Parties: Glamour at the gallery

It gets the biggest billing in the world of summer arts parties, but for the artists at last Wednesday's glamorous Serpentine Gallery bash, it appeared to be as much about business as pleasure.

Art dealers, gallery owners and new-monied Russians mingled around Frank Gehry's graceful party pavilion erected on the gallery's lawn, while all eyes were on the kingpin of the night, the diminutive Damien Hirst. Standing on the grass, he was surrounded by swathes of flunkies, all babbling excitedly about his upcoming auction at Sotheby's (which was to net squillions).

Not everyone shared their enthusiasm; artist Jeremy Deller stood moodily by a side-bar, saying that of all the offerings up for auction, only five indicated real talent.

At the opposite end of a lawn divided by a mirrored dance floor – occupied by a giggling Naomi Campbell, a colourful Grayson Perry and a greyhound-lean Joely Richardson – stood Antony Gormley with his wife, the artist Vicken Parsons. The pair were discussing his "fourth plinth" commission for Trafalgar Square... and concluded that it should be Vicken winched up there.

The appearance of Dasha Zhukova – Roman Abramovich's girlfriend and the financial backer of tonight's bash – could not have done any harm to her reputation as an art connoisseur, and inside, artists queued up to rent cameras to capture the crowd; the results to be shown at Zhukova's soon-to-open Moscow gallery. Dinos Chapman was soon on the case, shooting "lots of attractive ladies and lots of ugly fat men". Everyone, it seemed, was earning their right to be here.