The Whitney's Collection
Sep 28, 2015–Apr 4, 2016
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.
Events
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Sat,
Apr 2Sketching Tour: Drawing Abstraction!
10–11 am
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Fri,
Apr 1Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
2 pm
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Thu,
Mar 31Spotlight on Marsden Hartley
2 pm
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Wed,
Mar 30Spotlight on Gerald Murphy and Stuart Davis
2 pm
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Mon,
Mar 28Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
2 pm
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Fri,
Mar 25Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
2 pm
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Thu,
Mar 24Spotlight on Marsden Hartley
2 pm
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Wed,
Mar 23Spotlight on Gerald Murphy and Stuart Davis
2 pm
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Mon,
Mar 21Spotlight on George Bellows and Reginald Marsh
2 pm
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Sat,
Mar 19Family Fun: Making in 3D!
2:30–4:30 pm
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Sat,
Mar 19Sketching Tour: Drawing Abstraction!
10–11 am
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Sat,
Mar 19Stroller Tour:
The Whitney’s Collection9:30–10:30 am
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Fri,
Mar 18Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
2 pm
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Thu,
Mar 17Spotlight on Reginald Marsh and George Bellows
1 pm
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Wed,
Mar 16Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
1 pm
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Sat,
Mar 12Family Fun: Making in 3D!
2:30–4:30 pm
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Sat,
Mar 12Sketching Tour: Drawing Abstraction!
10–11 am
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Fri,
Mar 11Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
12 pm
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Thu,
Mar 10Spotlight on Marsden Hartley
1 pm
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Thu,
Feb 25Spotlight on Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove
2 pm
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Wed,
Feb 24Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
2 pm
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Mon,
Feb 22Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
2 pm
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Fri,
Feb 19Spotlight on Edward Hopper and Joseph Stella
2 pm
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Thu,
Feb 18Spotlight on Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove
2 pm
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Wed,
Feb 17Spotlight on Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner
2 pm
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Wed,
Jan 27How to Look: Abstraction
6:30–8 pm
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Wed,
Jan 20How to Look: Abstraction
6:30–8 pm
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Wed,
Jan 13How to Look: Abstraction
6:30–8 pm
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Sat,
Dec 19Stroller Tour:
The Whitney’s Collection9:30–10:30 am
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Mon,
Dec 7Special Talk:
Collecting at the Whitney7 pm
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Thu,
Mar 3Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
7–8 pm
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Thu,
Mar 3Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
6:30–7:30 pm
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Sun,
Feb 28Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Feb 27Sketching Tour:
Painting Then and Now10–11 am
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Sat,
Feb 27Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Feb 20Sketching Tour:
Painting Then and Now10–11 am
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Thu,
Feb 18Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
7–8 pm
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Thu,
Feb 18Spotlight Tours: Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner and The Whitney’s Collection
6:30–7:30 pm
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Sat,
Feb 6Sketching Tour:
Painting Then and Now10–11 am
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Sat,
Dec 19Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
7:30–8:30 pm
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Sat,
Dec 19Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
5:30–6:30 pm
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Sat,
Dec 5Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
7:30–8:30 pm
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Sat,
Dec 5Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
5:30–6:30 pm
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Thu,
Dec 3Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
5:30–6:30 pm
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Sat,
Nov 21Family Fun: Jump off the canvas!
2:30 pm
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Thu,
Nov 19Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
5:30–6:30 pm
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Sat,
Nov 14Family Fun: Jump off the canvas!
2:30 pm
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Sun,
Nov 8Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
1–2 pm
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Sun,
Nov 1Learning Series Course: Art in Context—Exploring Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist and The Whitney’s Collection
1–2 pm
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Sat,
Oct 17Learning Series Course: Art in the United States and Abroad, 1950–1975
5:30–7 pm
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Sat,
Oct 10Learning Series Course: Art in the United States and Abroad, 1950–1975
5:30–7 pm
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Sun,
May 1Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Apr 30Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Fri,
Nov 6Fall Educator Preview
3:30–6 pm
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Sun,
Apr 3Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Apr 2Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sun,
Mar 27Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Mar 26Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sun,
Mar 6Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Mar 5Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sun,
Feb 7Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Feb 6Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sun,
Jan 17Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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Sat,
Jan 16Weekend Member Early Admission
9:30–10:30 am
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."