Honorees at TIME’s first TIME100 Art Impact Dinner gathered in New York City on October 5, bringing together artists, collectors, curators, museum executives, dealers, advisors, and cultural stewards. Guests attended the dinner to celebrate the launch of the first ever TIME100 Art list. Seven different honorees offered toasts throughout the evening, each of them occupying a different space in the art world: businessman and art collector Ronald Lauder, art crime prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos, painter Amy Sherald, interdisciplinary artist Marie Watt, Citadel founder and collector Ken Griffin, and innovators Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz.
Lauder, who was honored on the list for his collecting, philanthropy, and founding of Neue Galerie New York, began his toast by chronicling the beginning of his love of art at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) when he was just 12 years old. It was this devotion that launched his love of art. Years later, he explained in the toast, MOMA is still an inspiration to him as an art collector, after he spent 10 years as chairman of the museum.
At 14, his parents took him to a dinner there honoring a gift from art collector Florence Gould. They stood in lines around the block. It reminded me that art offers something we need in difficult moments: connection, continuity, and renewal.” He finished his toast by describing himself and other collectors as “custodians” of the art that they live with.
In his speech, Bogdanos toasted to the fellow art-crime fighters in the world, claiming that whatever he has accomplished in his career has been only because of the “courage, passion, and dedication” of people across the world working with him. He then toasted to the cultural artifacts he works to find and repatriate, each of which he says is a “living breathing testimony to our shared cultural heritage.” “I have seen them work their cathartic spell across cultures, across ethnicities, across religion,” he said. This shared heritage that we are reminded of in these artifacts provides healing in a divisive world, Bogdanos added.
He finished his toast by pledging to continue his work until he felt that he deserved the honor of being on the TIME 100 list. American painter Amy Sherald, perhaps known best for her portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama, is now one of the most influential painters of her generation. In her toast, Sherald began by saying that the room felt like a “family reunion,” shouting out other artists in the room that inspire her.
She mused on the meaning of the word “influence,” and how it differs in the art world than any monetary or numeric goal. You can count exhibitions, books, and audiences. You can count the number of people who walk through the doors of a museum,” she said.
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