Whitney Museum of American Art

07/28/2021

Outside with Jane Panetta—Mary Heilmann

Introducing Outside with Jane Panetta! Jane, who oversees the Whitney's collection of over 25,000 objects, takes us outside the Museum's galleries for an introduction to a few of our outdoor sculptures. First up in the five-part series is Mary Heilmann: Sunset—an art installation that visitors are invited to touch, sit on, and move. "Museums are places to hang out," Heilmann says, so pull up a seat on the seventh floor terrace next time you visit!

07/27/2021

In honor of Disability Pride Month, we're featuring Marlon Mullen's Untitled (2015) from the collection.

Mullen draws the images for his paintings from the covers and advertisements of art magazines such as Artforum and Art in America. Layering on generous amounts of paint, he creates balanced surfaces that focus on the abstract composition of forms. The artist works with NIAD (Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development) Art Center, a progressive art studio in Richmond, California, that supports the endeavors of artists with disabilities.

"Marlon's on the spectrum for autism, [and] he has aphasia, which is a disability that we don't know a lot about, but it is the reason that Marlon doesn't talk. Really what gives him pleasure and what he focuses on is painting," Timothy Buckwalter, Director of Exhibitions at NIAD Art Center, shared.
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Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2015. Acrylic on canvas, 36 1/4 × 36 3/16 in. (92.1 × 91.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg 2018.88. © Marlon Mullen

In honor of Disability Pride Month, we're featuring Marlon Mullen's Untitled (2015) from the collection.

Mullen draws the images for his paintings from the covers and advertisements of art magazines such as Artforum and Art in America. Layering on generous amounts of paint, he creates balanced surfaces that focus on the abstract composition of forms. The artist works with NIAD (Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development) Art Center, a progressive art studio in Richmond, California, that supports the endeavors of artists with disabilities.

"Marlon's on the spectrum for autism, [and] he has aphasia, which is a disability that we don't know a lot about, but it is the reason that Marlon doesn't talk. Really what gives him pleasure and what he focuses on is painting," Timothy Buckwalter, Director of Exhibitions at NIAD Art Center, shared.
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Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2015. Acrylic on canvas, 36 1/4 × 36 3/16 in. (92.1 × 91.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg 2018.88. © Marlon Mullen

07/26/2021

This Wednesday! Don't miss Black/Queer/Abstract—a day-long convening at the Museum inspired by Julie Mehretu's multidisciplinary practice. Bridging the arts, humanities, and sciences, the program presents broad conversations between artists and scholars who are at the forefront of their fields and who form a creative network with which Mehretu's work is in dialogue.

The in-person event series has reached capacity, but you can join us online via Zoom. Read more and register for free: https://bit.ly/3hJ5Ofa
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Installation view of Julie Mehretu (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 25–August 8, 2021). Julie Mehretu, Stadia II (detail), 2004.

This Wednesday! Don't miss Black/Queer/Abstract—a day-long convening at the Museum inspired by Julie Mehretu's multidisciplinary practice. Bridging the arts, humanities, and sciences, the program presents broad conversations between artists and scholars who are at the forefront of their fields and who form a creative network with which Mehretu's work is in dialogue.

The in-person event series has reached capacity, but you can join us online via Zoom. Read more and register for free: https://bit.ly/3hJ5Ofa
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Installation view of Julie Mehretu (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 25–August 8, 2021). Julie Mehretu, Stadia II (detail), 2004.

07/25/2021

In the exhibition Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself, McKenzie's works are juxtaposed with artworks from the Whitney's collection that share a thematic connection, such as a sense of risk-taking and play in art-making.

Here, McKenzie's video titled We Shall Overcome (2004) is shown next to a sequence of works on paper by multidisciplinary artist Pope.L that assert manufactured “truths,” such as "Black People Are The Smell Of Freshly Baked Bread" and "Orange People Are the Bodies Falling Piece By Piece To The Carpet." We Shall Overcome likewise considers how easily information can be manipulated. The video was inspired by an article claiming that Bill Clinton's Harlem neighbors were concerned about not seeing him often enough. McKenzie questioned the legitimacy of the claim when most Americans have far more pressing concerns.

Both Pope.L and McKenzie encourage a more critical view of the ways that language and power are connected and used as the basis for fact.

Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself is on view through October 4.
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Installation view of Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 1-October 4, 2021). From left to right: Dave McKenzie, We Shall Overcome, 2004; (from top to bottom) Pope.L, Black People Are The Smell Of Freshly Baked Bread, 2001-02; Pope.L, Purple People Bust A Nut In The Gravy And We Learn Something, 2012; Pope.L, Black People Are The Silence They Cannot Understand, 2001-02; Pope.L, Red People Are My Mother When She Sick And Visiting Me In The Hospital, 2010; Pope.L, Orange People Are the Bodies Falling Piece By Piece To The Carpet, 2012. Photo: Ron Amstutz

In the exhibition Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself, McKenzie's works are juxtaposed with artworks from the Whitney's collection that share a thematic connection, such as a sense of risk-taking and play in art-making.

Here, McKenzie's video titled We Shall Overcome (2004) is shown next to a sequence of works on paper by multidisciplinary artist Pope.L that assert manufactured “truths,” such as "Black People Are The Smell Of Freshly Baked Bread" and "Orange People Are the Bodies Falling Piece By Piece To The Carpet." We Shall Overcome likewise considers how easily information can be manipulated. The video was inspired by an article claiming that Bill Clinton's Harlem neighbors were concerned about not seeing him often enough. McKenzie questioned the legitimacy of the claim when most Americans have far more pressing concerns.

Both Pope.L and McKenzie encourage a more critical view of the ways that language and power are connected and used as the basis for fact.

Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself is on view through October 4.
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Installation view of Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 1-October 4, 2021). From left to right: Dave McKenzie, We Shall Overcome, 2004; (from top to bottom) Pope.L, Black People Are The Smell Of Freshly Baked Bread, 2001-02; Pope.L, Purple People Bust A Nut In The Gravy And We Learn Something, 2012; Pope.L, Black People Are The Silence They Cannot Understand, 2001-02; Pope.L, Red People Are My Mother When She Sick And Visiting Me In The Hospital, 2010; Pope.L, Orange People Are the Bodies Falling Piece By Piece To The Carpet, 2012. Photo: Ron Amstutz

07/24/2021

Exciting news! We're pleased offer free admission on Thursday, July 29 and Friday, July 30. Visitors can now reserve timed-entry tickets in advance on our website. Complimentary admission is made possible by the Ford Foundation, which is also supporting Black/Queer/Abstract—a day-long convening on Wednesday, July 28 at the Museum inspired by artist Julie Mehretu. Book tickets: https://bit.ly/356cmQs

Exciting news! We're pleased offer free admission on Thursday, July 29 and Friday, July 30. Visitors can now reserve timed-entry tickets in advance on our website. Complimentary admission is made possible by the Ford Foundation, which is also supporting Black/Queer/Abstract—a day-long convening on Wednesday, July 28 at the Museum inspired by artist Julie Mehretu. Book tickets: https://bit.ly/356cmQs

07/23/2021

In honor of the 2021 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony today, we're sharing Jeanette Mundt's Born Athlete American: Laurie Hernandez I (2018) from the collection.

Mundt probes societal constructs through an investigation into mainstream representations of gender, sexuality, history, and celebrity. Her paintings like Born Athlete American: Laurie Hernandez I (2018), shown in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and recently acquired by the Whitney, explores these considerations through the replication, fracture, and circulation of popular images as well as the ways mass media produces, perpetuates, and capitalizes on particular identities.

This work is part of Mundt's 2017–2019 series Born Athlete American, which centered on scenes of the 2016 U.S. Women's Olympic Gymnastics Team in Rio de Janeiro. Rendered in oil and glitter, Laurie Hernandez I portrays gymnast Laurie Hernandez's beam routine as a splintered continuous narrative, generated through a syncopated clash of individual frames. In the painting, which was originally drawn from a New York Times photo, Mundt accentuates the physical strain on the female body as well as the societal scrutiny the sport draws. Here, Mundt makes visible the ways in which gender stereotypes and national identities are projected and picked apart via mass media as well as the oppressive structures that underpin them.
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Jeanette Mundt, Born Athlete American: Laurie Hernandez I, 2018. Oil and glitter on canvas, 50 × 60 in. (127 × 152.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Jenny Brorsen and Richard DeMartini. © Jeanette Mundt. Courtesy Jeanette Mundt and Société, Berlin

In honor of the 2021 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony today, we're sharing Jeanette Mundt's Born Athlete American: Laurie Hernandez I (2018) from the collection.

Mundt probes societal constructs through an investigation into mainstream representations of gender, sexuality, history, and celebrity. Her paintings like Born Athlete American: Laurie Hernandez I (2018), shown in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and recently acquired by the Whitney, explores these considerations through the replication, fracture, and circulation of popular images as well as the ways mass media produces, perpetuates, and capitalizes on particular identities.

This work is part of Mundt's 2017–2019 series Born Athlete American, which centered on scenes of the 2016 U.S. Women's Olympic Gymnastics Team in Rio de Janeiro. Rendered in oil and glitter, Laurie Hernandez I portrays gymnast Laurie Hernandez's beam routine as a splintered continuous narrative, generated through a syncopated clash of individual frames. In the painting, which was originally drawn from a New York Times photo, Mundt accentuates the physical strain on the female body as well as the societal scrutiny the sport draws. Here, Mundt makes visible the ways in which gender stereotypes and national identities are projected and picked apart via mass media as well as the oppressive structures that underpin them.
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Jeanette Mundt, Born Athlete American: Laurie Hernandez I, 2018. Oil and glitter on canvas, 50 × 60 in. (127 × 152.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Jenny Brorsen and Richard DeMartini. © Jeanette Mundt. Courtesy Jeanette Mundt and Société, Berlin

07/21/2021

30 seconds with David Breslin and Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled" America

Spend 30 seconds with David Breslin, the Whitney's DeMartini Family Curator! Today he's chatting with us about Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled" (America) (1994), which is installed vertically in the Museum's staircase.

07/20/2021

In this archival image from our #WhitneyTimeCapsule series, German-born American sculptor Eva Hesse stands in front of her towering artwork, Expanded Expansion, in the 1969 exhibition Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials. Curated by Marcia Tucker and James Monte, Anti-Illusion surveyed a selection of visually distinctive sculptures by artists who were united in their process-based approach to their craft.

A pioneer of '60s Postminimalism, Hesse subverted sculptural traditions with radical assemblages of materials. Made from fiberglass, polyester resin, latex, and cheesecloth, Expanded Expansion undermined classical expectations of sculpture: fragile and impermanent, far from the enduring stone monuments that formerly defined the medium.
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Installation view of Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials (May 19-July 6, 1969), artist Eva Hesse and her artwork Expanded Expansion, 1969, Box 47, Folder 26, Main Branch Exhibition Records, 1931-2004, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library and Archives, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Photograph by Peter Moore. Photograph © 2021 Barbara Moore / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

In this archival image from our #WhitneyTimeCapsule series, German-born American sculptor Eva Hesse stands in front of her towering artwork, Expanded Expansion, in the 1969 exhibition Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials. Curated by Marcia Tucker and James Monte, Anti-Illusion surveyed a selection of visually distinctive sculptures by artists who were united in their process-based approach to their craft.

A pioneer of '60s Postminimalism, Hesse subverted sculptural traditions with radical assemblages of materials. Made from fiberglass, polyester resin, latex, and cheesecloth, Expanded Expansion undermined classical expectations of sculpture: fragile and impermanent, far from the enduring stone monuments that formerly defined the medium.
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Installation view of Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials (May 19-July 6, 1969), artist Eva Hesse and her artwork Expanded Expansion, 1969, Box 47, Folder 26, Main Branch Exhibition Records, 1931-2004, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library and Archives, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Photograph by Peter Moore. Photograph © 2021 Barbara Moore / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

07/19/2021

This Saturday, July 24, at 6 pm, join us for This/that with Kayla Hamilton. To mark the 31st anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Bronx-based dance artist and educator will showcase her work in conversation with peer artists as a celebration of the contributions of disabled artists of color.

Read more and register for free: https://bit.ly/3B2iVkn. This virtual event will have automated closed captions through Zoom.
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Photo: Travis Magee

This Saturday, July 24, at 6 pm, join us for This/that with Kayla Hamilton. To mark the 31st anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Bronx-based dance artist and educator will showcase her work in conversation with peer artists as a celebration of the contributions of disabled artists of color.

Read more and register for free: https://bit.ly/3B2iVkn. This virtual event will have automated closed captions through Zoom.
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Photo: Travis Magee

07/18/2021

With barbecue season in full swing, the Whitney Shop has selected some of our favorite gifts inspired by—you guessed it—food! 🌭 Browse a mouthwatering selection of items including artist-made editions, kitchen essentials, and one of NYC's tastiest hot sauces courtesy of Shaquanda. Link in bio to shop. #ShopSunday
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Kenny Scharf Hot Dog Beach Towel, @kennyscharf
Andy Warhol Tomato Soup Can Porcelain Salt and Pepper Shaker Set, @ligne_blanche
Shaquanda’s Hot Pepper Sauce, @shaquandawillfeedyou
Yuki & Daughters Stuffed Hot Dog with the Works, @yukianddaughters
The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food: A Cookbook, @marcuscooks

07/17/2021

On September 15, 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The attack resulted in the murder of four Black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Later that day, two Black boys—Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware—were killed in racially motivated acts of violence. Dawoud Bey's powerful series titled The Birmingham Project (2012) commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of these horrific events.

Photographed in the Bethel Baptist Church, an early Civil Rights Movement headquarters in Birmingham, and the Birmingham Museum of Art, a formerly segregated space that used to grant admission to Black visitors only once a week, The Birmingham Project juxtaposes children the same ages as the victims with adults fifty years older—the ages the victims would have been had they lived

“To think of someone striking such a young life down with impunity is a renewed horror each time a young person sits in front of my camera,” Bey has said. The Birmingham Project honors the devastating loss of each life, and lays bare the enduring impact of racism.
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Dawoud Bey, Mathis Menefee and Cassandra Griffin, Birmingham, AL, from The Birmingham Project, 2012. Pigmented inkjet prints, 40 × 64 in. each (101.6 × 162.56 cm each). Rennie Collection, Vancouver. © Dawoud Bey

On September 15, 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The attack resulted in the murder of four Black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Later that day, two Black boys—Johnny Robinson and Virgil Ware—were killed in racially motivated acts of violence. Dawoud Bey's powerful series titled The Birmingham Project (2012) commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of these horrific events.

Photographed in the Bethel Baptist Church, an early Civil Rights Movement headquarters in Birmingham, and the Birmingham Museum of Art, a formerly segregated space that used to grant admission to Black visitors only once a week, The Birmingham Project juxtaposes children the same ages as the victims with adults fifty years older—the ages the victims would have been had they lived

“To think of someone striking such a young life down with impunity is a renewed horror each time a young person sits in front of my camera,” Bey has said. The Birmingham Project honors the devastating loss of each life, and lays bare the enduring impact of racism.
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Dawoud Bey, Mathis Menefee and Cassandra Griffin, Birmingham, AL, from The Birmingham Project, 2012. Pigmented inkjet prints, 40 × 64 in. each (101.6 × 162.56 cm each). Rennie Collection, Vancouver. © Dawoud Bey