Long before Aspen Art Week officially gets underway, the art world’s summer migration begins in nearby Snowmass. The Anderson Ranch Arts Center‘s annual Ranch Gala has become one of the season’s earliest and most anticipated gatherings, bringing together artists, collectors, curators and patrons for an evening that is as much about community as it is philanthropy. This year, marking the Ranch’s 60th anniversary, more than two hundred guests turned out on July 15, and the gala and live auction together raised a record $1.6 million for scholarships and programming for emerging artists.

This year’s International Artist Honoree was Marilyn Minter, one of the most influential artists of her generation. Across five decades, Minter has blurred the line between glamour and grit through paintings, photographs and films that challenge conventional ideas of beauty, sexuality and power. Renowned for her meticulous technical mastery, she has long celebrated the imperfections of the body that fashion and advertising traditionally erase, helping reshape the conversation around female representation in contemporary art. PALMER readers will remember her striking photographs accompanying our Ageless Beauty feature in Vol. 11. 

Co-chaired by Sue Hostetler, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Robin Loewenberg Tebbe, the evening drew a crowd that included Palm Beachers Sarah Gavlak and Maynard Monrow, whose work was also featured in the live auction, alongside Marianne Boesky, Jessica Silverman, Lisa Phillips, Nicola Lees, Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, Melony and Adam Lewis, and Donna and Jim Pohlad, among many others.

Auctioneer Michael Macaulay kept bidding brisk on works by McArthur Binion, James Casebere, Ingrid Donat, Chantal Joffe, Marilyn Minter, Maynard Monrow, Jessica Rankin, Richard Rezac, Davina Semo, Claudia Wieser, Wu Chi-Tsung, and Jeff Zimmerman. 

The night’s standout moment arrived when bidding on a commissioned portrait by Minter reached a stalemate between two collectors. Rather than choose between them, Minter offered to make a second commission if both agreed to buy, a spontaneous outburst of generosity that helped push the Ranch past its fundraising goal for the night.

 

 

Marilyn Minter, Commission, 2026. Dye Sublimation Print, 60 x 45 in (unframed), 152.4 x 114.3 cm (unframed), courtesy of the artist and Salon 94