KAWS, Thom Browne Celebrate With Phaidon
Phaidon's centennial is being acknowledged with an installation at Christie's.
A centenniel is a feat under any circumstances, but even more so in book publishing.
Christie's helped Phaidon celebrate that milestone Wednesday night with a cockatil party to unveil Phaidon x Christie's “100 Years of Creativity.” Linda Evangelista, Thom Browne, Peter Marino, Madison
Cox, Rashid Johnson and Nina Magon took up the mantle of cohosts, while guests mingled in the un-air conditioned Sixth Avenue space. The largely creative crowd included artists Mickalene Thomas, Derrick Adams and Linda Beglis; architect Bjarke Ingels; photographer Wolfgang Tillmans; The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Max Hollein and Andrew Bolton; designer Todd Oldham; chef Ana Roš; Grace Coddington; writers Vince Aletti, and Bob Colacello, and the Ford Foundation's Darren Walker.
The colorful Christie's space artistically showcased a heavily contemporary view of Phaidon's 100 years of publishing. Titles from the cohosts and several of the guests were among those on view. The concept of books as art is one that the artist Brian Donnelly, who is known professionally as KAWS, can relate to. “I have aways loved books. Even before I collected art, I collected books. I really enjoy making books [including two soon-to-be-released tomes with Phaidon and its Monacelli imprint]. There's just something about having an object that floats around for 20 or 30 years and gets pulled out of a shelf. It just has a way of existing and provides access to art that is unlike anything else.”
Andy Warhol's Index book, for example, is more of an object than anything else, said Donnelly, whose “KAWS: Family” exhibition bows at Art Gallery of Ontario later this month. Old books by the artist Martin Ramirez and the visual poetry of Martin Wong are other favorite finds. “With any artist that I get into, it's great to go down the rabbit hole and find their old catalogues,” he said.
A few blocks away in the 53rd Street windows of the Uniqlo flagship, there were myriad images of KAWS holding his latest Phaidon book. As an apparel collaborator with the fast-fashion retailer, the artist is maximizing that connection. “I love Uniqlo and I love Phaidon. Uniqlo is selling books now and it is such a platform. They have almost more than 3,000 stores. A lot of times when I do a project with Uniqlo, parents buy their kids my shirts and everything. I just thought, ‘What a great opportunity [it would be], if they could pick up a book and open that door to a larger understanding of what I do.”
Even a 24-hour-old torn knee couldn't keep KAWS away from the opening night party. “I love Keith [Fox, Phaidon's chief executive officer]. I had to show up.”
Fox, in turn, was grateful for any and all attendees, telling the crowd. “Publishing is a combat sport. If I had a dollar for everyone who asked me to do a book, I'd be a much wealthier man.”
He also thanked someone, who would fit that bill — Phaidon's owner and Apollo Global Management chief executive officer Leon Black. Marino was also not to be missed in his signature all-leather attire, an even bolder choice given the event's tropical-like temperature. With the Chanel boutique open in Los Angeles up-andrunning, Marino remains immersed worldwide in Tiffany & Co. projects. His cohost Johnson is readying for upcoming exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art.
Many attendees dressed vibrantly including writer and illustrator Steven Guarnaccia, who paired salmon-colored pants with a vintage Corbin blazer imprinted with flowers and roosters. His next page-turner is an illustrated one for children about the history of pasta. How else will they learn that the '60s pop star Adriano Celentano's springy dancing inspired Barilla pasta's corkscrew pasta or “cellentani.” As for the rekindled interest in fashion illustration, the former chair of Parsons' illustration program said, “Illustration is not always representational. Sometimes it reflects the inner mind of the artist and the artist is trying to interpret something. It doesn't do the job that photography does. But it does picture an emotional story in a way that photography can't. I think it's amazing.”