On Monday night, the New York Academy of Art hosted its annual Take Home a Nude art auction benefit at Phillips. The walls were packed with nudes for all tastes, from figurative paintings to demure photos and artworks that skirted the human form topic all together; a painting of a a lemon had sold before the event even started, via the online silent auction.
“ I was in the auction business before. I’m running the academy now, but being in an auction house is a familiar turf for me,” said Paul Provost, who worked at Christie’s earlier in his career before being named president of the academy last spring. “There was a lot at stake,” Provost added of his previous gig. “There’s a lot at stake tonight, too. We hope to raise a lot of money for the academy.”
Guests included artists such ass Will Cotton, Chris “Daze” Ellis, gallerist Jeffrey Deitch and Damian Loeb, who walked with actor Michael Myers through the galleries. The stilt walkers, a NYAA event staple, were also on the move, reminding guests to get their final bids in before the lots started to close ahead of the live auction.
The evening honored the late Walter Robinson, a painter, critic and founding editor of Artnet magazine.
“ One of the best human beings. Selfless, passionate,” said Robinson’s wife Lisa Rosen. “The art world to him was 54 years of selfless giving and just loving artists.”
“ A real supporter of the academy,” added Provost. “A great artist, a great critic, and he would come to the academy and do critiques with students.”
Robinson’s contribution to the school will continue with the newly created Robinson Scholarship Fund, supported by proceeds from the evening’s auction.
After the live auction, guests collected their newly acquired works and headed to dinner at the Metropolitan Club.
Eileen Guggenheim
Lexie Moreland/WWD
