Artists for Haiti, a collaboration between the Stiller Foundation, David Zwirner gallery, and Christies, recently raised over $13 million for education and health programs in the troubled Caribbean country. The bare square first reported on Artists For Haiti on August 10th andAugust 30th.
With top contemporary artists like Louise Bourgeois, Chris Ofili, Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, and Zhang Huan…raise funds they did! Throw a few celebrities into the mix and, you have $13,662,000 in relief funds for Haiti. All night, competitive bidders went blazing past artwork estimates.
Director, actor and producer Justin Theroux, accompanied by superstar girlfriend Jennifer Aniston, bought Glenn Ligon’s “Stranger #44″ for a record $450,000 (estimated to sell for $150,000-200,000). Aniston applauded her man’s winning bid which was, of course, for her collection.
Check out this fun video update on Theroux & Aniston’s win from celebrity gossip experts, PopSugar:
Tennis star John McEnroe and Acquavella Gallery got into a bidding war for Zhang Huan’s “Chinese Flag No.1. McEnroe backed down when bidding reached $200,000 and Acquavella Gallery won the piece. Jon McEnroe wanted to walk out a winner, so he snagged Elizabeth Peyton’s colored pencil and pastel portrait of “Jay-Z, Glastonbury” for $85,000 (above the estimated $60,000-70,000.)
(L to R) John McEnroe, President Bill Clinton, a guest, Susan Sarandon and others at the Artists for Haiti dinner to benefit the Stiller Foundation at Almond in New York City. Photo from the-slice.com.
The biggest ticket item of the evening was Marlene Dumas’ autobiographical portrait, “My mother before she became my mother” (2010), a painting made shortly after her mother’s death. A lucky telephone bidder won the lot for $2 million (est. $600,000-800,000).
Having set a record for a charity auction at Christies, the action-packed event and jam-packed room ended the night with roaring applause for a wildly successful night of art fundraising for a good cause.
“Artists for Haiti”, a charity auction, will raise funds for education and health programs in Haiti by selling artworks by famous artists at Christie’s New York auction house. President Bill Clinton, American actor Ben Stiller, and gallerist David Zwirner host the star-studded Haiti benefit Sept. 22 and 23 at Christies and Skylight Soho in New York.
The charity art auction will benefit The Stiller Foundation, launched by the actor in January 2010, the same month as Haiti’s devastating earthquake. The foundation’s mission, displayed on its website, is to provide educational opportunities and promote the well-being of children around the world.
According to a report by the United Nations, as many as 8,000 schools which held 1.8 million children were destroyed or damaged in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince alone. Stiller’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti began in 2009. In the wake of the earthquake, Stiller created the Haitian School Initiative as part of the work of the foundation.
For the auction, attendees will bid on donated artworks by renown contemporary artists like Louise Bourgeois, Chris Ofili, Ed Ruscha and Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, and Zhang Huan.
Check out the Artists for Haiti website to see the full list of artists donating to the art auction.In early September, Zwirner’s gallery will preview the art up for auction. (Readers may remember the Zwirner Gallery from “Jen Recommends” March coverage of Marcel Dzama’s show there.)
Here’s a preview of some of the work from the auction:
No Title (But the sand…), Richard Pettibon, 2011
“monument” for V. Tatlin, Dan Flavin, 1967
mappemonde, Adel Abdessemed, 2011
Both Stiller and Zwirner will join President Clinton the day after the auction to co-host a gala at Skylight Solo in New York, celebrating the auction results and the artists’ generosity. Like Stiller, Clinton has been involved in the Haiti effort since the launching of the Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund in 2010.To support The Stiller Foundation, text STILLER to 85944 to give $5 to help build schools in Haiti or buy one of the foundation’s cool headbands!
Stiller talks about the idea for the headbands in this video–check it out!
