Whitney Museum of American Art

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney is your home for American art.

"Trust is not always fulfilled; misunderstanding, mistranslation, and deception are a part of this landscape, too. One c...
09/17/2023

"Trust is not always fulfilled; misunderstanding, mistranslation, and deception are a part of this landscape, too. One could argue that all art is an expression of vulnerability, because expression itself makes one vulnerable. But the works in Trust Me engage with vulnerability and the role it plays in building emotional connection in more ways than one."

Read senior curatorial assistant Kelly Long's new online essay Hand on My Stupid Heart below. This moving piece is inspired by the ideas and artists in exhibition she curated—Trust Me—on view now at the Museum.

Zoe Leonard, detail from Downtown (for Douglas), 2016. Seventeen gelatin silver prints, 12 1/8 × 8 3/4 in. (30.8 × 22.2 cm) each. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, and Hauser & Wirth. © Zoe Leonard

Ruth Asawa practiced drawing every day, referring to the act as her "greatest pleasure and the most difficult." 〰Ruth As...
09/16/2023

Ruth Asawa practiced drawing every day, referring to the act as her "greatest pleasure and the most difficult." 〰

Ruth Asawa Through Line—the first exhibition to explore Asawa's work through the lens of her lifelong drawing practice—is now open at the Whitney. Co-organized with The Menil Collection, Through Line offers a window into the artist's exploratory and resourceful approach to materials, line, surface, and space.

After its run at the Whitney, the exhibition will travel to Houston, opening at the Menil Drawing Institute on March 22, 2024.

Read more: https://bit.ly/46bTMTo

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (WC.252, Persimmons), c. 1970s–80s. Watercolor on paper, 14 × 17 in (35.6 × 43.2 cm). Private collection. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner

David Hartt uses photography, video, sculpture, and installation to explore how historic ideas and ideals persist or tra...
09/15/2023

David Hartt uses photography, video, sculpture, and installation to explore how historic ideas and ideals persist or transform over time.

The subject of this photograph is the archive of the Johnson Publishing Company, whose Chicago headquarters were designed by the Black architect John W. Moutoussamy. Founded by John H. Johnson, the company was, at one time, the largest Black-owned publishing firm in the U.S.—creating and circulating two of the leading Black magazines of the twentieth century: Ebony, founded in 1945, and JET, founded in 1951.

Hartt's series serves as a study of a specifically African-American mid-century aesthetic and reflects both the rich dialogue that Black professionals had in this space during the company’s most vibrant years and how that dialogue produced new opportunities for Black representation. He captured the iconic headquarters in its final days, as the offices were being cleaned out; in 2016, Ebony and JET were sold by Johnson Publishing.

David Hartt utiliza fotografía, video, escultura e instalación, para explorar cómo ideas e ideales históricos persisten o se transforman con el paso del tiempo.

El tema de esta fotografía es el archivo de la Johnson Publishing Company, cuya sede, en Chicago fue diseñada por el arquitecto afrodescendiente, John W. Moutoussamy. Fundada por John H. Johnson, la compañía fue por un momento, la casa editorial más grande perteneciente a afroamericanos en los Estados Unidos, publicando y distribuyendo dos de las revistas afroamericanas más importantes del siglo XX: Ebony, fundada en 1945 y JET, fundada en 1951.

La serie de Hartt sirve como un estudio de una estética específicamente afroamericana de mediados de siglo y refleja a la vez el provechoso diálogo que mantuvieron profesionales negros en este espacio y cómo ese diálogo generó nuevas oportunidades para la representación afroamericana. El artista captura la icónica sede en sus días finales, cuando las oficinas fueron desocupadas; en 2016 Ebony y JET fueron vendidas por Johnson Publishing.

David Hartt, Archive at The Johnson Publishing Company Headquarters, Chicago, Illinois, 2011, printed 2013. Inkjet print mounted on aluminum, with frame, overall: 59 1/4 × 79 × 2 in. (150.5 × 200.7 × 5.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee 2014.11a-b. © David Hartt

Ruth Asawa Through Line is "a treasure," according to The New York Times. Read their review below, and see the exhibitio...
09/14/2023

Ruth Asawa Through Line is "a treasure," according to The New York Times. Read their review below, and see the exhibition beginning this Saturday, September 16.

The sculptor of sublimely coiled wire helped erase boundaries between art, craft and the decorative arts. A long-awaited show of drawings at the Whitney explores her luminous connections.

Get your creative juices flowing at our newest workshop inspired by Ruth Asawa. ✏️This Sunday, September 17, join us for...
09/13/2023

Get your creative juices flowing at our newest workshop inspired by Ruth Asawa. ✏️

This Sunday, September 17, join us for Experimental Drawing Workshop where we'll develop line, shape, tone, and color, and consider how observation and experimentation guide artmaking.

More details and registration: https://bit.ly/3PBvxZa

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (MI.153, Seven Thonet-Style Bentwood Chairs), c. 1950s. Felt-tipped pen on paper, 42 × 60 in. (106.7 × 152.4 cm). Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. Photo: Stephen Arnold

Tickets are officially available for Henry Taylor: B Side!Opening October 4—with Member Previews September 28 through Oc...
09/12/2023

Tickets are officially available for Henry Taylor: B Side!

Opening October 4—with Member Previews September 28 through October 2—this is the largest exhibition of Taylor's work to date, with over 130 works from the late-1980s to the present.

Through paintings, rarely seen drawings, sculpture, and a newly conceived installation, B Side features many of the artist’s most recognizable works, including paintings of family, fellow artists, legends, and public figures including Barack and Michelle Obama, JAY-Z, Martin Luther King, Jr., and more. Informed by the artist’s life experience and immediate environment, his work conveys urgency and fundamental empathy through close examination and sharp social critique.

Read more and book tickets: https://bit.ly/3razRVT

Henry Taylor, i'm yours, 2015. Acrylic on canvas, 73 1/8 × 74 1/4 in. (185.74 × 188.6 cm). Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; acquired through the generosity of the Acquisitions Circle. © Henry Taylor. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Sam Kahn

Members! Be among the first to explore Ruth Asawa Through Line during two days of Member Previews this Wednesday and Thu...
09/10/2023

Members! Be among the first to explore Ruth Asawa Through Line during two days of Member Previews this Wednesday and Thursday, September 13 and 14.

Through Line is the first exhibition to focus on the pivotal role that drawing played in developing Asawa's distinctive visual language.

While now widely recognized as a sculptor, Asawa (1926–2013) practiced drawing daily. Through drawing, she explored the world around her, turning everyday encounters into moments of profound beauty.

Read more: https://bit.ly/3EwfrcU

Not a Member yet? Join now for access to all Whitney Member Previews this fall season.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.107, Dancers), c. 1948–49. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 19 3/4 × 16 in. (50.2 × 40.6 cm). Private collection. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner

Diedrick Brackens's they spring from the embers of my mouth (2019) is a textile work based on a personalized DNA report ...
09/09/2023

Diedrick Brackens's they spring from the embers of my mouth (2019) is a textile work based on a personalized DNA report of the artist's genetic ancestry.

In mapping his own body through the dual technologies of DNA testing and weaving patterns, Brackens creates a work that is both a geometric abstraction and a self-portrait. While the results capture some truths about Brackens’s ancestry and genetics, they leave much unsaid about culture and identity. Instead, this piece serves as a reflection on the limitations of biotechnology.

This work is on view now in Inheritance.

La pieza de Diedrick Brackens, nacen de las brasas de mi boca (2019), es una obra textil basada en un informe de ADN personalizado sobre la ascendencia genética del artista.

Al hacer un mapa de su propio cuerpo a través de las tecnologías duales de la prueba de ADN y los patrones del tejido, Brackens crea un pieza que es al mismo tiempo una abstracción geométrica y un autorretrato. Aunque los resultados capturan algunas verdades sobre la ascendencia y la genética de Brackens, dejan fuera mucha información relacionada con la cultura y la identidad. En cambio, esta pieza nos ofrece una reflexión sobre las limitaciones de la biotecnología.

Esta obra se puede visitar ahora en Herencia.

Diedrick Brackens, they spring from the embers of my mouth, 2019. Cotton yarn, 64 × 48 × 1/2 in. (162.6 × 121.9 × 1.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Nancy and David Frej 2020.178. © Diedrick Brackens

09/08/2023

This book encased in a restaurant wine list arrived to the Whitney's library still wet.

It's our second episode of starring managing librarian Ivy Blackman! Today she tells us about Smoosh Book by Mitsu Okubo, which took 18 months to fully dry. 👀

Join us virtually on Wednesday, September 13, for X as Intersection: Shaping Worlds.How does art respond to the complexi...
09/06/2023

Join us virtually on Wednesday, September 13, for X as Intersection: Shaping Worlds.

How does art respond to the complexities of our current political climate to help us shape the future? In this conversation, sculptors and mixed media artists Margarita Cabrera, Beatriz Cortez, and Postcommodity (Cristóbal Martínez, Mestizo, and Kade L. Twist, Cherokee) discuss how their work builds new understandings of the physical world and our environments to form pathways for possible futures.

Simultaneous interpretation in Spanish provided by Babilla Collective. This program is part of X as Intersection, an initiative of the U.S. Latinx Art Forum.

Free with registration.

El miércoles 13 de septiembre, únete con nosotros por Zoom para X como intersección: Formando mundos.

¿Cómo responde el arte a las complejidades de nuestro clima político actual para ayudarnos a dar forma al futuro? En esta conversación, los escultores y artistas de medios mixtos Margarita Cabrera, Beatriz Cortez, y Postcommodity (Cristóbal Martínez, Mestizo y Kade L. Twist, Cherokee) discuten sobre cómo su trabajo genera nuevos entendimientos sobre el mundo físico y nuestros contextos para crear caminos hacia futuros posibles.

Habrá interpretación simultánea al español por Babilla Collective. Este programa forma parte de X como intersección, una iniciativa de US Latinx Art Forum.

Gratis al inscribirse.

How does art respond to the complexities of our current political climate to help us shape the future? In this conversation, sculptors and mixed media artists Margarita Cabrera, Beatriz Cortez, and Postcommodity (Cristóbal Martínez, Mestizo, and Kade L. Twist, Cherokee) discuss how their work buil...

The New York Times has your fall art schedule all planned out! Check out their recommendations, including 3 Whitney exhi...
09/05/2023

The New York Times has your fall art schedule all planned out! Check out their recommendations, including 3 Whitney exhibitions featuring artists Ruth Asawa, Henry Taylor, and Harry Smith.

Get ready for “Manet/Degas” and several shows on Picasso this season, plus dazzling surveys of works by Henry Taylor and Alma Thomas.

This drawing by Kambui Olujimi, Hart Island Crew (2020), depicts forced laborers from Rikers Island, the New York City j...
09/03/2023

This drawing by Kambui Olujimi, Hart Island Crew (2020), depicts forced laborers from Rikers Island, the New York City jail whose population is overwhelmingly Black and Latinx.

Hart Island, off the Bronx coast, is a potter's field (or common grave) that was run by the NYC's department of correction until 2021. It has served as a burial ground for the city during numerous epidemics, including the Spanish Flu and the AIDS crisis. In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 deaths overwhelmed the city's morgues, incarcerated people were brought in to dig trenches as long as football fields, where coffins would be stacked three deep.

"Over the years, the incarcerated were paid pennies, and asked to absorb a lot of this grief in an emotional way," Olujimi said. "They're the only mourners for bodies that are buried there. So unclaimed dead from the AIDS epidemic, from just living in New York, from crack, from Covid, there're these waves of deaths that happen in any urban space."

Read or listen to Olujimi discuss this work featured in Inheritance: https://bit.ly/3Pimn3E

Kambui Olujimi, Hart Island Crew, 2020. Watercolor, ink, and graphite pencil on paper, sheet: 23 1/2 × 28 1/8 in. (59.7 × 71.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Drawing and Print Committee 2021.72. © Kambui Olujimi

Trust us, you're gonna love this playlist created for our exhibition Trust Me.The playlist includes tracks that—like the...
09/02/2023

Trust us, you're gonna love this playlist created for our exhibition Trust Me.

The playlist includes tracks that—like the works in the exhibition—explore vulnerability, intuition, and reciprocity. There are collaborations, confessions, covers that describe deep feeling—love and heartbreak, in all its forms.

🎶 Listen here: https://spoti.fi/3sygjez

Mary Manning, Milling Around the Village, 2022. Chromogenic prints, mat board, and artist’s frame, sheet: 30 × 20 in. (76.2 × 50.8 cm); frame: 30 1/4 × 20 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (76.5 × 51.4 × 3.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Photography Committee. © Mary Manning

"I don't think my successes would've come to me as easily, had I not committed to making the work in such a way that mad...
08/30/2023

"I don't think my successes would've come to me as easily, had I not committed to making the work in such a way that made me uncomfortable."—Amy Sherald

Wishing a happy birthday to Sherald today with this work from the collection, If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it (2019).

Amy Sherald, If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it, 2019. Oil on canvas, 130 × 108 × 2 1/2 in. (330.2 × 274.3 × 6.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee, Sascha S. Bauer, Jack Cayre, Nancy Carrington Crown, Nancy Poses, Laura Rapp, and Elizabeth Redleaf 2020.148. © Amy Sherald

08/27/2023

What does Bruce Springsteen have in common with this tarot deck? So glad you asked.

Our new series stars Managing Librarian Ivy Blackman. 📖 Each week, join us for a behind-the-scenes look at some of the most fun and unique books in the Whitney's library.

In her painting New York, N.Y., Hedda Sterne drew inspiration from the city's network of bridges, using overlapping line...
08/26/2023

In her painting New York, N.Y., Hedda Sterne drew inspiration from the city's network of bridges, using overlapping lines of green, red, and black to depict the many beams, girders, and trusses supporting these structures.

To apply pigment onto the canvas, Sterne used an airbrush. This "speedy way of working," she explained, best captured the constant motion of the bridge, while areas of stillness—such as the diffuse pink triangles—suggest a sky at dusk.

This beloved painting is on view now in our 7th floor collection galleries.

Hedda Sterne, New York, N.Y., 1955, 1955. Airbrushed enamel on canvas, 36 1/4 × 60 1/4 in. (92.1 × 153 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of an anonymous donor 56.20. © The Hedda Sterne Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

This could be your view tonight! ☁️Join us every Friday evening from 7 to 10 pm for Pay-What-You-Wish admission. Grab yo...
08/25/2023

This could be your view tonight! ☁️

Join us every Friday evening from 7 to 10 pm for Pay-What-You-Wish admission. Grab your bestie and kick off the weekend with art and views. Book tickets: https://bit.ly/3P9QHgP

Photo: @ giulia_zanchi on Instagram

Just announced! ✨ Join us and our neighboring cultural institutions for West Side Fest on September 30. We'll be offerin...
08/24/2023

Just announced! ✨ Join us and our neighboring cultural institutions for West Side Fest on September 30. We'll be offering free admission, artmaking activities and neighborhood art walks.

The West Side Cultural Network—a group of more than 18 museums, parks, performing arts centers, and cultural institutions located within a half-mile portion of historic New York—is presenting a day of free admission, special indoor and outdoor programming, crafts for kids, artmaking for all ages...

En esta composición, Todd Gray superpone tres imágenes aparentemente dispares para construir una narrativa detallada s...
08/22/2023

En esta composición, Todd Gray superpone tres imágenes aparentemente dispares para construir una narrativa detallada sobre agricultura, colonialismo y montaje.

La capa de en medio muestra a una figura sentada, Onisimo Mutanga, quien es un experto en el uso de tecnología satelital para determinar qué tipo de siembra crecería mejor bajo proyecciones de condiciones atmosféricas en distintas regiones de África.

La imagen más grande muestra el jardín del rey Leopoldo II en Bruselas y conjura la intencionalidad maquillada con la que Bélgica colonizó al Congo a finales del siglo XIX. La extracción de recursos naturales a menudo se usó para justificar los tratos crueles e inhumanos contra los congoleses.

En el marco más pequeño aparece la vegetación del sur de África, abundante y sin restricciones. Juntas, las tres imágenes provocan un diálogo sobre la autenticidad; el impulso colonial de extracción, refinamiento y lucro; y los esfuerzos contemporáneos para contrarrestar estos impulsos.

Inheritance estará expuesta hasta febrero de 2024.

Here, Todd Gray layers three seemingly disparate images to build a detailed narrative about agriculture, colonialism, and display.

The middle layer depicts a seated figure, Onisimo Mutanga. Mutanga is an expert in the use of satellite technology to determine what crops are likely to grow best under projected environmental conditions in different regions of Africa.

The largest image depicts the garden of King Leopold II in Brussels and conjures the manicured intentionality with which Belgium colonized the Congo at the end of the nineteenth century. The extraction of natural resources was often used to justify the cruel and inhumane treatment of the Congolese.

In the smallest frame, the vegetation of southern Africa appears: lush and unrestricted. Together, the three images generate a dialogue about authenticity; the colonial impulse to extract, refine, and profit; and contemporary efforts to counteract these impulses.

On view through February 2024 in Inheritance.

Todd Gray, Onisimo / Leopold, 2019. Three inkjet prints in artist’s frames and found frames, 36 × 56 × 3 in. (91.4 × 142.2 × 7.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Laura Belgray and Steven Eckler 2020.184. © Todd Gray

Light, chemicals, time, and chance are the ingredients that make a photograph. Our newest exhibition Trust Me features a...
08/19/2023

Light, chemicals, time, and chance are the ingredients that make a photograph. Our newest exhibition Trust Me features artists from the Whitney's collection that embrace elements of chance, accidents, and imperfections in their works. Their intimate photographs depict familial and ancestral bonds, friendship, romantic partnership, and other networks of influence and exchange.

Open now through February 2024. Read more and see the artist list: https://bit.ly/3QKwb7B

D'Angelo Lovell Williams, Elysian, 2018. Pigment print, 44 9/16 × 29 1/2 in. (113.2 × 74.9 cm). Edition 1/8. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Photography Committee 2020.129. © D'Angelo Lovell Williams

TGIF, y'all. We made it! 💃—Thomas Hart Benton, Dancer, 1930. Graphite pencil and wax crayon on paper, 21 1/4 × 14in. (54...
08/18/2023

TGIF, y'all. We made it! 💃

Thomas Hart Benton, Dancer, 1930. Graphite pencil and wax crayon on paper, 21 1/4 × 14in. (54 × 35.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 31.489. © T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Patrick Martinez's neon signs on view in the Museum's lobby have caught the eye of visitors from both inside and outside...
08/17/2023

Patrick Martinez's neon signs on view in the Museum's lobby have caught the eye of visitors from both inside and outside of the building.

These works, Martinez told us, "are inspired by neon signage found in my city of Los Angeles in neon, mom and pop type businesses, the storefronts of those businesses and advertising specific businesses like income tax, checks cash, pawn shop, 24 karat gold jewelry shops. Some of these messages I create on my own. Some of them are from oratorical sources, poetry readings, things that I'm reading, things from the past, things from the present, kind of that need to be re-presented and kind of revisited and kind of heard again."

Hear more from Martinez: https://bit.ly/3OZh6ha

Photo: Max Touhey

08/16/2023

Inheritance is an exhibition that reflects on the multiple meanings of its namesake—whether celebratory or painful, from one era, person, or idea to the next.

Featuring new acquisitions and rarely-seen works from the collection, Inheritance includes artists such as Kevin Beasley, Deana Lawson, Sherrie Levine, Kara Walker, and many others.

The exhibition is on view in our sixth floor galleries through February 2024.

08/14/2023

Have a look at the Whitney Conservation team's wire model of Alexander Calder's circus acrobats. 🎪 In 2013, our conservators spoke to real acrobats about the movements Calder created in his Circus as part of their research.

Watch the full video detailing the process of restoring one of the most beloved works in the Museum's collection: https://bit.ly/3OjQbLu

It's officially the last day of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith:   and  : Project for a New American Century.Thank you to every...
08/13/2023

It's officially the last day of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: and : Project for a New American Century.

Thank you to everyone who visited and shared their experiences with us. If you have yet to see these shows, you have until the Museum closes at 6 pm this evening!

Photos: , , on Instagram

Check out these juicy details in Ilana Savdie's Pinching the Frenulum (2023). 🔍In her work, Savdie often draws a paralle...
08/12/2023

Check out these juicy details in Ilana Savdie's Pinching the Frenulum (2023). 🔍

In her work, Savdie often draws a parallel between the turmoil resulting from incremental moves toward fascism around the globe and the forces at play in the natural world. Under moments of duress, humans, like animals and other living organisms, recoil as a protective mechanism. Other responses, such as fighting or resisting, may cause a predator to tense up and tighten its grip on its subject.

It's difficult to disentangle the biomorphic forms in her paintings, challenging the binary of predator-prey and suggesting a sinister scene of constriction in which survival seems questionable.

Ilana Savdie, Pinching the Frenulum (Frenillo Pellizca'o) (details), 2023. Oil, acrylic, and beeswax on canvas stretched on panel, 120 × 86 in. (304.8 × 218.44 cm). Courtesy the Artist. © Ilana Savdie. Photo: Lance Brewer

Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century closes in just 3 days!In his mid-career survey, Kline presents a chilling...
08/11/2023

Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century closes in just 3 days!

In his mid-career survey, Kline presents a chilling vision of American society that explores the intersections of technology, politics, and culture. Don't miss this urgent and thought-provoking show, which sheds light on the pressing issues of our time and invites us to imagine a different future. On view through this Sunday, August 13.

Installation view of Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 19-August 13, 2023). Photos: Ryan Lowry and Filip Wolak

Last chance! Don't miss Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's largest retrospective to date. With pointed humor, the groundbreaking...
08/09/2023

Last chance! Don't miss Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's largest retrospective to date. With pointed humor, the groundbreaking artist has examined and interpreted life in America from a Native American perspective, focusing on pressing issues of land, racism, and cultural preservation.

is on view through this Sunday, August 13.

Installation view of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 19–August 13, 2023). Photo: Filip Wolak

Pink Floyd, Nina Simone, and Giveon are some of the artists featured on our Spotify playlist for the Inheritance exhibit...
08/08/2023

Pink Floyd, Nina Simone, and Giveon are some of the artists featured on our Spotify playlist for the Inheritance exhibition. These are the songs that Inheritance artists had on repeat while working in their studios. Listen here: https://spoti.fi/3qjT6vN

Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Lorraine O'Grady, Rivers, First Draft, 1982, printed 2015; Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Environmental, 1993

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's art continues the storytelling tradition she grew up with.From an early age she heard the cre...
08/07/2023

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's art continues the storytelling tradition she grew up with.

From an early age she heard the creation stories of the Salish people from her grandmothers and aunts, and Coyote plays an important role in them. First sent by the Creator to prepare the earth for humans, Coyote taught the Salish about spirituality and the sacred relationship of people to the land and all living creatures. But Coyote is also a trickster, whose lessons reveal the chaos and hubris of human lives and actions.

Smith embraces the duality of teacher and trickster in her artistic practice: "The creator, inventor, satirist must show the flip side of things. They turn things upside down in order to lampoon the immorality or insincerity of politicians, priests, or heads of government or show the human condition."

There are just a few days left to see Smith's retrospective at the Whitney! Memory Map closes on Sunday, August 13.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Urban Trickster, 2021. Cast bronze, 28 × 20 1/2 × 24 in. (71.1 × 52.1 × 61 cm). Gochman Family Collection. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

"The idea is not to live forever; it is to create something that will."American artist Andy Warhol would have turned 95 ...
08/06/2023

"The idea is not to live forever; it is to create something that will."

American artist Andy Warhol would have turned 95 today, and we're celebrating with an iconic self portrait from the collection.

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1966, printed 1967. Screenprint: sheet, 23 1/8 × 23 in. (58.7 × 58.4 cm); image, 22 × 22 in. (55.9 × 55.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Katherine Schmidt Shubert Purchase Fund 88.14. © 2023 The Andy for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Used with permission of

08/05/2023

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith said this sculpture, Indian Madonna Enthroned, contains all the ideas of this retrospective.

Curator Laura Phipps gives us an overview of one of the most powerful works in Smith's retrospective exhibition.

Don't miss your chance to see , on view only through Sunday, August 13.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist.Smith's series of collages titled Memori...
08/03/2023

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist.

Smith's series of collages titled Memories of Childhood captures moments from her past. The artist moved frequently due to her father's work as a horse trader, often had little to eat, and sometimes shuffled between foster homes, but despite these hardships, the collages recall dreams of flying above the trees and nights sleeping under the stars with her sister.

The natural world shows up repeatedly in the memories Smith chooses to depict, as seen in the flora and fauna drawn, stamped, and pasted into her compositions.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: is on view through Sunday, August 13.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Memories of Childhood #3 (detail), 1994. Collage of paper with acrylic, pastel, charcoal, and ink, 30 × 22 in. (76.2 × 55.9 cm). Collection of Barbara and Eric Dobkin. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson

Next Friday, August 11, you're invited to a conversation with artist Josh Kline and scholars Helen Hester and Nick Srnic...
08/02/2023

Next Friday, August 11, you're invited to a conversation with artist Josh Kline and scholars Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek, co-authors of After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time (2023).

Together they will discuss automation, post-work politics, and the economics of care and social reproduction, delving into the ideas behind Kline’s works and speculating on the perils and promises of automation and artificial intelligence for the labor force.

Read more and register for free below.

The struggle against work – in all its forms – is the fight for free time… This is not simply a matter of making ‘more time for families’, nor is it a question of more time for waged labor, nor does it concern some mythical idea of work-life balance. The fight for free time is ultimately a...

This is Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's spin on Barbie and Ken.In these drawings, Smith uses the playful quality of paper dol...
07/31/2023

This is Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's spin on Barbie and Ken.

In these drawings, Smith uses the playful quality of paper dolls to satirically yet critically comment on forced assimilation. Paper Dolls for a Post-Columbian World with Ensembles Contributed by the US Government depicts an imagined Salish Kootenai family—Barbie, Ken, and young Bruce Plenty Horses—accompanied by a Jesuit priest.

The artist references the missionary-led residential boarding schools where Native American children, taken from their families and communities, were subjected to horrific abuse. "Genocide isn't just slicing our throats and putting a bullet in our heads, that is back in our families. We all know that. But it is what the government and the churches have done to us," Smith said.

Hear more from the artist: https://bit.ly/47gn6ZZ. And don't miss Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: , on view through August 13.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Paper Dolls for a Post-Columbian World with Ensembles Contributed by the US Government, 1991. Watercolor and graphite pencil on xerographic paper copies, thirteen parts: 17 × 11 in. (43.2 × 27.9 cm) each. Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis; museum purchase from the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art in honor of Gail Kirchner for her commitment to Native American artists and the Eiteljorg Museum 1999.9.3. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Photograph courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

Calling all parents! ☀️ Summer is still going strong. Bring your kids to the Museum for art, city views, and artmaking e...
07/28/2023

Calling all parents! ☀️ Summer is still going strong. Bring your kids to the Museum for art, city views, and artmaking events each week. And don't forget that visitors 18 and under always receive free Whitney admission.

Coming up tomorrow is a special Open Studio with artist Rachel Martin in conjunction with our exhibition Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: . Taking inspiration from the natural world, we'll create double-sided artworks that celebrate how we can be both happy and sad, shy and friendly, curious and bored. Join us from 11 am to 3 pm. Get all the details: https://bit.ly/454cEmx

Photos: , .nana__, , , on Instagram

Good morning. 🌅 Start your day with Georgia O'Keeffe's Morning Sky (1916) from the collection.—Georgia O'Keeffe, Morning...
07/26/2023

Good morning. 🌅 Start your day with Georgia O'Keeffe's Morning Sky (1916) from the collection.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Morning Sky, 1916. Watercolor on paper, 8 7/8 × 12 in. (22.5 × 30.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from The Lauder Foundation - Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Fund, Gilbert and Ann Maurer and the Drawing Committee 94.69. © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

El abuso y la mala gestión medioambiental por parte de la industria y el gobierno han sido puntos de preocupación en la ...
07/25/2023

El abuso y la mala gestión medioambiental por parte de la industria y el gobierno han sido puntos de preocupación en la obra de Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. A través de su activismo y su arte, Smith continúa prestando atención a los cambios medioambientales que observa, desde preocupaciones globales hasta la salud de los ecosistemas cercanos a su hogar e incluso en el jardín de su casa.

La artista ha dicho: "La ecología es una ciencia que han practicado los pueblos indígenas de este continente durante miles de años. Por ejemplo, en mi tribu, después de cosechar la raíz amarga para el banquete de primavera, existe el acto específico de limpiar las plantas para asegurar que surja la cosecha del próximo año. Esto es devolver. Ha sido nuestra forma de sobrevivir".

No te pierdas Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, en exposición hasta el 13 de agosto.

The abuse and mismanagement of the environment by industry and government have been points of concern in Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's work. Through her activism and her art, Smith continues to attend to the environmental changes she sees—from global concerns to the health of ecosystems near her home and even in her backyard garden.

The artist has said, "Ecology is a science that has been practiced by the Native people on this continent for thousands of years. For instance, in my tribe, after harvesting the bitterroot for the spring feast, there is the specific act of cleaning the plants to ensure next year's crop. This is giving back. This has been our way of survival."

Don't miss Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, on view through August 13.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Waltz (detail), 2002. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 72 × 48 in. (182.9 × 121.9 cm). Collection of Sascha S. Bauer. © Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith. Photograph courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

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Jaune on Joan.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith muses on her admiration for fellow artist Joan Mitchell, whose painting Hemlock (1956), shown here, is a treasured work in the Whitney's collection.

Smith's retrospective Memory Map is on view now through August 13.

Archival images courtesy the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Artwork: Joan Mitchell, Hemlock, 1956. Oil on canvas, 91 x 80 in. (231.1 x 203.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art 58.20. © Estate of Joan Mitchell
"Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface."

Beloved American artist Donald Judd was born on this day in 1928. This untitled 1968 work from the collection is fabricated from steel and amber plexiglass and displays a complex relationship between open and enclosed volumes. The enclosed volumes can be seen through the transparent plexiglass whose amber tint also colors the space around it.

Whereas in traditional sculpture we have to imagine what fills an interior, in Judd's work we see what he called "actual space" with a literality and directness that encompasses the inside as well as the exterior.

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1968. Stainless steel and plexiglass, 33 × 68 × 48 in. (83.8 × 172.7 × 121.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. 68.36. © Judd Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Happy from the Whitney! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ We're thrilled to host a suite of events in and around the Museum throughout the month.

Discover the q***r history of the Meatpacking District, dance the night away at a party inspired by NYC's iconic ballroom culture, and get creative with artists. LGBTQ+ visitors and allies are invited to free parties, film screenings, creative workshops, performances, and more. Details: https://whitney.org/pride-2023
It's officially Ellsworth Kelly Day! That's right—in honor of Ellsworth Kelly's centennial today, Mayor Adams has proclaimed May 31st Ellsworth Kelly Day in New York City. Celebrate by browsing Kelly works in the collection here: https://bit.ly/3C1swK2 and watching our 3-part miniseries on Reels, up now.

On the occasion of Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century, join us for Beyond Art: Artists Making Movies next Wednesday, June 7, at 6:30 pm. The event brings together artists to share their work and discuss the possibilities and stakes of making moving image works outside of the art world.

Speakers include Makayla Bailey, Aria Dean, Catharine Czudej, Diane Severin Nguyen, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Josh Kline, who will moderate the conversation.

Join us at the Museum or online via Zoom. Details and registration: https://bit.ly/3WIwvF6

Josh Kline, still from Adaptation, 2019–22. 16mm film, color, sound; 10:45 min. Installation: projector, film looper, plastic tarp, house paint, plastic storage bins, and custom stand (steel, urethane resin, urethane rubber, and urethane dye). Collection of the artist; courtesy the artist and 47 Canal, New York. © Josh Kline
"I see myself as a provocateur," artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith told Apollo: The International Art Magazine.

On the occasion of Smith's retrospective , the artist chatted with Apollo about her upbringing and early interest in artmaking, the motifs and references in her work, and what she wants visitors to take away from her Whitney exhibition.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/3ICFjq0

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith photographed by Ungelbah Dávila in 2021
Got holiday weekend plans? ⛅️ Kick off summer at the Whitney this evening with Pay-What-You-Wish admission from 7 to 10 pm!

The Museum is open with regular hours through the weekend, with free admission for visitors 18 and under, as always. Tickets: https://whitney.org/tickets

Installation view of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 19-August 13, 2023). Photo: Filip Wolak
Fleet Week 2023 in NYC is a perfect time to remind you that we always offer free admission to active members and veterans of the U.S. military with valid ID, and to military families with dependent cards.

Read more and reserve tickets now at the link in our bio.

Edward Hopper, (Destroyer and Rocky Shore), 1923–1924. Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper, 13 7/8 × 19 15/16 in. (35.2 × 50.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.1136. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Josh Kline's Personal Responsibility (2023–) is a sculptural installation set in the future, in the aftermath of climate disaster.

Borrowing their forms from the temporary shelters used by refugees and migrants in the U.S. and around the world, the tent like structures here serve as both home and workplace for different types of "essential workers"—the people who will still have to physically go into work, often at great personal risk, when those in higher-paying jobs can work from home in comfort and safety.

The installation also features Capture and Sequestration (2023), a video that centers 4 iconic commodities made from materials that powered America's rise as the world’s preeminent military, economic, and cultural power: sugar, to***co, cotton, and oil.

Installation view of Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 19-August 13, 2023). Disinformation, 2023; Personal Responsibility: Keith, 2023. Photo: Ron Amstutz
In celebration of artist Ellsworth Kelly's upcoming centennial on May 31, our chief curator Scott Rothkopf gives us a quick intro to the magic of Kelly's work.

Stay tuned for more video shorts!

Ellsworth Kelly
Today's virtual tour stop on Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map brings us to 1992. This year marked planned celebrations for the quincentennial of Christopher Columbus's landing in the Americas, provoking a powerful response from artists and activists.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and a group of her friends formed the Submuloc Society, making T-shirts and pins and organizing activities for anti-celebrations. "Submuloc" is "Columbus" backward and this was a goal of the society—to reverse or counter the popular stories of European contact.

During this period, Smith's incorporation of clippings from newspapers, magazines, and books recalls the methods of artists like Robert Rauschenberg, but her approach differs: she leans into, rather than away from, the cultural significance and authority that printed matter can convey. These works confront the violence of displacement and the extreme inequities of the earliest negotiations between Indigenous peoples and settlers in North America.

Don't miss , on view through August 13.

Installation view of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 19–August 13, 2023). Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People), 1992. Photo: Ryan Lowry
Mother of All Demos III is part of American Artist's exploration of Black labor and visibility, as well as anti-Blackness within networked life and digital systems.

Here, a functional computer is covered in dirt and a black gooey liquid. "The shape of the computer is modeled after the Apple II," the artist said, "which was the last commercial personal computer that used this all-black interface. And I wanted to make a computer that was really rooted in this moment where Blackness served as the basis of what could be done in virtual space."

The materiality of the computer stands in stark opposition to the slickness of Silicon Valley aesthetics and highlights how design choices reflect ideologies rather than the inherent properties of digital interfaces.

Hear more from American Artist in the Refigured audio guide: https://bit.ly/3OpWNtj. The exhibition is on view in our free first floor gallery through 3.

Installation view of Refigured (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 3–July 2023). American Artist, Mother of All Demos III, 2022. Photo: Ron Amstutz
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith collaborated with her son Neal Ambrose-Smith on this moving sculpture.

Warrior for the 21st Century periodically dances to the sound of a rattle while a voice counts to ten in the Salish language. The work is constructed of objects that, as Ambrose-Smith notes, are "all the things that you might need as a warrior for the 21st century," from aspirin and echinacea to playing cards.

The warrior also carries a copy of the 1855 Treaty of Hellgate, which established the reservation lands of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, where Smith was born and returns to often; it serves as a reminder of past struggles with the federal government and the limitations of working within a colonial legal structure to protect land, water, and resources.
Just over two years ago we unveiled David Hammons's Day's End after six years of planning, preparation, fabrication, and construction.

Permanently installed in Hudson River Park's Gansevoort Peninsula, Day's End pays homage to artist Gordon Matta Clark, whose artwork of the same title involved cutting five openings into the Pier 52 shed that formerly occupied this site.

With six bays in total, the monumental sculpture measures 325 feet long—nearly the size of a football field. Fun fact: the sculpture was one of the largest public art projects completed in the U.S. in 2021.

David Hammons, Day’s End, 2014–21. Stainless steel and precast concrete, 52 × 325 × 65 ft. (15.9 × 99 × 20 m) overall. © David Hammons. Photo: Jason Schmidt
In celebration of Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith: , we're hosting a free, day-long convening this Friday at the Museum.

The event gathers an intergenerational group of Native American artists, curators, and scholars for conversations about the ongoing and overarching concerns in Smith's work, including land, sovereignty, and Indigenous knowledge and identity.

We've just released more tickets to attend in person, or join us for a livestream on YouTube. Get all the details: https://bit.ly/3Mxezd1

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Genesis, 1993. Oil, paper, newspaper, fabric, and charcoal on canvas, two panels: 60 × 100 in. (152.4 × 254 cm) overall. High Museum of Art, Atlanta; purchase with funds provided by AT&T NEW ART/NEW VISIONS and with funds from Alfred Austell Thornton in memory of Leila Austell Thornton and Albert Edward Thornton, Sr., and Sarah Miller Venable and William Hoyt Venable. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Photograph courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
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