With a Splashy Dinner Party and Bash at the Boom Boom Room, Artnet Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary in Style

In celebration of Artnet’s 30th
anniversary last evening, a crowd of well-dressed luminaries
gathered in Tribeca for a dinner party atop Ralph Walker’s
glittering Art Deco tower at 100 Barclay.

As guests arrived—some via cars
provided by Maserati for the evening—they were escorted to the
tower’s penthouse apartment. Once inside the grand space—the
largest living room in New York City, which featured soft, romantic
lighting, washed concrete floors, and sky-high floor-to-ceiling
windows—the attendees were greeted with passed hors d’oeuvres and
drinks. A choice of Newton white wine or Hennessy X.O, a unique
blend of ‘extra-old’ cognac first invented in 1870, were both
provided by Hennessy. As the art world trickled in, light music
from a grand piano filtered through the room while guests chatted
and caught up with one another. 

Once the full party had arrived,
everyone sat down to dinner at a long table decorated for the
occasion. Twinkling with the light of hundreds of flickering
candles, which bounced off the surrounding glassware prepared for
wine and tastings of Hennessy Paradis Imperial, the table was
beautifully prepared for the evening’s events, with bouquets of
white orchids spilling over the sides of tall, cylindrical
vases. 

In addition to celebrating
Artnet’s milestone achievement of 30 years in business, the party
was also held to announce Artnet’s new partnership with Sir Anish
Kapoor, the esteemed British-Indian artist, who was the guest of
honor for the evening.

One of the most ambitious and
visionary artists today, Kapoor is known for such iconic public
works as Cloud Gate in Chicago and Sky
Mirror in London, and many other installations and sculptures
that have been shown at Versailles, the Royal Academy, Tate Modern, the
Grand Palais, Rockefeller Center, Kensington Gardens, and
elsewhere. 

To kick off the evening, Jacob
Pabst, Artnet’s CEO, welcomed guests and took a moment to reflect
on Artnet’s many achievements, including its triumph in bringing
transparency to the art market through the Artnet Price Database
and its launch of the internet’s second-ever
publication.

Noting that anniversaries are not only about the past, but also
about the future, Pabst announced the partnership with Kapoor,
explaining that Kapoor’s thought-provoking artworks exemplify Artnet’s
own vision of innovation. Appropriately, next year, Kapoor
will work with Artnet to install a new site-specific work in a historic
New York location. 

At the other end of the table,
which was dotted with glasses of sparkling amber Hennessy
Paradis Imperial, Kapoor stood up to give his own spirited
address, in which he thanked Artnet for providing transparency to
the market—and, above all, for providing good “gossip.” In a world
driven by the marketplace, he noted, it is vitally important for
artists to remain “radical.” 

During the toasts, guests tasted Hennessy Paradis Imperial,
which was presented to them on silver trays, as Hennessy’s own
Nicholas Streff spoke about the brandy distiller’s ethos of looking
to the future while always honoring the past, as Artnet and Kapoor
have also done.

Over the course of more than 250
years, eight generations of families have perfected Hennessy’s
time-honored art of selection. The Hennessy Paradis Imperial,
appropriately, is a singular blend of the collection, upending
preconceived notions about older cognacs with its elegant taste,
which sparks the palette upon first sip, and then only becomes more
complex. There is a reason why Hennessy Paradis Imperial is the
crown jewel of Hennessy’s cognacs: from every harvest, only 10 out
of 10,000 eaux-de-vie are selected for inclusion in the
blend’s unique and subtly sophisticated composition, making it
particularly exceptional. 

A bottle of Hennessy Paradis
Imperial twinkled center stage in the middle of the table as guests
dined on a three-course meal provided by Feast & Fetes, the catering arm of DANIEL by
Daniel Boulud. The guests—including Jemima Kirke, Anh Duong,
Nicholas Logsdail, Alex Logsdail, Hans Neuendorf, Andrew Goldstein,
CJ Hendry, Beth Redmond, and Steve Gold—chatted over butternut
squash velouté, roasted halibut, braised short ribs in red wine,
and a wild mushroom, brussels sprout, and potato mousseline, with
Tahitian vanilla poached pears for dessert. 

After taking their coffee and
tea, guests headed over to Artnet’s bash at The Standard’s Boom
Boom Room, which was lit up in Artnet orange for the evening.
There, they enjoyed cocktails, small bites, and music by DJ Aku
Orraca-Tetteh (formerly of Florence and The Machine) before heading
back out into the New York night. 

See more photos from the dinner
and party below. 

The post With a Splashy Dinner Party and Bash at the Boom
Boom Room, Artnet Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary in Style
appeared first on artnet News.