Glenn Ligon: AMERICA
Mar 10–June 5, 2011
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Rückenfigur, 2009. Neon and paint, 24 x 145 x 4 in. (61 x 368.3 x 10 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Paint and Sculpture Committee T.2010.71. © Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon: AMERICA is the first comprehensive mid-career retrospective devoted to this pioneering New York–based artist. Throughout his career, Ligon (b. 1960) has pursued an incisive exploration of American history, literature, and society across a body of work that builds critically on the legacies of modern painting and more recent conceptual art. He is best known for his landmark series of text-based paintings, made since the late 1980s, which draw on the writings and speech of diverse figures including Jean Genet, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesse Jackson, and Richard Pryor. Ligon’s subject matter ranges widely from the Million Man March and the aftermath of slavery to 1970s coloring books and the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe—all treated within artworks that are both politically provocative and beautiful to behold.
This exhibition features roughly one hundred works, including paintings, prints, photography, drawings, and sculptural installations, as well as striking recent neon reliefs, one newly commissioned for the Whitney’s Madison Avenue windows. Ligon’s most iconic works will be presented alongside previously unexhibited early paintings and drawings, which will shed new light on his artistic origins. The exhibition is accompanied by an amply illustrated catalogue that examines Ligon’s working methods in the context of American culture more broadly. Yourself in the World, a companion volume published by the Whitney and Yale University Press, collects Ligon’s lively interviews and trenchant essays on topics ranging from pop culture and the work of young artists to the first post-Katrina Biennial in New Orleans.
Glenn Ligon: AMERICA is organized by Whitney curator Scott Rothkopf. The exhibition travels to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the fall of 2011 and to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in early 2012.
Major support for Glenn Ligon: AMERICA is provided by the National Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Significant support is provided by Candy and Michael Barasch; The Broad Art Foundation; Lise and Michael Evans; Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins; The Maurice Marciano Family Foundation; Agnes Gund; Tony Salamé: Aïshti foundation; the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; Barbara and Richard Lane; Gregory R. Miller and Michael Wiener; Charles and Nathalie de Gunzburg; Rodney M. Miller Sr.; Lenore and Adam Sender; Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn; Steven Latner, Michael Latner, and H. A. Latner; and an anonymous donor.
Artworks
Glenn Ligon (b.1960), Mirror, 2002. Coal dust, printing ink, glue, gesso, and graphite on canvas, 82 5/8 × 55 1/8 in. (209.9 × 147.6 cm). Collection of Mellody Hobson © Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon, Untitled (I Am a Man), 1988. Oil and enamel on canvas. 40 × 25 in. (101.6 × 63.5 cm). Collection of the artist © Glenn Ligon; photograph by Ronald Amstutz
Glenn Ligon, Hands, 1996. Silkscreen ink and gesso on unstretched canvas. 82 × 144 in. (208.3 × 365.8 cm). Collection of Eileen Harris Norton © Glenn Ligon; photograph by Fredrik Nilsen
Glenn Ligon (b.1960), Sun (Version 2) #1, 2001. Silkscreen ink, oil stick, and gesso on canvas, 48 × 36 in. (121.9 × 91.4 cm). Collection of Eileen Harris Norton © Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon (b.1960), Self-Portrait, 1996. Silkscreen ink and gesso on canvas, 48 × 40 in. (121.9 × 101.6 cm). Collection of the artist © Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon (b.1960), Untitled (Speech/Crowd #2), 2000. Silkscreen ink, coal dust, ink, and glue on paper, 40 × 54 in. (101.6 × 137.2 cm). Collection of the artist © Glenn Ligon; image courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles; photograph by Ronald Amstutz
Glenn Ligon, Untitled (I Feel Most Colored When I Am Thrown Against a Sharp White Background), 1990. Oil stick, gesso, and graphite on wood. 80 × 30 in. (203.2 × 76.2 cm). Collection of Eileen Harris Norton © Glenn Ligon; photograph courtesy of Glenn Ligon; photograph by Dennis Cowley
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Untitled (Conclusion), 2004. Oil stick, synthetic polymer, oil, coal dust, glue, and graphite on canvas in two parts. 90 × 144 in. (228.6 × 365.8 cm). Collection of Jill and Peter Kraus © Glenn Ligon; image courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Therapy #1, 2004. Oil stick, synthetic polymer, and graphite on canvas, 32 × 32 in. (81.3 × 81.3 cm). Collection of Shaun Caley Regen © Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Endless Column/Nu Nile (Yellow), 1985. Synthetic polymer, ink, and graphite on paper, 22 1/8 × 15 1/4 in. (56.2 × 38.7 cm). Collection of the artist © Glenn Ligon; image courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles; photograph by Ronald Amstutz
Installation view of Glenn Ligon: AMERICA (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 10–June 5, 2011). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins.
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), No. 276 (Honeycomb), 1990. Oil, synthetic polymer, oil stick, and graphite on paper, 30 × 22 1/4 in. (76.2 × 56.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Emily Fisher Landau P.2010.187. © Glenn Ligon; photograph by Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art.com
Events
View all-
Family Fun Art Workshop: Working with Words
Saturday, Mar 5, 2011
10:30 am–12:30 pm -
Member Preview Day:
Glenn Ligon: AMERICAWednesday, Mar 9, 2011
12–6 pm -
Opening Reception: Glenn Ligon: AMERICA and Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection
Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011
7–9 pm -
Glenn Ligon: AMERICA
Friday, Mar 18, 2011
12–1 pm
Audio guides
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Rückenfigur, 2009. Neon and paint, 24 x 145 x 4 in. (61 x 368.3 x 10 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Paint and Sculpture Committee T.2010.71. © Glenn Ligon
This audio guide, introduced by Alice Pratt Brown Director Adam D. Weinberg, highlights a diverse range of works from the exhibition Glenn Ligon: AMERICA. Artist Glenn Ligon, exhibition curator Scott Rothkopf, and Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, provide additional commentary.
Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection
View 18 works
In the News
Review: “Sometimes a career survey doubles as a scan of social history. This is true of Glenn Ligon’s retrospective at the Whitney.”
—The New York Times
Review: "rescues a star of the era of identity politics from a blind spot in the present art world"
—The New Yorker
“the rare tour de force that is as rich in ideas as it is in its wondrous mix of materials. Consider this a must-see.”
—WNYC
“Art that Transcends ‘Black’ and ‘Gay’”
—The Root
“The Inside Story on Outsiderness”
—The New York Times
Interactive: Curator Scott Rothkopf narrates a look at several works in the exhibition
—The New York Times
"Although deeply pointed and courageous, Ligon’s artistic voice is more subtle than strident, more investigative than declarative, the breadth of his subject matter matched by the wide range of mediums he employs."
—ArtDaily
Glenn Ligon: AMERICA is named a must-see for 2011
—The Huffington Post
Interview with the artist
—Financial Times
"not to be missed this spring"
—Vogue
"Glenn Ligon: America brings into clear focus this New York native’s work"
—WNET Sunday Arts
An interview with exhibition curator Scott Rothkopf
—Art in America
The Approval Matrix: "Ligon's identity-politics art ages well"
—New York
Review: "an elegant mid-career retrospective"
—Financial Times
Review: "[Curator Scott Rothkopf] gives the artist’s work the magisterial treatment it deserves."
—Time Out New York