The LACMA Art + Film Gala, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s answer to the MetBall, took place on Saturday, attracting Hollywood’s A-list to honor artist John Baldessari and director and actor Clint Eastwood. Not surprisingly, celebrities — since it is Hollywood, after all — dominated the red carpet for the inaugural event, which LACMA plans to hold annually.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and LACMA trustee Eva Chow co-hosted the Art +Film Gala, which LACMA hopes will join the ranks of high-profile yearly museum fundraisers like the Met Ball and MoMA’s Party in the Garden. Ticket sales, which ranged from $5,000 to $100,000, raised $3 million for the museum, including its initiative to incorporate more film into its programming, proving that the event is on its way.
“I was immensely gratified to see so many people come together in generous support of LACMA in what will be an annual event," said Michael Govan, LACMA's CEO and Wallis Annenberg director, in a release.
Zac Efron attended an event that honored both Clint Eastwood and John Baldessari on Saturday (November 5) night. Sorry everyone, Zac did not show up with his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens.
Zac Efron was among a boatload of stars that showed up at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the LACMA Art + Film Gala event. This was a fundraising event for the museum as well as honoring two great artists, actor-director Clint Eastwood and artist John Baldessari.
Kate Beckinsale and Elisabeth Mosslook gorgeous at the LACMA Art + Film Gala presented by Gucci at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Saturday (November 5) in Los Angeles.
Kate, 38, who was joined by her Guccisuited hubby, director Len Wiseman, wore a Gucci dress and shoes, which she paired with Neil Lane earrings and aKura clutch. Elisabeth, 29, who was joined by her Gucci clad Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm, looked beautiful in a black dress and Neil Lane jewels.
Uma Thurman also was in attendance at the gala to honor Clint Eastwood and artist John Baldessari.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Eva Chow hosted the event that had a long list of A-list attendees. Along with Zac Efron, there were such huge stars as Drew Barrymore, Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz, Steve Carell and Will Farrell. No, there really was no Vanessa Hudgens there!
Zac showed up at the black-tie museum event wearing black on black...with no tie. Ok so perhaps the star-studded event was black-tie optional or Efron did not get the message. Still, the 'High School Musical' heartthrob certainly turned a few ladies heads!
A star-studded crowd from the worlds of art, film, and fashion filled the gala. Ed Ruscha,Catherine Opie, Barbara Kruger, Chuck Close, Doug Aitken, Julian Schnabel, andJeffrey Deitch were among the representatives from the art world. Zac Efron, Reese Witherspoon, Jane Fonda, Amy Poehler, Jon Hamm, Marcia Gay Harden, Harvey Weinstein, and Will Ferrell were some of the Hollywood heavyweights in attendance.Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz, shoe designer Christian Louboutin, and the sisters behind Rodarte, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, were among fashion’s bold names there.
Camilla Belle, Zoe Saldana, Kate Hudson, and Evan Rachel Wood wore dresses fresh from event sponsor Gucci’s Art Deco-inspired spring/summer 2012 runway show. Gucci also outfitted Baldessari, who looked dapper in an all-black ensemble consisting of a tuxedo jacket, button-up collared shirt, and slacks.
Guests ventured through Chris Burden’s "Urban Light" installation on Wilshire Boulevard in their finest black-tie attire to enter the soirée, which started off with cocktails in the courtyard before moving to a tent for dinner.
Baldessari accepted his award by remarking on an epiphany he had at the Met when he wondered what would come before and after a Van Gogh painting if it were a strip of film,reports the L.A. Times.
DiCaprio, who stars in Eastwood's forthcoming J. Edgar Hoover biopic, presented the director the award. "The moment you hear you get to work with Clint Eastwood, you feel you need to rise to the occasion," said DiCaprio, according to the L.A. Times. "J. Edgar" opens on Wednesday.
Stevie Wonder closed the party singing hits like "My Cherie Amour," "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and "Superstition." From the looks of it, the Art + Film Gala was definitely the sunshine of LACMA’s life this weekend.
With a little help from Gucci and Leonardo DiCaprio, Los Angeles is planning to have its own Met Ball this weekend.
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art uses its Costume Institute Gala, which has grown into an Oscar-style evening of star-gazing and fashion, to raise its profile—and millions of dollars.
Now the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Michael Govan, hopes to raise the stature of Lacma, as the museum is known, with a red-carpet fashion event. The museum aims to be—like the Met—a broad collection of art and artifacts, including clothing, furnishings, film and other items not traditionally heralded as fine art.
Mr. Govan is enlisting influential pals in the fashion and film industries to help. Gucci is the primary sponsor of Lacma's "Art + Film Gala," which set as its goal raising more than $2.5 million, with tables priced as high as $100,000. (Mr. Govan says he had "pushback" from some donors about the high prices, but exceeded the funding goal two weeks before the event.)
Eva Chow, who will co-chair the gala with Mr. DiCaprio, says guests who are expected to attend on Nov. 5 include fashion elite such as Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz and Stefano Tonchi, the editor of W magazine and a fixture at major fashion shows. Art and film stars are expected to include Clint Eastwood—who is being honored along with artist John Baldessari—Julian Schnabel and film director Ridley Scott.
Lacma's inaugural ball doesn't approach the size of the Met Ball. Hosted by Vogue magazine, the New York event draws A-list entertainers, socialites, fashion designers and their muses. Behind its fashion clout is Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who has turned the fundraiser into an internationally watched event by enlisting celebrities and fashion houses. Next spring, the Met Ball will highlight its show on Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada.
But just as the Met Ball enthralled the fashion world, Lacma's event could deepen its support from Hollywood. Mr. Govan "has been very clever" in establishing how Lacma can be an "encyclopedic museum" by pursuing such a broad variety in both its collections and its supporters, Ms. Chow says.
"Michael sat down with us and said, 'I want to connect film and art and fashion and I really need a partner," says Robert Triefus, global head of marketing and communications for Gucci. He says Gucci executives wanted to sponsor the effort because "Los Angeles is very important to us."
Fashion and film have long been intertwined in Los Angeles, whose red carpets serve as a key marketing platform for myriad fashion brands. Mr. Govan moved quickly upon his arrival five years ago to bolster the museum's costume collections as well as its relationships with fashion houses.
His wife, Katherine Ross, has deep fashion connections. She is a brand consultant for Balenciaga and a veteran executive of both LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Prada. Balenciaga is owned by PPR, which owns the Gucci brand.
Mr. Govan, who previously directed New York's Dia Art Museum, has raised Lacma's profile since he arrived. He has invested in a wide variety of items that go beyond traditional art. One major purchase last spring was a 16th-century Peruvian textile acquired, Mr. Govan says, for $500,000. The museum, under his stewardship, purchased a costume collection that included Queen Victoria's nightgown as well as clothing from the French Revolution. Its collections include clothing by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Issey Miyake.
The museum even bought a circa-1960 Greg Noll surfboard recently. "It's easier to buy a Rembrandt," says Mr. Govan, describing the difficulty in establishing rules for buying artifacts that aren't the norm for fine art. In hours of discussions, the museum's acquisitions committee established whether a collection-worthy surfboard could be worn by use—and how many nicks and scratches were acceptable.
A current exhibit, California Design, includes clothing, furniture and other household objects. The museum resurrected the living room of designers Charles and Ray Eames—with all 1,800 objects in it, including the lamps and a ladder used to clean the high windows.
"I feel we had gotten stuck in a 19th-century hierarchy of disciplines," says Mr. Govan, who argues that fashion and household objects can have as much artistic merit as a painting. "There's a lot of fashion that's extremely challenging."
Mr. Govan's next frontier is film—a natural for a museum that sits within the klieg-light glare of Hollywood. He hopes to house the film collections of the Motion Picture Academy, which produces the Oscars, and has been holding movie premieres at the museum. "We got more press when Angelina [Jolie] showed up for the 'Tree of Life' premiere," he says.
Gucci, which will be dressing a number of stars for the gala's red carpet, sees its commitment to Lacma as long term. "It could become as important as the Met Gala is to the Met," says Mr. Triefus.
In addition to Gucci's designer, Frida Giannini, the gala's host committee includes Dasha Zhukova, the Russian art and fashion patron who recently founded Garage magazine, which positions fashion as high art. Terry Semel, former chairman of Warner Brothers and Yahoo! Inc., and a Lacma trustee, is also a host. "It struck us that we are an eclectic museum," he says. "Why not do more things with very popular and famous people?"
The gala, which will feature a performance by Stevie Wonder, will be held outdoors near a bronze sculpture by Ai Weiwei. The red carpet will run alongside "Urban Light," a Chris Burden sculpture that has become iconic in L.A.
Mr. Govan, who has been to the Met Ball "many times," says he likes the rite of the red carpet. "You can call it crass. But you can call it a ritual of culture," he says.
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