Relational Aesthetics For The Rich, or A Brief History Of The Gala As Art by Greg Allen

From Lorenzo’s Tomb to Dakis’s yacht, the artist’s rarified social milieu exert a powerful influence on the form of his artistic production. Art that was intended or once thought to be uncommodifiable–Land Art, Conceptual Art, installation, performance, even relational aesthetics–has been voraciously commissioned, collected and consumed. With LA MoCA’s 2010 annual fundraising ball–which was reconceptualized by the artist Doug Aitken as a Happening–as a springboard, we will explore the history and implications of the Gala-As-Art Movement.

Greg Allen is a collector in Washington DC and New York City. Until 2008, he was co-chair of the Museum of Modern Art’s Junior Associates. A former private equity adviser, he began writing about art, film, and the creative process on his blog, greg.org: the making of,  in 2001.