Willem de Kooning, Woman and Bicycle, 1952–53. Oil, enamel, and charcoal on linen, 76 1/2 × 49 1/8 in. (194.3 × 124.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase 55.35 © 2015 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York
The Whitney's Collection
Sept 28, 2015–Apr 4, 2016
Willem de Kooning, Woman and Bicycle, 1952–53. Oil, enamel, and charcoal on linen, 76 1/2 × 49 1/8 in. (194.3 × 124.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase 55.35 © 2015 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society(ARS), New York
The more than two hundred works on display on the seventh and sixth floors represent a selection of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s collection. Organized in a rough chronological sequence beginning on the seventh floor, the presentation is divided into eleven thematic “chapters.” Each chapter takes its name not from a movement or style but from the title of a work that evokes the section’s animating impulse. The exhibition elaborates some of the themes, ideas, beliefs, and passions that have galvanized American artists in their struggle to work within and against established conventions, often directly engaging their political and social contexts. Works of art across all mediums are displayed together, acknowledging the ways in which artists have engaged various modes of production and dissolved the boundaries between them.
As a collection presentation, the works on view necessarily reflect the Whitney’s record of acquisitions and exhibitions, which constitutes a kind of collective memory—one that represents a range of individual, sometimes conflicting, attitudes toward what American art might be or mean or do at any given moment. Works that have rarely, if ever, been shown appear alongside beloved icons in an effort to unsettle assumptions about the American art canon. The presentation also underscores the difficulty of neatly defining the country’s ethos and inhabitants, a challenge that lies at the heart of the Museum’s commitment to and continually evolving understanding of American art.
Artists
Events
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Sun,
May 1
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Apr 30
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sun,
Apr 3
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Apr 2
Sketching Tour: Drawing Abstraction!
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Sat,
Apr 2
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Fri,
Apr 1
Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
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Thurs,
Mar 31
Spotlight on Marsden Hartley
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Wed,
Mar 30
Spotlight on Gerald Murphy and Stuart Davis
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Mon,
Mar 28
Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
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Sun,
Mar 27
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Mar 26
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Fri,
Mar 25
Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
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Thurs,
Mar 24
Spotlight on Marsden Hartley
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Wed,
Mar 23
Spotlight on Gerald Murphy and Stuart Davis
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Mon,
Mar 21
Spotlight on George Bellows and Reginald Marsh
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Sat,
Mar 19
Family Fun: Making in 3D!
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Sat,
Mar 19
Sketching Tour: Drawing Abstraction!
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Sat,
Mar 19
Stroller Tour:
The Whitney’s Collection -
Fri,
Mar 18
Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
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Thurs,
Mar 17
Spotlight on Reginald Marsh and George Bellows
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Wed,
Mar 16
Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
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Sat,
Mar 12
Family Fun: Making in 3D!
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Sat,
Mar 12
Sketching Tour: Drawing Abstraction!
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Fri,
Mar 11
Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
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Thurs,
Mar 10
Spotlight on Marsden Hartley
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Sun,
Mar 6
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Mar 5
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Thurs,
Mar 3
Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
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Thurs,
Mar 3
Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
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Sun,
Feb 28
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Feb 27
Sketching Tour:
Painting Then and Now -
Sat,
Feb 27
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Thurs,
Feb 25
Spotlight on Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove
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Wed,
Feb 24
Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
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Mon,
Feb 22
Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
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Sat,
Feb 20
Sketching Tour:
Painting Then and Now -
Fri,
Feb 19
Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
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Thurs,
Feb 18
Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
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Thurs,
Feb 18
Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
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Thurs,
Feb 18
Spotlight on Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove
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Wed,
Feb 17
Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
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Sun,
Feb 7
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Feb 6
Sketching Tour:
Painting Then and Now -
Sat,
Feb 6
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Wed,
Jan 27
How to Look: Abstraction
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Wed,
Jan 20
How to Look: Abstraction
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Sun,
Jan 17
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Sat,
Jan 16
Weekend Member Early Admission
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Wed,
Jan 13
How to Look: Abstraction
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Sat,
Dec 19
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
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Sat,
Dec 19
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
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Sat,
Dec 19
Stroller Tour:
The Whitney’s Collection -
Mon,
Dec 7
Special Talk:
Collecting at the Whitney -
Sat,
Dec 5
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
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Sat,
Dec 5
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
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Thurs,
Dec 3
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
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Sat,
Nov 21
Family Fun: Jump off the canvas!
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Thurs,
Nov 19
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
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Sat,
Nov 14
Family Fun: Jump off the canvas!
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Sun,
Nov 8
Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
Whitney Stories
Beyond Documentation: Davarian Baldwin on Archibald Motley’s Gettin’ Religion
"This piece gets at the full gamut of what I consider to be Black democratic possibility, from the sacred to the profane."