LACMA’s Art + Film Gala Raises Record $6.4M With Baz Luhrmann, Anna Wintour and Charli XCX
LACMA’s Art + Film gala entered its brat era over the weekend.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s marquee fundraiser took place on the grounds of the L.A. cultural institution on Saturday night as the rebellious spirit of its musical headliner Charli XCX and her culture shifting brat album seemed to permeate the festivities. The carpet got a green-hued makeover, Anna Wintour praised honoree Baz Luhrmann’s frenetic creative spirit and how he once convinced Rihanna to dance on a table at the Met Gala, Kim Kardashian caused a stir by wearing another rare piece of fashion history and Chloe Sevigny demanded the crowd “make some fucking noise” for Charli, who turned LACMA into an electric after hours with a quick set featuring her Sweat Tour mate Troye Sivan. It even rained a little, a very brat-coded thing for Mother Nature to do in a city like Los Angeles.
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The A-list event — presented by Gucci once again (and every year since its inception in 2011) — has often been referred to as the Met Gala of the West Coast, a title that the Academy Museum Gala, which takes place just steps away, has threatened to claim in recent years thanks to hosting a starry and fashionable Hollywood crowd of its own. But Art + Film is holding on strong with a list of more than 650 invitees from the worlds of art, fashion, film, business and beyond including Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, co-chair Leonardo DiCaprio, mogul David Geffen and Kim Kardashian. (Also strong: The night raised a record-setting $6.4 million.)
Art + Film also looked the part this weekend by welcoming Met Gala guru Wintour to the stage to present a tribute to the night’s honoree representing the film side of the program — her longtime pal Luhrmann. In the process, Wintour divulged some secrets about the benefit for Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. First, though, she dished on what happened when she asked Luhrmann for some advice about one of her children’s weddings. “He proceeded to install violinists dressed as nymphs in all the trees, and we actually have quite a lot of trees,” she said, seemingly referencing the 2018 nuptials of daughter Bee Schaffer. “Then he recruited the groomsmen into a surprise chorus of trumpets.”
On a larger scale, Wintour continued, Lurhmann has served as “the impressario extraordinaire” at the Met Gala for the “past many years.” The role has seen him offering extravagant creative input, Wintour detailed. “His idea of light museum entertainment is a giant spring hung across the entire facade, pulled up to reveal the Frank Ocean Orchestra, costumed, fully choreographed and fully rehearsed by Vogue stand-ins as a complete orchestra, and as of course, Baz as conductor.”
She offered another example: “The year we put on a show of Chinese art and fashion, he announced before the gala that the evening could not go on unless we tracked down a giant gong with which to announce dinner. While we were locating and trying to figure out how to deliver this enormous instrument, Baz had somehow persuaded Rihanna to surprise everybody by dancing down the center of the dinner table. Incidentally, we are no longer allowed to give dinners in that gallery, but no one has stopped talking about that night.”
The iconic Vogue editor and top Conde Nast executive went on to reveal that she’s traveled the world with Luhrmann and “his wonderful wife” and creative partner, Catherine Martin. “I have sailed the seas with them from the Australian Open in Melbourne to the Vatican, from the dingy pubs of Fleet Street to steak dinners in Washington.”
One thing she’s learned about the auteur behind Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby, Australia and Elvis is that he’s a perfectionist who often operates on his own schedule. “I’m not sure I’ve ever known a Baz production that wasn’t running just a little tiny bit late. The fact is that Baz can’t let go of his work, and if you made work like that, why would you? I have literally seen him in the car on the way to a premiere trying to fit something into the movie’s final cut. And thank God — I can’t think of anything that would be worse than a Baz who churned out normal movies on a normal schedule.”
In accepting, Luhrmann thanked some of his collaborators who were seated in the audience, actors like DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Blake Lively. He also took time to offer a call to action for all the artists in the room to break out from the silos that are separating the world today and lift up the younger generation in the process.
“It’s our job now to turn around and to make space and to lift up the new voices and the new energies and the new generations, and let that new energy smash through this ossified world we’re in,” said Luhrmann, decked out in a Gucci suit. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t retire or anything like that. Please don’t come and say, look, so it’s all over. No, I don’t mean that. I just mean that those icons we look up to, they really had their eye on us. They really helped and made space for us. That’s now our duty.”
Acclaimed lawyer and Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson had the honor of offering a tribute to the award-winner from the art portion of the program, Simone Leigh. The Chicago native has a career that spans two decades and disciplines like sculpture in ceramic and bronze and video work, much of it focused on Black women, their labor, strength and care. Generations from now, Stevenson said that people around the world will be studying Leigh’s work.
“They’ll be engaged in deep reflection and discussion about this artist. They won’t dispute that she is one of the greatest artists of the 21st century. They will not debate the impact she has had on contemporary art across the globe, but they’re mostly going to try to understand is how this artist has revolutionized our relationship to art and elite spaces. Simone Leigh is transforming the art world. She is changing the historical art archive through her sculptures, which are figural and abstract that use clay, ceramic, bronze, fabric. She’s creating a new catalog that focuses on the beauty, the power, the dignity, the grace of Black women, of women who have been misinterpreted, distorted, often ignored in cultural spaces. The power of Simone’s work is so transformative that she’s teaching us things about the labor, the love, the power, the experience of Black women in the world.”
When his heartfelt tribute was over, Stevenson welcomed Leigh to the stage to a standing ovation. For her part, she kept her remarks rather brief, also a very brat thing to do. “This moment right now reminds me of the day my daughter came home and she told me that her friends had decided that I was cool. She said, ‘Before, we just thought you were odd.'” Her daughter, Zenobia, was in attendance and she thanked her for “helping me to be a better person” while also accepting “for all the Black women who are odd.”
With two awards handed out and all the dinner plates cleared — Michelin-starred chef David Shim of Cote Korean Steakhouse collaborated with Patina Catering on the night’s menu — Colman Domingo took a spin in the spotlight to welcome guests to the courtyard for desserts, cocktails and Charli’s performance. His words also proved to be the only time the current political landscape was mentioned from the main stage. “Look around the room on this beautiful Saturday night before next week, an extraordinary week,” he noted. “And fill yourself with all the art and the love, and the hope and the faith, and the grace and the joy that we can to make this world a better place. But we’re going to go outside and dance like there’s no tomorrow.”
Outside the guests went, to sip on Diageo cocktails and dance the night away to Charli’s high-energy set that included “365,” “360” and “Von Dutch” as she performed from a round platform in the courtyard. The set ended with a special appearance by Troye Sivan on “Talk Talk.” Worth chatting about: The night proved to be the rare occasion during which one could see celebrities like Cara Delevingne, Cooper Koch and Kaia Gerber vibing, breaking out some moves and throwing their hands in the air. Very brat.
See all the stars in attendance with The Hollywood Reporter’s arrivals gallery here.
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