<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"NEW YORK \u2014&amp;nbsp;Claes Oldenburg,&amp;nbsp;Frank Stella,&amp;nbsp;Christo,&amp;nbsp;Cindy Sherman,&amp;nbsp;Martin Puryear,&amp;nbsp;David Hockney,&amp;nbsp;Lynda Benglis,&amp;nbsp;John Baldessari,&amp;nbsp;Lawrence Weiner. The list may sound like a postwar art history curriculum, but in fact, it is just a small handful of the nearly 300 people who gathered on Thursday evening to fete&amp;nbsp;Martin Friedman, the former director of the&amp;nbsp;Walker Art Center. As was made abundantly clear during the event, Friedman is the best-loved arts advocate you may have never heard of.\u201CHe\u2019s a very unusual museum director,\u201D&amp;nbsp;Chuck Close, one of the evening\u2019s hosts, told&amp;nbsp;ARTINFO. \u201CNot only did he train other museum directors, but he also had a very special relationship to artists. These people wouldn\u2019t show up for anybody else, I\u2019ll tell you that.\u201D (As a collector remarked to us later in the evening, \u201CI\u2019ve never seen as many good artists in one place.\u201D)The event, organized by the&amp;nbsp;Madison Square Park Conservancy, benefited Madison Square Park\u2019s public art program, which Freidman helped establish after he retired from the Walker in 1990 after 28 years on the job. His work building up the Walker\u2019s now-famous sculpture garden (you can thank him for Oldenburg and&amp;nbsp;Coosje van Bruggen\u2019s unforgettable \u201CSpoon Bridge and Cherry\u201D) and developing Madison Square Park\u2019s program has earned him the designation \u201Cfather of the modern sculpture park.\u201D A new endowed curator position for the park\u2019s art program now bears his name, and Thursday's event raised $1 million for its endowment fund.Over Sicilian eggplant caponata, lasagna with mushrooms, and wine-braised beef, visitors were regaled with stories of Friedman as a tenacious, exacting, and utterly devoted arts advocate. (\u201CMartin Friedman is a control freak,\u201D pronounced&amp;nbsp;Whitney Museum&amp;nbsp;director&amp;nbsp;Adam Weinberg, who worked under Friedman at the Walker before coming to the Whitney.) There was the time Friedman called the grounds crew in early to turn the snow in front of the museum in order to keep it pristine white and hide any marks left by dogs. Then there was the time current&amp;nbsp;Hirshhorn Museum&amp;nbsp;director Richard Koshalek dragged Freidman to&amp;nbsp;McDonald\u2019s&amp;nbsp;for the first time. He ordered a hamburger, rare. When the kid at the counter informed him that \u201Cwe don\u2019t do them that way,\u201D the Friedman reportedly stepped back, crossed his arms, and said, \u201CI\u2019ll wait.\u201DThat assuredness also served him well in his work with Madison Square Park. Asked to recall his favorite moment from his time with the conservancy, he chose the program\u2019s biggest controversy: the installation of&amp;nbsp;Antony Gormley\u2019s figures on rooftops that locals worried would be mistaken for possible suicidal jumpers. \u201CThe article about it described us as boneheads,\u201D Friedman told ARTINFO gleefully.The evening\u2019s tributes also came in the form of sculpture, a fitting nod to Friedman\u2019s lifelong passion. Next to every plate lay a small, mushroom-shaped wooden sculpture about the size of a popsicle stick by artist&amp;nbsp;Ursula von Rydingsvard. \u201CI had to make 320, and then 10 extras,\u201D she told ARTINFO, a bit wearily. \u201CBut I\u2019d do anything for Martin.\u201DAnd then there was&amp;nbsp;Philip Glass. Over the pasta course, the legendary musician appeared on stage to give a surprise performance. Before he sat down on the piano to play the lush, entrancing \u201CMetamorphosis 2,\u201D he recalled the many times he played the piece for Friedman at the Walker. \u201CThe first time I came, there were six people in the audience,\u201D he said. Friedman was among the first museum directors to invite other performing artists \u2014 including Glass,&amp;nbsp;Merce Cunningham, and&amp;nbsp;Steve Reich&amp;nbsp;\u2014 to come to his institution, a practice that is now commonplace, but was almost unheard of in the 1960s.\u201CNo one has been a greater champion of the art of our time,\u201D Glass said.&amp;nbsp;To see a selection of photos from the event, click on the slide show.&amp;nbsp;[content:advertisement-center]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/806855/a-congregation-of-legends-from-christo-to-frank-stella-honored>