The ranks of the London art world and beyond headed up to Casa Zabludowicz earlier this week to salute 20 years of Anita and Poju’s art collecting and patronage. The couple’s emphasis on buying and commissioning ambitious pieces from young artists has given many a crucial boost at a time when they needed it the most.
Nicholas Serota summed up the Zab double act when, in a speech to the gathered masses—which included the artists Tracey Emin, Gillian Wearing, Michael Landy and Keith Tyson, Frieze’s Matthew Slotover and Victoria Siddall, Maja Hoffmann, Jeffrey Deitch and even an unexpected appearance from Charles Saatchi with his squeeze Trinny Woodall—he described the ever-effervescent Anita as “Miss Enthusiasm” and her devoted (and deep-pocketed) husband Poju as “Mr Generosity”. With the fruits of their collecting currently standing at around 3,000 works by 500 artists, this certainly seems to have been a very effective pairing. These two qualities seemed to permeate the entire evening as well: imbibing and dancing in and around the Zabludowicz swimming pool continued until the small hours (with some especially nifty moves from Cabinet’s Andrew Wheatley).