Behind the Scenes of Annie Leibovitz's Shoot with the Art World's Top Female Gallerists
Vanity Fair
Bettina PrenticeLast September, Annie Leibovitz gathered 14 of the world's most esteemed female gallerists for an homage to what writer Ingrid Sischy called "the moment's most powerful art-world figures" at the Odeon restaurant in New York's TriBeCa.
Given the space's limited size, there was more than a moment's hesitation about how all these titans could possibly be contained in the single photograph, both literally and figuratively. But far from an atmosphere of elbows-out competition, the room was filled with warmth and enormous mutual respect among all of the powerhouses returning from their far-flung summer holidays.
Amid conversations about Art Basel, the legacy of Betty Parsons, Okwui Enwezor's curation of the upcoming Venice Biennale, and a lineup of exhibitions that included Allora & Calzadilla, Doug Aitken, and Yayoi Kusama, there were also exchanges about family and college tours. Marianne Boesky, dressed in Celine, told Sischy (whose spotlight appears on page 186 of the December issue) about Rachel Feinstein's performance festival with Performa, "The Last Days of Folly," opening that night in Madison Square Park.
Janelle Reiring and Helene Winer, the trailblazers from Metro Pictures Gallery in New York who represent the likes of Cindy Sherman, discussed the positioning of artists in the original 1982 Hans Namuth photograph (upon which Leibovitz's new group portrait is based) taken to celebrate Leo Castelli's 25th anniversary. Shaun Caley Regen consulted with several colleagues about whether to wear a towering pair of Alaïa heels with her elegantly cut suit. A beautifully bronzed Victoria Miro had just returned from sailing to Nice for her husband's 70th birthday.
The moment Leibovitz's familiar face appeared from the restaurant's tiny basement;as Marian Goodman and Luisa Strina marveled at so many wonderful women in a confined space together; Rhona Hoffman laughed and pinched herself. But the photographer wasted no time getting to task; the assembled subjects had worked so tirelessly to contribute to the canon of art history that it was high time their own legacies be preserved as well.