There were formidable females in abundance to present the third Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon award to Joan Jonas. The veteran pioneer of performance, installation and video art, had flown in from her New York home especially for the occasion. Presiding over the spangly Swarovski Foundation-sponsored gala dinner—held in the magnificent 18th century setting of the Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed Christ Church Spitalfields—was the Whitechapel director Iwona Blazwick. The award itself was handed over by Rose English, another performance doyenne, who saluted the 79 year old Jonas as “both iconoclast and icon”, amidst applause from a crowd that included gallerist Maureen Paley, the design critic Alice Rawsthorn and artists Celia Hempton and Amalia Ulman.
But despite a strong sisterly vibe, Jonas herself was keen to emphasise that “we are artists, not female artists”. She then went on to declare her special affection for the Whitechapel as the site of her first UK performance, The Juniper Tree (1979), which she described as “one of my most memorable performances” which transformed “the architectural beauty of the space” into both a stage set and a sculptural environment. Instrumental in making this legendary live art landmark happen was another key gala dinner attendee: the Gagosian Gallery director Mark Francis, who back in 1979 was working as the Whitechapel’s exhibitions organiser under the directorship of Nicholas Serota. In her speech Jonas summoned up memories of another era when she again thanked Francis for single-handedly driving all her props over from Eindhoven, thus enabling The Juniper Tree to keep within its £100 exhibition budget. Thirty-seven years later, last night’s dinner (25 February) and auction—which took place at tables strewn with Swarovski crystals—raised £145,000 for the gallery’s education and community programme. Different times indeed…