the day after Vappu. snow. and more snow. May Day. Kevin has an opening at Louise Bourgeoise’s house in Brooklyn. Stef sends a report:
I’m cc:ing Cam on this one as well since it was such a New York scene. Cam, Kevin is a painter that both John and I know very well and he just had his first major show of works. It was a one day event held at the studio of a famous painter/sculptor, Louise Bourgeois (sp?). She’s in her 80’s or so. Her studio is in Brooklyn. To give you an idea of Kevin’s relationship with her… she renovated her (very large) space just for his one day show. She erected walls and painted the place. He hung sixty of his series of 100 paintings of the Eiffel Tower and the bridge that is in front of the tower. Thus the show was called Bridge and Tower. In addition to having the support of such a great artist, his day job employer, Martha Stewart, came to the show and hosted a dinner for 25 or so people at a very chic bistro in SoHo (Balthazar’s).
The show itself was very impressive. To see all of the images in one place was very cool. Each painting is painted from the same vantage point but in different colors and degrees of clarity. People were asking if he lived in Paris for the year during which he painted this series. I’m not sure how he answered since he painted the Bridge and Tower from a scrap of gift wrapping paper that had various scenes from around the world; Paris, some windmills, London bridge, etc.
After the show we arrived at Balthazar’s where Martha had reserved two large tables. She had decorated the tables with miniatures of the Eiffel tower along with the show announcement cards. The first course was an amazing assortment of shellfish on the half shell, crab legs, conch, etc. At the next table was Gwyneth Paltrow. At another table nearby was Phillipe Starcke (the architect/designer). Betsey Johnson (fashion designer), etc. were also in the restaurant. Of course I would never have picked these folks out. When Gwyneth walked in, I just noticed her as an attractive blond… During the course of the dinner, Martha kept popping up and introducing herself to the various celebrities and marketing to them Kevin’s work by giving them a card and a tower. It was hilarious. I guess being a celebrity herself, she can actually pull it off.
Anyhow… dinner was excellent. The wine was very nice. When Kevin walked in we all applauded. Needless to say, he was embarrassed by the attention.
Bill and Andrea were there. It was nice to see them. They are now both into running marathons… and busy as usual. Bill was just over in Greece earlier this week. Hanna and Chris were there also.