Rosamund Pike, Swizz Beatz Step Out in Dior for Brooklyn Museum Artists Ball Honoring Titus Kaphar
Tuesday night was a full-circle moment for artist Titus Kaphar. He was being honored at the Brooklyn Museum Artists Ball, the museum’s annual gala fundraiser, 20 years after his first time visiting the museum.
“This is an extraordinary moment,” Kaphar said. “To be here right now and be the center of this feels a little weird, honestly, but it also feels like a culminating moment in my career.”
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Kaphar, who sits on the museum’s board of trustees, was in the first year of his MFA program at Yale when he saw the museum’s solo exhibition of Kehinde Wiley’s work in 2004. It was his first time seeing a solo show for a living Black artist. “I walked through the door, I saw the work, and for the first time I imagined myself in a place like this,” Kaphar added. He went on to build his own relationship with the museum, which has exhibited his work and was an early supporter of his New Haven, Conn.-based nonprofit NxtHvn, which empowers emerging talent in the arts.
Kaphar Kaphar’s work is currently on view at the museum in “Giants: Art From the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,” which guests were able to view during cocktail hour.
“Titus is more than an artist,” Swizz said. “He’s a visionary, he’s a dreamer, he’s a film director, and he’s a trailblazer. It’s amazing that not only is he in the collection, but he’s like family to us. This is an amazing night, and I’m happy he’s getting this honor.”
The evening marked Swizz’s second time seeing the museum exhibition since it opened in February. “I haven’t seen it enough. I haven’t seen this body of work together, ever,” he added. “A lot of it’s been on the road since we got it, and maybe like 6 percent was in the house. To see the family together — that body of work — is amazing.”
Both Kaphar and Swizz were dressed in Dior, the evening’s sponsor. Other Dior-attired guests included Rosamund Pike, Naomi Watts, Antonia Gentry, Isabelle Fuhrman, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Spector, Aria Mia Loberti, Mickalene Thomas and Thomas Doherty. Adding to Kaphar’s full-circle moment, Wiley was also in the crowd, along with artists Derek Adams, Dustin Yellin, Kennedy Yanko, Kaws and Julia Chiang.
“I used to live on the other side of the park,” said Spector, making his way into the museum’s lobby for cocktail hour with wife Hall. “This used to be my neighborhood. I always loved this museum and the library here, the Botanical Gardens, and the way that this set of institutions are so rooted in [the city].”
“It’s nice to combine all of the things I like, put on nice clothes and support art,” Hall added.
Upstairs on the third floor, dinner tables in the museum’s Beaux-Arts Court were decked with purple and pink-hued florals. Next week, the room will be transformed into the runway for Dior’s new pre-fall collection.
Creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri arrived in New York earlier this week in anticipation of the show.
“Dior before he was a courtier, he was a gallerist,” Chiuri said of the house’s ongoing support for the museum. “So art is part of the heritage, and we want to continue this tradition in another way.”
Launch Gallery: Naomi Watts, Rosamund Pike and Maria Grazia Chiuri Attend the Brooklyn Artists Ball with Dior
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