Party Of The Week: No sign of the crunch at Frieze Art Fair week

Charlotte Cripps
Friday 16 October 2009 00:00 BST
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There may be less art snapped up as the recession bites – but there is certainly no shortage of parties during London's Frieze Art Fair week.

The magazine editor Jefferson Hack and his girlfriend Anouck Lepere, art dealer Detmar Blow, The Clash's Paul Simonon and Serena Rees, as well as the fashion designer Gareth Pugh turned up to the Robert Mapplethorpe private view on Tuesday evening.

It turned into a mini-concert, as Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe's former best friend, muse and host of the evening, sang and recited poems to over 1,000 guests in the street to mark the 20th anniversary of her late friend outside London's Alison Jacques gallery, which represents the estate of Robert Mapplethorpe in the UK.

The party then moved on to a more intimate dinner at the Sanderson hotel, just over the road, where guests including Jade Jagger, the Harry Potter producer David Heyman, New York DJ Leigh Lezark of The Misshapes and bigwigs from the art world such as the Frieze Projects curator Neville Wakefield, mused upon the late Mapplethorpe, whilst Patti Smith entertained the crowd again, with songs such as "Because The Night".

It must have been a trip down memory lane for the poet and rock singer because the new show of religious-inspired photographs, A Season In Hell, also includes a series of rarely-seen shrine-like collages made out of men's underwear and prayer cards from 1968-69, when the artist was living with Smith at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.

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