“THE more limos outside, the bigger the opening,” says Michael Hall. And then we went into PaceWildenstein. Inside, with waiters circulating with glasses of wine, was the cream of the New York art crowd — the billionaires, the Botoxed, the television news crews and the gossip columnists, some of whom were even looking at the art, a series of minute moving figures projected on to pieces of rock.
“Shouldn’t we have invitations?” I ask. Michael, who works for Brit Art gallery Eyestorm, is used to such hesitancy. “British people always say that,” he replies with a sigh. In the city that invented the velvet rope and the impregnable guest list, art galleries are a glorious anomaly. Even though the works inside may sell for six- and seven-figure sums, openings are just that — open to anyone .
With Michael to prompt me on a warm Thursday night, we did a pick ‘n’ mix session, taking in the de Koonings at Gagosian, a slightly impenetrable film performance and some metal rods by Bernar Venet, on show at the Robert Millar gallery before they take up residence on Park Avenue for the summer. We saw art, we mixed — we were welcomed. Could it be that art galleries are the friendliest places in New York?
It’s a baffling concept, I decide, as I take another glass of wine and gaze at a sculpture made out of discarded water bottles. Gallery-hopping in Chelsea feels like a cerebral fun run. Those in the know take it street by street, starting with giants such as Gagosian, PaceWildenstein and Mary Boone in West 22nd and 23rd Streets, rising to the newer, edgier galleries of 27th Street. In summer, most openings are held on Thursday even ings.
New York is the city that invented big art happenings. Here artists will take over a nail bar to perform contemporary art on cuticles; where hotels and restaurants have curators alongside concierges and chefs. The Gansevoort hotel in the Meatpacking District has joined forces with the Wooster Project gallery, and its top-floor penthouse will feature a choice selection of collaborations between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat . Public, a hot new restaurant in NoLita, features a gallery space, at present inhabited by Marcus Linnenbrink.
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It is not hard to see why the Manchester-based Comme Ca gallery has bypassed London in favour of a 3,500ft space on West 27th Street.
“There’s a real sense of freedom — our shows feel more experimental here, but if you want to raise the profile of your artists, coming to New York is the best way of achieving it,” says Claire Turner, who runs the New York gallery.
In general, summer shows have an air of spontaneity not always possible in the winter months. “Last summer,” said Michael, “there was a group of performance artists — The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black — naked but covered in paint, and they decided to take the show out on to the street.”
And then there are the art parties. Part culture, part (it must be said) high-brow single’n’mingle opportunity — no other city does them quite like New York. The Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art all have regular late-night openings, often with music, but none comes close to P.S.1’s Warm Up events in Queens.
Once a school, P.S.1 is now a satellite of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), with exhibitions in its barely converted classrooms. Each summer, in what was once that playground, a radical architect is commissioned to construct an outdoor installation, including a bar area.
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I’d arrived in New York with the idea of searching out some of the places painted by Edward Hopper, leading American artist of the 20th century. I was disappointed to find that little — apart from Williamsburg Bridge — still exists. In New York, all Hopper’s deserted diners and depressing hotel rooms seem to have been demolished.
In the 1970s the contemporary art scene centred in SoHo. Chelsea was the next stop, spearheaded by Dia, the art organisation that included Warhol. Now rising rents mean that many artists are basing themselves beyond Manhattan.
But Dia has gone farthest, and just over a year ago Dia: Beacon, opened in upstate New York. If you imagine Tate Modern relocating to a large village on the Essex/Suffolk border, you have some idea of the scale of the project. Housed in a former Nabisco factory. With more than 240,000 sq ft of exhibition space, it has become the largest contemporary art museum in the world.
The easiest way to reach it is to follow the people in monochrome clothes and statement hair getting on a train at Grand Central Station for an 80-minute journey along the Hudson River.
Lit almost entirely by natural light, it’s a showcase for Richard Serra’s 13ft-tall steel cylinders. One room contains 72 screen prints by Warhol. One day, you think, all museums will be uncrowded and tranquil like this.
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But still, back in cramped Manhattan, things aren’t bad. Outside the Met, four people are dressed in yellow, standing next to a sign saying: “Make your own work of art in 30 seconds.” Art in New York? It’s in the restaurant, on your nails, in your hotel bedroom, on the sidewalk . . .
Museums: Dia; Brooklyn Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; ps1); Whitney Museum of American Art.
Galleries: Most Chelsea galleries are situated between 10th and 11th Avenues and are open from Tuesday to Sunday. For other events, New York magazine and Time Out NY have comprehensive listings.