Scene City: A Party for, by and About Art

The pressure was on for the 30th anniversary of Bomb, a nonprofit magazine that seeks to elevate conversations about art. About 300 guests reached for something conceptual to say as they mingled at Capitale Friday night, beginning with a silent auction of contemporary works by artists who had appeared in the magazine’s pages.

Ellsworth Kelly recounted the 1960s: painting in the Hamptons in a potato barn and driving around Jacmel, Haiti. But he did not place any bids. “I only like artists older than myself,” the 87-year-old said.

The actress Kim Cattrall, on the arm of Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMA P.S. 1 (who advised her to bid on a Robert Mangold drawing), spoke about the dwindling role of women over age 50 in Hollywood. “It’s like there’s a shelf life for talent,” she said.

Nearby, the performance artist Marina Abramovic kept the small talk to a minimum as she inched through the crowd of art world insiders including Ross Bleckner; James Rosenquist; Francine Prose; Richard Armstrong, the Guggenheim director; and Amy Phelan, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader turned collector, whose blond hair was piled up like a birthday cake.

“Actually, no conversation is possible at all because of the sound pollution,” Ms. Abramovic said, dodging canapés and chardonnay in the soaring foyer.

A group of artists in Manhattan started Bomb in 1981 with $3,000. The magazine is about process and ideas and takes the form of long cross-genre interviews: for example, the novelist Jonathan Lethem talking to Noah Baumbach, a filmmaker; or, in the ’80s, the artist Robert Mapplethorpe interviewed by Gary Indiana, a writer.

True to her word, Ms. Abramovic did not veer into banal banter, but she committed a faux pas: she wore the almost identical Givenchy dinner jacket of another guest, Riccardo Tisci, the label’s designer. Luckily, they are friends. “I give her tips on what to wear,” he said. “But I guess I did too good of a job.”

At 8 p.m. the guests made their way through the fortress-like doors of the former bank to tables set with long stems of cherry blossoms. The choice seats were filled with intellectuals from the pre-Chanel SoHo days, in black glitter Toms and Margiela hoof boots.

The writer A. M. Holmes was with Anh Duong, the painter, and Betsy Sussler, Bomb’s editor in chief. “I bet there are not that many Ph.D.’s in the room,” Ms. Holmes said. “Back then we didn’t study it, we just did it.”

Speeches were given, short ribs were served and then the serious table-hopping began. The younger artists were near the back, including Mika Rottenberg, who donated a small drawing.

“The best conversations happen amongst friends when you’re hung over at breakfast,” she said. “I don’t like to network at galas. The martinis are really good, though.”