2009 – my favorite of the evening), PPOW’s Penny Pilkington (Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz)
wm hunt
