Last Chance: Vida Americana
Vida Americana and los tres grandes
Vida Americana and los tres grandes
Give the gift of Whitney Membership
Aliza Nisenbaum on Vida Americana
Derek Fordjour on Vida Americana
Alan Michelson, Wolf Nation
Cauleen Smith, In the Wake
David Hammons's Day's End: Highlights from the Groundbreaking
One year ago today, we celebrated the groundbreaking of David Hammons's Day's End, a permanent public sculpture in Hudson River Park directly across from the Museum. The work will be completed later this year.
We're excited to share a video directed by Hammons himself documenting the festivities, including a "water tango" by the FDNY and the premiere of 6 to 5, 5 to 6, a 2019 work (shown here) by composer Henry Threadgill.
Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/kYxnnR1WBmc
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Excerpt from David Hammons: Day's End Groundbreaking, Sept 16, 2019
Diego Rivera's Detroit Institute of Arts mural
Take in the entirety of Diego Rivera's mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts in this rotating panorama. Originally created as an interactive element of our exhibition Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, we've now made this virtual experience available on our website.
Rivera was commissioned in 1932 to create what became a 27-panel mural cycle filling all four walls of the covered courtyard of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The artist's encounter with modern industry in the United States resulted in this depiction of the country's engineering and industrial achievements along with its abundant natural resources—a notable departure from Rivera's usual themes of political revolution and capitalist corruption.
Explore the many intricate details of this mural here: https://bit.ly/3kfUPta. And if you find yourself in Detroit, you can see the work in person. #VidaAmericana
Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen
Martha Rosler uses parody as feminist critique in this deadpan video. The work references popular cooking shows of the 1960s and 1970s, such as The French Chef that featured Julia Child.
Instead of demonstrating recipes, Rosler gestures with cooking utensils and calls them out by name, one for each letter of the alphabet, A to Z. In this clip she cites grater, hamburger press, ice pick, juicer, and knife—a sampling that can be seen both as objects of domesticity and tools that oppress women.
Rosler has said that she plays the role of "an anti-Julia Child" who "replaces the domesticated 'meaning' of tools with a lexicon of rage and frustration."
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Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen, 1975. Video, 6:09 min. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 1975 Martha Rosler
Stephen Vitiello, World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd
On the nineteenth anniversary of 9/11, we're sharing a sound installation by Stephen Vitiello from the Whitney's collection.
Vitiello began making recordings from his studio on the 91st floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center while participating in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's artist-in-residence program. Based on a recording Vitiello made the day after Hurricane Floyd struck New York in September 1999, this work captures the noises of the swaying building stressed by the fierce winds.
Shown at the 2002 Whitney Biennial in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, the piece assumed the status of an unwitting memorial to all that was lost.
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Stephen Vitiello, World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd (excerpt), 1999/2002. Sound installation, 8:20 min., with DVD surround sound mix and chromogenic print face mounted to plexiglass and mounted on aluminum. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee 2003.89. © 1999/2002 Stephen Vitiello
Pay-What-You-Wish
Don't forget that admission to the Whitney is Pay-What-You-Wish for all visitors through September 28! Usually offered on Friday evenings, we are pleased to extend this program as a thank-you to New Yorkers.
We've laid out everything you need to know about your next visit, including reserving timed tickets here: whitney.org/visit. We're excited to see you at the Museum soon.
Laura Ortman | Whitney Biennial 2019
Musician, composer, and 2019 Whitney Biennial artist Laura Ortman experiments with genre-bending approaches to music and performance, drawing on both her classical violin training and Indigenous musical traditions.
A year later, we're looking back on this solo musical performance that celebrates the summer solstice and showcases the wide range of her practice as a composer and visual artist.
Claes Oldenburg's BLT
Step into Claes Oldenburg's kitchen.
In this video from our archives, former Whitney curator Dana Miller narrates the assembling of Claes Oldenburg's Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich). Using early installation photographs as a reference, Miller guides art handlers through the placement of each of the sandwich components. This careful process is one of the many ways, the curator explains, in which Oldenburg's work encourages the viewer to "look at your world with fresh eyes."
Casey Reas, Software Structures
"Casey Reas's Software Structures changed my life," says Colin Brooks, senior web developer.
"When I started college, I didn't have a handle on my interests. I spent a lot of time bouncing between just about everything, lurching in new directions in the hope of finding something that clicked.
At a point when I was making more art and half-heartedly committing to computer science, my academic advisor pointed me to a book on generative art—artworks created in part with an autonomous, systematic collaborator. The book included some of Reas’s Software Structures, and I still remember how much they surprised me. I was struck by how complex and natural they appeared, how much they could change over time, and how understandable the rules that made them were. At a time when I was deeply struggling with imposter syndrome in so many areas of my life, seeing these works gave me hope that I could find an intersection where I belonged.
A decade later, it’s clear that this was a pivotal moment for me. Getting to know Reas's work changed how I thought about art, what I made, the classes I took, and eventually the career I found myself in. I still find comfort in these works where even the artist doesn’t know exactly what will happen next." #CollectionReflection
Ja'Tovia Gary, An Ecstatic Experience
Dyeemah Simmons, director of access and community programs, reflects on a favorite work in the Whitney's collection:
"I've been thinking about Ja'Tovia Gary's powerful and haunting film An Ecstatic Experience (2015), which was on view in the Whitney's exhibition An Incomplete History of Protest. The film fuses found video footage of civil rights activist and actress Ruby Dee performing the slave narrative of Fannie Moore, a black choir performing ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic,’ and riots in Ferguson and Baltimore in 2014 and 2015 after the murders of Mike Brown and Freddie Gray. Gary animates the footage by scratching, bleaching, and painting onto the actual surface of the 16mm film, inserting herself into these critical moments in history.
During this moment of national reckoning with the pervasive racism in our country, An Ecstatic Experience reminds me of the incredible resilience of the Black community, and of the power artists have to make illuminating connections between the past and present. As we all continue to look for answers as to what the future holds, the significant role that artists play cannot be emphasized enough. An Ecstatic Experience feeds my soul in a way that feels imperative at this time."
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Ja'Tovia Gary, An Ecstatic Experience, 2015. Video, color, sound; 6 min. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz. © Ja'Tovia Gary
Kota Ezawa
This week's Whitney Screens presents Kota Ezawa's National Anthem, an animation that depicts NFL football players taking a knee during "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Protesting police violence against unarmed Black men, the practice was started in 2016 by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Later Kaepernick filed a grievance against NFL owners for colluding against signing him because of his gesture of protest; he ultimately reached a settlement with the NFL on the matter. In June 2020, the NFL apologized for not supporting the protests.
The subject of this work—like that of Ezawa's 2002 animation of O. J. Simpson's murder trial—encapsulates many issues that the artist has taken up over the years, including celebrity, race, violence, and politics, especially as they intersect in the media.
This screening will present the film in its entirety for free on Friday, July 3, at 7 pm ET, and will remain on Vimeo until Sunday, July 5, at 10 pm ET. Check out this 2019 Biennial artist profile video ahead of the screening to hear from Ezawa on National Anthem.
Watch here beginning Friday at 7 pm: https://bit.ly/3eP5aKm
Whitney Stories: Vincent Punch
"You meet all kinds of people and you see all kinds of behavior just standing there and observing."
Vincent Punch has been a guard at the Whitney for more than fifteen years. And during that time, he's seen myriad exhibitions across two buildings, snapped countless candid photos, and developed a distinct eye for spontaneous visual arrangements that take place every day in the galleries. (Just check out his Instagram @vinpunch163 to see what we mean.)
Revisit this episode of Whitney Stories, filmed in our Breuer building in 2014, to hear Punch muse on photography and his unique connection to the Museum.
artport
Everyone's viewing art online more than ever before, but what about works specifically created for the internet?
Since 2001, the Whitney has been commissioning original net art and new media art for artport—the Whitney’s portal to internet art and an online gallery space. Learn more about artport from curator Christiane Paul and artists Katherine Moriwaki and Jonah Brucker-Cohen, including the Whitney's history of commissioning net art and the web's unique impact on artists today.
Begin exploring nearly twenty years of artport here: https://whitney.org/artport.
Rachel Rose, Everything and More
This week's Whitney Screens is our first triple feature: That's right, three for the price of none! Tune in on Friday at 7 pm ET to see a trio of films by Rachel Rose with an introduction from chief curator Scott Rothkopf. Vimeo link: https://bit.ly/2WPqQPS
This bubbly, gooey video excerpt is from Everything and More (2015), which delves into the experience of sensory disembodiment in outer space, combining footage filmed in a pool that simulates zero gravity for astronauts in training with handmade liquid abstractions. Rose layers these visuals with the voice of a NASA astronaut as he describes his perceptions of Earth and space to the artist.
Curious to learn more about Rose? Check out Carnegie Museum of Art digital exhibition of her work, which "opens" today on their website: https://bit.ly/36jhteo
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Rachel Rose, Everything and More, 2015. HD video; 11 minutes and 39 seconds. Courtesy of the artist, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London and Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York/Rome
The Island
Grab your popcorn: this week's Whitney Screens is almost here! 🍿 Tomorrow at 7 pm ET, we're livestreaming Tuan Andrew Nguyen's The Island on Vimeo with a special introduction from Whitney curator Christopher Y. Lew.
A sci-fi story of the last woman and man stranded at the end of the world in a dystopian future, the film is set against a backdrop of archival news footage of the refugee crisis caused by the Vietnam War. As past and future collapse together in ways both haunting and cyclical, Nguyen's work serves as a warning for us all: learn from history or succumb to a future not wanted.
Read more and join us: https://bit.ly/3dNJPQS
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Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Island, 2017. Ultra-high-definition video, color, sound; 42:05 min. Courtesy the artist
Cecil Taylor at the Whitney
The largest column-free museum exhibition space in New York belongs to the Whitney's Neil Bluhm Family Galleries. As we look back on our first five years in the #NewWhitney building, Danielle Bias, assistant director of communications, recalls jazz musician Cecil Taylor's powerful 2016 performance in that space:
"Shortly after I began working at the Whitney, the Museum debuted Open Plan: Cecil Taylor, a retrospective devoted to the work of the singular musician-composer-poet. In addition to archival video, scores, poetry, and ephemera tracing Taylor's long career, the gallery space was activated in a series of concerts, one of which Taylor presented on the eve of the exhibition's opening. I'd already seen him perform on three occasions, and I looked forward to the concert with great anticipation.
Taylor and other pioneers of free improvisation were accused of making music in ways that most audiences just could not get into: too cacophonous or formless for many. But this belief—which I certainly don't share—stood in sharp contrast to what I witnessed that evening. The hundreds of people who filled the gallery were mesmerized by Taylor's playing, poetry, and movement. He performed for nearly two hours, but I could've easily watched and listened for many hours more.
Although the Open Plan concerts were some of Taylor's final public performances before he died in 2018, they'll certainly be remembered not for being among the last, but as vivid displays of Taylor's generous yet uncompromising genius." #tbt
Juan Antonio Olivares, Moléculas
Don't miss the next Whitney Screens—our new series of Friday-night screenings of contemporary video art. This week we're presenting Juan Antonio Olivares's Moléculas, a highly personal work, for the artist that explores fundamental questions about family, loss, separation, and contemporary politics.
Ahead of the screening this Friday at 7 pm (https://bit.ly/2YEX55P), Jane Panetta, director of the collection, offers a #CollectionReflection on this timely work:
"For me, Moléculas has always been about ideas of loss and memory that ultimately affect all of us, and the ways in which we struggle to process these things over time.
The work's poignant narration is based on an impromptu conversation Juan had with his father while living and studying in Germany. By combining his use of animation—complete with an injured, stuffed bear as an unassuming narrator—with personal material from his father, Juan created something both familiar and highly specific."
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Juan Antonio Olivares, Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound; 10:00 min. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Trailer courtesy the artist.
Daniel Lind-Ramos in Loíza, Puerto Rico
The New York Times recently published a story about how Daniel Lind-Ramos, who was featured in last year's Biennial, is working amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
Lind-Ramos is no stranger to creating art under difficult conditions. The Puerto Rico-born and -based artist lived through Hurricane Maria in 2017, an experience that helped inform his Biennial sculpture Maria-Maria. "Where you find objects related to catastrophe, you can create images," the artist told the Times.
Maria-Maria is made in part from the same kind of blue tarps that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) used to patch damaged buildings after the hurricane. Although intended as a temporary measure, the tarps have endured, becoming a symbol of federal neglect and the pervasive effects of colonialist attitudes.
Learn more about Lind-Ramos's artistic practice in this video created on the occasion of the 2019 Biennial, and see him at work in his hometown of Loíza, Puerto Rico.
David Hammons's Day's End: Highlights from the Groundbreaking
Only six months remain until the unveiling of David Hammons's Day's End—a new permanent public sculpture in Hudson River Park, directly across from the Whitney, inspired by Gordon Matta-Clark's 1975 art intervention of the same name.
Stay tuned for monthly updates as we globe-trot—from the shores of the Hudson River to Brazil to Italy to Canada and back—to follow the fabrication of Hammons's open-structure "ghost monument" to Matta-Clark.
To kick things off, we're sharing highlights from the groundbreaking held at the Museum in September 2019, which included a spectacular "water tango" on the Hudson performed by the New York City Fire Department's Marine Company 9 fireboat, the Fire Fighter II, as well as the premiere of the first part of "6 to 5, 5 to 6," a new work by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Henry Threadgill commissioned by the Whitney for the occasion.
Next month: Join us for a trip to Santa Catarina, Brazil, where the couplers that will connect the sculpture's steel beams are being created.
Learn more about the project at whitney.org/DaysEnd. #HammonsDaysEnd
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Renderings of David Hammons's Day's End courtesy Guy Nordenson and Associates. Footage from Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End, 1975. ©️ 2020
