Ina Ginsburg was a prominent Washington D.C. society hostess; for more than half a century she strived to elevate the arts and also the art of socialising – the art regular was as a prominent hostess in Washington; she was a fund-raiser and an ever- fashionable member of the ‘unelected with influence’ in the U.S. capital. Ginsberg’s friends – over many years – included the strange juxtaposition of Andy Warhol, and Arnold Schwarzenegger – it would seem regardless of artistic or political stance. The society-art hostess died on Sunday at her home at the age of 98.
Her death was confirmed by her son Mark.
“I used to object to the fact that people called me a clotheshorse,” she had once told Capitol File magazine. “I was trying to support the industry – the many, many people behind the designers, the entire ensemble” – she stated at the time.
In fact the arts patron was an occasional writer for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine – she died at her home in Washington – as reported in the Washington Post. Ginsburg was born Ida Spira into a rather prominent middle-class Jewish household in Vienna, Austria.
The art hostess fled the Nazis regime in the 1930s, after which she and her family relocated to Paris, where Ginsburg worked briefly as an extra in the movies of the day. That is until she boarded a Portuguese boat travelling to the dream that she saw as the U.S. – where finally Ginsburg found work in the National Theatre.
Once the Second World War was ended, and her career was set; the actress returned to Austria in the attempt to reclaim her family property, which had been confiscated by the Third Reich. There, she met David Ginsburg. He was a solicitor and assistant to General Lucius D. Clay; the solicitor had earlier worked on president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal programs’, and eventually helped create ‘Americans for Democratic Action’. He was the future heiress’s husband to be, and was then in charge of overseeing the American postwar occupation of Germany.
David and Ina returned to America, where they got married, after which the couple settled in Georgetown. The two would subsequently became one of the capital’s most influential power couples; after which Ina Ginsburg grew increasingly successful as a fundraiser, it was then that the socialites became responsible for one of their most famous dinner parties – that they held for Andy Warhol in 1975 – an event that was questioned by Ginsburg’s peers, imaginably, on the social grounds of the period, as the artist was considered too controversial and notorious. yet after her apparent social faux-pa; Ginsburg and Warhol became friends for the rest of their lives.
The renowned Heiress is survived by her two sons Mark and Jonathan, her daughter Susan, and their two grandchildren.
Top Photo: Thomas Ammann and Ina Ginsburg Photo by Journalbaudelaire Creative Commons