An Evening at the Chamberlain Estate
In a vast Shelter Island stable, Sotheby’s and Nordic Knots gathered a group of lucky guests to dine amid the impressive works of the late artist John Chamberlain.
L ast week, in conjunction with our May/June cover story, Sotheby’s and Nordic Knots hosted an intimate dinner at the John Chamberlain Estate on Long Island’s Shelter Island. A long white table surrounded by colorful Nordic Knots rugs bisected a massive stable-turned-private-gallery filled with the artist’s exuberant foil sculptures. As co-hosts of the event, Chamberlain’s widow, Prudence Fairweather, and his stepdaughter Alexandra Fairweather were on hand to give tours or simply sit and chat on the enormous foam “barge,” one of the artist’s works, which Alexandra now uses to film her interview series, “On the Couch.”
The Sotheby’s dinner was the first time a group of this size has gathered in the stable, which the Fairweathers purchased three months after Chamberlain’s death, in 2011. (Alexandra took riding lessons there, and her stepfather had long had his eye on it as an ideal space for storing and displaying his monumental pieces.) “Chamberlain’s presence on the island is almost mythical,” says Kristina O’Neill, the head of Sotheby’s Media and editor-in-chief of Sotheby’s Magazine. “But the spaces where he lived and worked have remained incredibly private.”
Chamberlain was also something of a foodie, having opened his own Shelter Island restaurant, Chamberlain’s, in the ’90s. The dining chairs for the evening’s guests were the originals from that eatery, which served as the setting for the artist’s 1995 wedding to Prudence. As a late-summer bounty of corn salad, grilled chicken and peach pie was served, Alexandra, Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart and Nordic Knots’ Liza Laserow each spoke about their admiration for Chamberlain’s work and their appreciation at gathering in such a meaningful setting.
Ahead of Chamberlain’s centennial next year, Sotheby’s will host a selling exhibition of the artist’s work in late September at the Breuer building in New York City. The evening on Shelter Island allowed attendees, who included Sofia Coppola, Thomas Mars, Athena Calderone, Natalie Massenet, Derek Blasberg, Gucci Westman and Kate and Kevin Love, to see the sculptures in their element. “There’s something completely different about experiencing Chamberlain’s work there,” says O’Neill. “It feels alive in a way that’s very difficult to replicate in a museum or gallery.
