I love a vernissage—the reception the night before an art world event opens to the public—the same way I love the opening night of the theater, a fashion event, a parade, the circus, and a good train wreck. The stakes are as high as the tension for some, the frivolity for others.
Like snow flakes, each vernissage is made of the same stuff: art and antiques, sellers of art and antiques, buyers of art and antiques, the frisson of commerce, excellent nibbles and lashings of champagne. But while each might look similar from far away or on the written page, each is also, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, entirely different in its own way.
To illustrate this, our Decorative Arts crew (“Adorn, Don’t Sleep!” is our motto) decided to set up a camera at two set locations at the February 2nd opening night shindig at the American International Fine Art Fair in Palm Beach (February 3rd through 8th).
The first several snaps are from the reception given by the Norton Museum of Art, the rest from a set location within the fair. Except for fashion enthusiast Iris Apfel in the first, all persons shall remain anonymous, part of the collage that makes up the vibe of the AIFAF. If a picture really is worth a thousand words, think of this as a twenty-three-thousand-word essay.
