American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe

Dec 22, 2012–June 29, 2014

A pop still life of a bowl of fruit by Roy Lichtenstein
A pop still life of a bowl of fruit by Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), Still Life with Crystal Bowl, 1972. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 52 × 42 in. (132.1 × 106.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, purchase, with funds from Frances and Sydney Lewis 77.64. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe showcases the Whitney’s holdings of artwork from the first half of the twentieth century alongside that of postwar figures. The exhibition includes work by thirteen leading artists: Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Burgoyne Diller, William Eggleston, Morris Graves, Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Jacob Lawrence, Roy Lichtenstein, Elie Nadelman, Alice Neel, and Georgia O’Keeffe. One- and two-artist presentations provide a survey of each artist’s work across a range of media.

American Legends is organized by Barbara Haskell, Curator.

Ongoing support for the permanent collection and major support for American Legends: From Calder to O'Keeffe is provided by Bank of America.

Additional support for American Legends is provided by Susan R.Malloy, The Gage Fund, and Lynn G. Straus.

Press Highlights

"The Whitney Museum is New York’s go-to institution for the crazy-quilt history of early- and mid-20th-century American art, and its new permanent-collection display, American Legends: From Calder to O’Keeffe, is one of its best in years."
—The New York Times

"Ranging from Edward Hopper’s melancholia to the sensuous work of Georgia O’Keeffe, the exhibition offers an extraordinarily wide view of 20th-century American art before Abstract Expressionism."
—Bloomberg Businessweek

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.