(AGENPARL) – Wed 21 May 2025 https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=9a3a991cf9&e=59415c6e7e
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Amy Sherald, Scott Rothkopf, Barbara Haskell, Richard DeMartini
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
** 2025 WHITNEY GALA CELEBRATES ARTIST AMY SHERALD, CURATOR BARBARA HASKELL, AND PATRON RICHARD DEMARTINI
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Joined by Michelle Monaghan, Laura Harrier, Leslie Bibb, Kathy Hilton, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, Claire Danes, Andie MacDowell, Mario Sorrenti, Regina Spektor
New York, NY, May 21, 2025 — Last night, on Tuesday, May 20, the Whitney Museum of American Art hosted the 2025 Whitney Gala, which honored acclaimed artist Amy Sherald, beloved Whitney curator Barbara Haskell, and philanthropist and Chairman of the Board Richard DeMartini. Led by a group of dedicated Trustees and Dinner Committee, the Whitney raised $6 million in support of the Museum’s mission of presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and award-winning education programs with some of the most innovative artists of our time. An additional $750,000 was raised for the Barbara Haskell American Fellows Legacy Fund in honor of Haskell. During the event, Whitney Director Scott Rothkopf also announced a surprise additional gift of $1 million from Whitney Trustee and songwriter Judy Hart Angelo to support the Museum’s free admissions program.
Whitney Gala 2025
Images can be downloaded here: bfa.com/events/49865/share/603520f826023b
Photos by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com (https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=15e32fec88&e=59415c6e7e)
Images can be downloaded here: bfa.com/events/49866/share/29d3749c520310
Photos by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com (https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=19f4fe9064&e=59415c6e7e)
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From left to right: Laura Harrier; Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan; Andie MacDowell
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
The Whitney Gala is a celebrated cornerstone of New York’s arts and philanthropy calendar. The Gala kicked off at 6:30 pm with cocktails in the Museum’s ground-floor lobby, and guests were able to mingle and enjoy a DJ set by Natasha Diggs. At 7:30 pm, a seated dinner by Olivier Cheng Catering and Events took place in the Museum’s 7th-floor galleries. David Stark Design and Production created a stunning design inspired by Max Mara, who was the presenting sponsor of the event. Sponsor LALO Tequila generously provided support and liquor for the evening’s festivities.
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From left to right: Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker; Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy; Kathy Hilton, Nicky Hilton Rothschild
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
NOTABLE GUESTS: Whitney Gala Honorees Richard DeMartini, Barbara Haskell, and Amy Sherald; Actors Jaimie Alexander, Leslie Bibb, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Laura Harrier, Andie MacDowell, Michelle Monaghan; Artists Firelei Báez, Kevin Beasley, Jordan Casteel, Torkwase Dyson, Teresita Fernández, Jeffrey Gibson, Wade Guyton, Camille Henrot, Lotus Kang, Josh Kline, Jeff Koons, Jesse Krimes, Julian Lethbridge, Glenn Ligon, Trevor Paglen, Rachel Rose and Ian Cheng, Tom Sachs, Ilana Savdie, Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham, Lorna Simpson, Henry Taylor, Dyani White Hawk, Terry Winters; Media Personalities Nigel Barker, Jay Manuel; Designers June Ambrose, Wes Gordon, Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, Nicky Hilton Rothschild; Model Ubah Hassan; Photographer Mario Sorrenti; Musician Regina Spektor; Museum supporters Judy Hart Angelo, Paul Arnhold, Jill Bikoff, Neil Bluhm, Leslie Bluhm, David Cancel, Nancy and Steve Crown, Pamella Roland DeVos, Kyle DeWoody, Fairfax Dorn, Marcia Dunn, Lise Evans,
Katja Goldman, Bennett Goodman, Susan K. Hess, Robert J. Hurst and Soledad DeLeon Hurst, Gaurav Kapadia and Sonia Kapadia, Michael and Ronnie Kassan, Neal Katyal, Claudia Laviada, Cathy Ho Lee, Jonathan and Barbara Lee, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Stephanie March and Daniel Benton, Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely, Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich, Julie and Doug Ostrover, Robert Rosenkranz and Alexandra Munroe, Jen Rubio, Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer and Rob Speyer, Laurie Tisch, Fern and Lenard Tessler, Greer Tessler and Travis Miranda, Thomas E. and Diane Tuft, Ku-Ling Yurman; Supporters of the arts Steven Beltrani, Donna De Salvo, Kathy and Rick Hilton, Sarah Hoover, Tina Kim, Matthew Marks, Lisa Phillips, Jordan Roth, Darren Walker; Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Scott Rothkopf; Whitney Museum curators Kim Conaty, Jennie Goldstein, Marcela Guerrero, Rujeko Hockley, Chrissie Iles, Meg Onli, Christiane Paul, Laura Phipps, Drew Sawyer, Roxanne Smith, Elisabeth
Sussman; former Whitney Director Adam D. Weinberg.
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From left to right: Ubah Hassan, Brandon Lewis; Henry Taylor; Scott Rothkopf, Darren Walker
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
Gala guests enjoyed cocktails courtesy of LALO Tequila. In the ground-floor lobby, margaritas made with LALO Tequila, fresh lime juice, orange liqueur, and agave was served, and in the Museum’s large Richard Artschwager–designed elevator, guests sipped on espresso martinis made with LALO Tequila, coffee liqueur, and espresso. Following the cocktail hour, guests dined on a special menu of burrata with cherry tomatoes and cucumber, pickled seasonal vegetables, truffled Marcona almonds, and filet of beef with morels, heirloom carrots, asparagus, and spring onion, with an assortment of bite-sized sweets for dessert. Gala Co-Chair and Board President Fern Kaye Tessler welcomed guests as they sat down for dinner. During dinner, Whitney Museum Director Scott Rothkopf gave remarks and introduced Bob Hurst, Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board, to give a tribute to honoree Richard M. DeMartini. Guests then enjoyed a tribute to artist and honoree Amy Sherald from curator and art historian
Dr. Dorothy Moss. Rothkopf then paid tribute to longtime curator and honoree Barbara Haskell, thanking her for her enduring dedication to the Museum and highlighting her remarkable career. After dinner, Trustee and incoming Board President Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer introduced four-time Grammy Award winning group TLC, who treated guests to a live performance of their hits.
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From left to right: Natasha Diggs; Amy Sherald; TLC
Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com
From left to right: June Ambrose; Wes Gordon, Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer, Paul Arnhold; Jaimie Alexander
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
The 2025 Whitney Gala is made possible by Max Mara. For ten years, Max Mara has supported the Whitney Museum by sponsoring its permanent collection, including the exhibition The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965, which was on display from 2019 to 2025. The brand will continue its partnership with the Museum through the sponsorship of both its 2025 Gala and its upcoming permanent collection exhibition opening in summer 2025. In addition to supporting the Museum’s exhibition program, Max Mara has marked the Whitney’s decade downtown with a celebration of its beloved Whitney Bag, an iconic piece created in collaboration with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The bag originally launched in 2015 to mark the inauguration of the Whitney Museum’s new building. A tribute to Italian craftsmanship, the Whitney Bag, seamlessly blends technique and aesthetics, structure and elegance, design and versatility. Initially launched as a limited edition, it quickly became a must-have
accessory for women around the world.
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From left to right: Jordan Casteel, Scott Rothkopf, Amy Sherald, Darren Walker; Susan K. Hess, Judy Hart Angelo, John B. Hess
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com; Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com
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From left to right: Jeffrey Gibson, Rune Olsen; Barbara Haskell; Erik Bottcher, Jordan Roth
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
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From left to right: Max Mara’s Whitney bag; LALO Tequila
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com; Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com
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From left to right: Marcia Dunn, Stephanie March; Dinner design by David Stark Design and Production; Jeff Koons
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com; Photo by Tiffany Sage/BFA.com
WHEN
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Whitney Gala Cocktails: 6:30 pm
Whitney Gala Dinner: 7:30 pm
WHERE
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014
GALA HONOREES
Richard M. DeMartini, Barbara Haskell, Amy Sherald
DINNER COMMITTEE
Paul Arnhold, Jenny Brorsen, Nancy Carrington Crown, Miyoung Lee, Stephanie March, Brooke Garber Neidich, Julie Ostrover, Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer, Fern Kaye Tessler, and Laurie M. Tisch
2025 WHITNEY GALA BENEFIT COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
Honorary Co-Chairs: Judy and Leonard Lauder
Co-Chairs: Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Paul Arnhold and Wes Gordon, Dan Benton and Stephanie March, Jill and Darius Bikoff, Neil G. Bluhm and Kimberly Paige Bluhm, Jenny Brorsen and Rich DeMartini, Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo, Crestview Partners, Nancy and Steve Crown, Daniel DeVos and Pamella Roland DeVos, Susan and Ed Forst, Mr. and Mrs. Victor F. Ganzi, Hauser & Wirth, Susan and John Hess, Soledad and Bob Hurst, Sonia and Gaurav Kapadia, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, The KHR McNeely Family Foundation, Kevin and Rosemary McNeely, Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich, Julie and Doug Ostrover, Nancy and Fred Poses, Reverence Capital Partners, Anne-Cecilie and Rob Speyer, Fern and Lenard Tessler, Laurie M. Tisch, Diane and Tom Tuft
Benefactors: Acquavella Galleries and Hearst
Patrons: Amy and David Abrams, Judy Hart Angelo, William and Jacquelin Atkinson, Bank of America, Leslie Bluhm and David Helfand, David Cancel, Beth Rudin DeWoody and Firooz Zahedi, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., The Dinan Family Foundation, Fairfax Dorn, Marcia Dunn and Jonathan Sobel, Lise and Michael Evans, Sheree and Jerry Friedman, The Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Arts Foundation, Katja B. Goldman and Michael W. Sonnenfeldt, Meg and Bennett Goodman, David and Joan Henle, Elizabeth L. Johnson, Ronnie and Michael Kassan, Neal K. Katyal and Joanna B. Rosen, Claudia Laviada and Carlos Rohm, Barbara and Jonathan Lee, Matthew Marks and Jack Bankowsky, Crystal McCrary and Raymond McGuire, Matt and Nancy McKenna, Mary and Chris Behrens, Mike and Krista Nickols, Ales Ortuzar, Pace Gallery, Margaret and Andrew M. Paul, The Holly Peterson Foundation, The Rosenkranz Foundation, Jonathan Rozoff, Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, Alice and Manu Sareen, Chip and Burwell Schorr, Victory
Capital, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Ku-Ling and Evan Yurman, Barbara and David Zalaznick, Anonymous
Supporters: A. Alfred Taubman Foundation, Jemilah Afshar and Sascha Bauer, John Berggruen, Judy and Howard Berkowitz, Emily and Harold Bogle, Cardinal Four Foundation, Brian Cassidy, Barbara Bertozzi Castelli, Elizabeth Christopher, Lawrence Davanzo, Michael and Susan Delaney, James and Megan DeMartini IV, Jim DeMartini and Elaine Surnow, Judy and Jamie Dimon, Randi and Bob Fisher, Fort Point Capital Partners, Stacey and Robert Furst, Larry Gagosian, Becky and David Gochman, Christopher Harland and Ashley Leeds, James B. Hawkes, Marieluise Hessel, John and Linda Howitt, Ann Jackson and Kendrick Wilson, The John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation, John R. Ingram Advised Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Karma, Sheila and Bill Lambert, Chad Leat, Winston Lee and Cathy Ho Lee, Erin Leider-Pariser and Paul Pariser, Holly and Todd Lowen, Joel Lubin, Catie Marron, Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, Philip Munger, Nicholas Family, Paula Cooper Gallery, Kelly and Gerry
Pasciucco, PJT Partners, Kenneth Posner, Richard F. Powers III, Eleanor Heyman Propp, Jill and Alan Rappaport, Nancy C. and Richard R. Rogers, Jordan Roth and Richie Jackson, Eric Ruttenberg and Perri Peltz, Gloria H. Spivak, Sullivan and Cromwell LLP, Gene Taylor, Tina Kim Gallery, Georgia Wall and Don Gogel
Contributors: Cary Davis and John McGinn, Gina Feldman Love and Steven Feldman, Will and Carolyn Fox, Karin Hirtler-Garvey, Sarah Humphreville, Daniel and Sarah Kilpatrick, Julian Lethbridge, Partners Capital Investment Group, Leah and Clayton Pope, Thaddaeus Ropac
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Amy Sherald, Barbara Haskell, Richard DeMartini
Photo by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com
About the 2025 Gala Honorees
The 2025 Whitney Gala coincides with the Museum’s landmark exhibition Amy Sherald: American Sublime, on view through August 10, 2025. Honoree Amy Sherald is a visionary artist who documents contemporary African American experience in the United States through arresting, intimate portraits. By engaging with the history of photography and portraiture, Sherald invites viewers to participate in a more complex examination of accepted notions of race and representation and to situate Black life in American art. American Sublime is the artist’s debut solo exhibition at a New York museum and the most comprehensive showing of her work. The exhibition positions Sherald within the art historical tradition of American realism and figuration and considers her powerful impact on contemporary art and culture, bringing together almost fifty paintings spanning her career from 2007 to the present. The exhibition features early works, never or rarely seen by the public, and new work created specifically for
the exhibition, along with iconic portraits of First Lady Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor—two of the most recognizable and significant paintings made by an American artist in recent years.
Beloved Whitney curator Barbara Haskell will also be honored at the 2025 Gala. This year marks Haskell’s 50th anniversary as a Whitney curator. Over the past half-century, she has curated over 30 monographic and thematic exhibitions and authored more than 20 books on artists from Georgia O’Keeffe to Donald Judd. Among the landmark thematic exhibitions she has curated are BLAM! The Explosion of Pop, Minimalism, and Performance, 1958–1964 (1984), The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–1950 (1999), and Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 (2020). She has also curated retrospectives and authored scholarly monographs on a range of early twentieth-century and post-war American artists, including H. C. Westermann (1978), Marsden Hartley (1980), Milton Avery (1982), Ralston Crawford (1985), Charles Demuth (1987), Red Grooms (1987), Donald Judd (1988), Burgoyne Diller (1990), Agnes Martin (1992), Joseph Stella (1994), Edward Steichen (2000), Elie Nadelman (2003), Oscar
Bluemner (2005), Georgia O’Keeffe (2009), Lyonel Feininger (2011), Robert Indiana (2013), Stuart Davis (2016), and Grant Wood (2018). A legend in the field of art history, Haskell has influenced generations of colleagues and served as a leader in the field of American art.
Richard DeMartini has served on the Whitney Museum Board since 2007, as Trustee, President, and now Chairman. During this tenure, DeMartini played a pivotal role in leading the Museum’s move downtown, which remains one of the most exciting and rewarding projects of his career. A longtime financial services executive and investor, DeMartini recently retired as Partner and Head of Financial Services Strategy at Crestview Partners. Prior to that, DeMartini was President of Bank of America’s Wealth and Asset Management Group and also spent over 25 years at Morgan Stanley in various leadership roles.
** PRESS CONTACT
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For press materials and image requests, please visit our press site at whitney.org/press or contact:
Ashley Reese, Director of Communications
Whitney Museum of American Art
(212) 671-1846
Meghan Ferrucci, Publicist
Whitney Museum of American Art
(212) 671-8346
Hannah Gottlieb-Graham, President & Founder
ALMA Communications
Whitney Press Office
whitney.org/press
(212) 570-3633
** ABOUT THE WHITNEY
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The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.
Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment
The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.
As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgment, visit the Museum’s website (https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=28af38f3e3&e=59415c6e7e) .
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Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street New York, NY 10014
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