Toast to women in art
The event: In a gathering of what speakers called extraordinary, nurturing and “ferocious” women, the Museum of Contemporary Art honored artist Marilyn Minter and trustee Susan Gersh at the MOCA Distinguished Women in the Arts Luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Wednesday.
The affair featured a runway presentation of presenting sponsor Michael Kors’ fall 2015 collection, and the designer’s style was also evident elsewhere in the ballroom, with actresses Camilla Belle, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Erin Foster all wearing Kors.
The program: MOCA director Philippe Vergne and former chief curator Paul Schimmel presented the awards, adding Minter and Gersh to an illustrious list of previous honorees that includes editor Tina Brown, actress Anjelica Huston, choreographer Twyla Tharp, arts patron Beatrice Gersh (Susan Gersh’s motherin-law), photographer Annie Leibovitz and artists Yoko Ono, Jenny Holzer, Betye Saar, Nancy Rubins, Barbara Kruger, Lita Albuquerque and Helen Pashgian.
The crowd: A sprinkling of notable gents, including artist John Baldessari and director Werner Herzog, joined the predominantly female convocation, among them artists Rubins, Kruger and Liza Lou and photographer Uta Barth; arts professionals Joanne Heyler, Bettina Korek, Helen Molesworth, Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn, Shaun Regen and Sylvia Chivaratanond. Marla Diamond and Pam Smith chaired the event, alongside MOCA Projects Council co-presidents Nancy Koven and Stephanie Vahn, and cochair Marilyn Resnick.
Quote of note: “I really believe that women run the arts world,” said Minter, after calling the audience “ferocious women … women that are leaning in.”