The BIG ART FAIR WEEK in New York kicked off last night with the ADAA Park Avenue Armory event, a lovely gala to benefit the Henry Street Settlement. As always, the event was chock full of art world muckety mucks, including museum directors Richard Armstrong (Guggenheim),  Dorothy Kosinski (Phillips Collection) and Adam Weinberg (Whitney) and those are just three I spotted. Art star curators included Harry Cooper (National Gallery of Art), John Ravenall (Virginia Museum of Fine Art), Isabel Derveaux (Morgan Library), Ann Temkin (MoMA), Stephanie Baron (LACMA), Helen Varola (Pacific Design Center). Of course the real stars of the evening were the collectors, who, rumor has it, bought out several booths within hours of the opening.

Zhang Huan ash painting

Mark Glimscher (Pace)was overheard saying, “it was like candy, we sold out in a half hour and have nothing left to sell until tomorrow.” The Pace booth featured highly collectible, and apparently highly desireable small scale ash paintings by Chinese artist Zhang Huan.

For a roundup of other Armory Week events, Artnet has a useful post this week. See the listings HERE.

And of course, if you want to get inside the New York art world, it’s always useful to take one of our online or on the ground classes. Visit our website at www.sothebysinstitute.com and check out all of our offerings. Lots of classes start in March.