A small vintage circus dancer puppet in a leaping pose on a red fringe-covered platform.
A small vintage circus dancer puppet in a leaping pose on a red fringe-covered platform.

Alexander Calder, Calder's Circus (detail), 1926-31 (installation view, High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 9, 2026). Wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. One half the funds were contributed by the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust. Additional major donations were given by The Lauder Foundation; the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.; the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc.; an anonymous donor; The T. M. Evans Foundation, Inc.; MacAndrews & Forbes Group, Incorporated; the DeWitt Wallace Fund, Inc.; Martin and Agneta Gruss; Anne Phillips; Mr. and Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller; the Simon Foundation, Inc.; Marylou Whitney; Bankers Trust Company; Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Dayton; Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz; Irvin and Kenneth Feld; Flora Whitney Miller. More than 500 individuals from 26 states and abroad also contributed to the campaign 83.36.1-72. © 2026 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Gus Powell

Last chance

High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100
Through Mar 9
Learn more about the exhibition Book Tickets
A large group of people dance together outdoors, raising their arms, while others watch and walk nearby.

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The Whitney Biennial 

The Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art, and has been a hallmark of the Museum since 1932. The current format—a survey show of work in all media occurring every two years—has been in place since 1973. Mark your calendars for the next iteration, opening March 2026. 

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artport

Check out art that's created specifically for the web on artport—the Whitney's gallery space for Internet and new-media art.

Dive Into Our Collection

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  • A steep pinkish cliff with a cascading waterfall and a lone pine tree in the foreground.
    A steep pinkish cliff with a cascading waterfall and a lone pine tree in the foreground.

    Chiura Obata, Evening Glow of Yosemite Fall, 1930. Woodblock print, sheet: 17 7/8 × 13 1/8 in. (45.4 × 33.3 cm) Image: 15 7/16 × 10 7/8 in. (39.2 × 27.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Gyo Obata 2014.280. © Gyo Obata

  • Seven young women stand confidently on concrete arches in a fenced urban schoolyard.
    Seven young women stand confidently on concrete arches in a fenced urban schoolyard.

    Kwame Brathwaite, Untitled (Photo shoot at a school for one of the many modeling groups who had begun to embrace natural hairstyles in the 1960s), c.1966, printed 2018. Inkjet print, sheet (sight): 29 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (75.2 × 75.2 cm) Image (sight): 29 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (75.2 × 75.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Brian Silver 2018.136. © Kwame Brathwaite

  • Broad swaths of black, navy, gray, orange, and pink soar across a white canvas.
    Broad swaths of black, navy, gray, orange, and pink soar across a white canvas.

    Ed Clark, Winter Bitch, 1959. Acrylic, oil, and pastel on canvas, overall: 77 × 77 in. (195.6 × 195.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee and partial gift of the artist 2019.307. © Ed Clark

  • Crowded nighttime street with brass musicians playing while people dance, walk, and watch from porches.
    Crowded nighttime street with brass musicians playing while people dance, walk, and watch from porches.

    Archibald John Motley, Jr., Gettin' Religion, 1948. Oil on linen, overall: 32 × 39 7/16 in. (81.3 × 100.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, by exchange 2016.15. © Valerie Gerrard Browne

  • People in a boat with blue ropes, wearing patterned clothing, appear thoughtful and somber.
    People in a boat with blue ropes, wearing patterned clothing, appear thoughtful and somber.

    Jacob Lawrence, War Series: Going Home, 1947. Tempera on composition board, overall: 16 1/8 × 20 3/16 in. (41 × 51.3 cm) Image: 15 7/8 × 20 1/16 × 1/8 in. (40.3 × 51 × 0.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roy R. Neuberger 51.17a-b. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • A man in a leather jacket focuses as he lights a cigarette on a dimly lit street.
    A man in a leather jacket focuses as he lights a cigarette on a dimly lit street.

    Peter Hujar, David Lighting Up, 1985. Gelatin silver print, sheet (sight): 14 13/16 × 14 7/8 in. (37.6 × 37.8 cm) Image (sight): 14 5/8 × 14 3/4 in. (37.1 × 37.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection 2024.284. © The Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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.