Part of Robert Ashley and Alex Waterman’s contribution to the Biennial, The Trial of Anne Opie Wehrer and Unknown Accomplices for Crimes Against Humanity is a “speaking opera” from 1968, in which the main speaker (Anne Opie Wehrer in the original) is asked to publicly answer one hundred questions about her life (by an interrogator offstage). A series of improvised interruptions, diversions, and cross-examinations by two pairs of men and women creates a cacophonous score, with sounds of evasions, sarcastic questions and answers, laughter, and a huge, complex “story” about life as they all have lived it.

At the Biennial Anne will be replaced by four contemporary art-world personalities: artist Amy Sillman (also exhibiting in the Biennial), poet and cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum, artist, actress, and forensic therapist Mary Farley, and visual artist Barbara Bloom. The new version of the piece will realize Anne Opie Wehrer’s dream of being at The Whitney, almost 40 years to the day after she wrote a letter to Marcia Tucker in 1974, “Proposed for the Whitney—in its museum form as a living sculpture.”

April 23–24, 26–27
2pm–4:30pm

$20 general admission; $16 senior citizens and students. Tickets are required, and quantities are limited. See all ticketing information.

Age & Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or &:-/ is a duet Miguel Gutierrez performs with young dancer Mickey Mahar. The piece deals with mid-career anxiety, futurity and tropes about the aging gay choreographer, and is the first of a three part series of queer pieces addressing longevity, sustainability, aesthetic signature and burnout.

April 23
4:30 pm

April 24
2:30 and 4:30 pm

April 25
3:30, 5:30, and 7:30 pm

April 26–27
12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 pm

April 30–May 1
2:30 and 4:30 pm

May 2
3:30, 5:30, and 7:30 pm

May 3–4
12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 pm

$20 general admission; $16 senior citizens and students; free for members. Tickets are required, and quantities are limited. See all ticketing information.

Available Light, a new book on Zoe Leonard, highlights two of her recent bodies of work: a series of installations employing the camera obscura—the most recent of which is on view in the 2014 Biennial—as well as photographs of the sun realized as gelatin-silver prints. With texts by Diedrich Diederichsen, Suzanne Hudson, Glenn Ligon, and Eileen Myles, the publication poses fundamental questions about the medium of photography and the nature of sight. 

Join us as Leonard signs copies of Available Light accompanied by Eileen Myles, who will read from her work. Refreshments will be served, and a limited edition will be available for special order.

To purchase a copy of Available Light, visit the shop.

This event is free. No registration is required.

Join fellow Contemporaries as we visit the New York collection of Barbara and Michael Gamson, members of the Whitney’s National Committee. The Gamson’s collection features an impressive array of contemporary American artists, including Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman, Charles Ray, Mark Bradford, Richard Phillips, Karen Kilimnik, and Jenny Holzer.

Currently, this event is full. Contemporaries members who would like to be added to the wait list may email contemporaries@whitney.org.