Remembering Anne Bass, the Late Connoisseur, Patron, and Philanthropist
Much ink has been spent over the years about Anne Hendricks Bass, who died on Wednesday in New York. She was born in Indiana, lived much of her life in Texas, and spent time making extraordinary gardens in Connecticut and on the Caribbean island of Nevis.
But it was her position as a philanthropist, and as a force in the cultural life of this city, that made her a great New Yorker. Among the organizations she championed are the Museum of Modern Art and the New York City Ballet, among countless others.
Houses don’t mean what they used to, but for the people who care about these things, her taste in architecture and interiors was profoundly admired. She had a real voice, and the Fort Worth house she built with Paul Rudolph in 1970 and her New York apartment at 960 Fifth Avenue are unique, disciplined, timeless, and important.
The apartment expressed this best, designed with fellow Indiana native Mark Hampton in the mid-1980s and still a teachable moment. It was, and is, a highly artistic achievement, for many reasons besides the value of its contents.
It’s always a little embarrassing to write about intensely private people. But besides celebrating her style, which I'd describe as a relentless investigation of different recipes to mix simplicity and quality, now is the time to say what should also be said about Anne: that besides her superior taste in decorating and gardens she was funny if you knew her, intellectually curious, and a truly caring mother and grandmother.
She was also, on her own disciplined and elegant terms, hip—she had an Instagram feed but posted pictures (portraits, really) exclusively of flowers.
Studying her commitment to the marriage of humility and high style (harder than it sounds when anything is possible) has meant as much, pound for pound, to my design education as any other single experience I can think of.
Connoisseurship dances across borders, as another great New Yorker, her friend Billy Norwich, wrote today. “I learned a lot from Anne, especially about writing. The social vanities introduced me to people, but to write about them well—find and know their hearts.”
Anne had many fans, and from my distance, I was one.
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