Frick Director Ian Wardropper, Alejandra Peña Gómez, Director of the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Frick board member Juan Sabater, Frick board Member Barbara Fleischman, Mariana Sabater, Frick Board president Margot Bogert, Associate European Art Curator at the Museo de Arte de Ponce Pablo Pérez d’Ors, Frick Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon, Andrea Cavaggioni; photo: Christine A. Butler
On June 8, nearly 650 guests attended the Frick’s Spring Garden Party for Fellows, which took its theme from the highly anticipated exhibition of Frederic Leighton’s Flaming June, on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.
As the evening began, guests convened in the beautiful and rarely open Fifth Avenue Garden, landscaped with orange trees and seasonal flowers in full bloom. They sipped wine and specialty cocktails with Belvedere vodka accompanied by a tempting variety of seasonally inspired hors d’oeuvres and the music of noted jazz quartet The Flail.
Orange was the color of the night and many guests’ sartorial choices were inspired by the painting (its varied hues appeared everywhere on dresses, jackets, pocket squares, scarves and ties). Others wore bright florals and bold colors, accented with fresh flower headpieces and boutonnieres echoing the flowering plants in the garden and the dramatic floral arrangements decorating the event spaces.
As the sun set on Central Park, party goers moved inside where society band The Bob Hardwick Sound kept guests of all ages on the dance floor until the evening’s end. Guests also visited the museum’s permanent collection and special exhibition galleries and, for the first time, had access to a substantial portion of the mansion’s second-floor spaces, which remained open throughout the evening.