De Kooning Does Dallas

Nicolas Party TWO X TWO For AIDS And Art dallas
The auction raised $10.2 million, including $1.6 million from work by Nicolas Party, who was being honored at the auction and shown at The Warehouse. Photo: Kevin Tachman/amfAR/Getty Images for amfAR
Marion Maneker
November 4, 2024

Dallas was historically richer in material wealth than it was hip to the latest trends in the culture. If the city had leading art collectors, they weren’t interested in contemporary art. Certainly, you couldn’t expect the guys at Caterpillar or ExxonMobil to be enthusiastic about seeing the show of an under-represented artist, let alone want to buy their work. That’s changed over the past quarter-century, in part thanks to the efforts of collectors Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, who turned their annual TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art fundraiser into a Dallas institution. More than a mere charity auction, the party has supported the Dallas Museum of Art’s acquisition of cutting-edge art and helped fuel the growing collector community in Dallas, in turn.