Whitney Kids
America Is Hard to See
Visit our new building and explore our first exhibition which features favorite artworks from the Whitney’s collection and new works like Josh Kline’s Cost of Living (Aleyda) (2014) that have never been shown at the Whitney before!
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Josh Kline (1979-). Cost of Living (Aleyda), 2014. 3D printed sculptures in plaster, inkjet ink and cyanoacrylate, with janitor cart and LED lights, 44 1/2 × 36 × 19 1/2in. (113 × 91.4 × 49.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Laura Rapp and Jay Smith P.2014.118a o
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Robert Henri, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, 1916. Oil on canvas, 49 15/16 × 72in. (126.8 × 182.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Flora Whitney Miller 86.70.3
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Man Ray, New York, 1917/1966. Nickel plated and painted bronze, 17 × 9 5/16 in. (43.2 × 23.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Modern Painting and Sculpture Committee 96.174 © 2015 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris
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Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930. Oil on canvas, 35 3/16 × 60 1/4 in. (89.4 × 153 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 31.426. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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William H. Johnson (1901-1970), Jitterbugs VI, 1941-42. Screenprint, Sheet (Irregular): 17 7/16 × 11 1/4 in. (44.3 × 28.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase, with funds from the Print Committee 95.54 © artist or artist’s estate
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David Smith, Hudson River Landscape, 1951. Welded painted steel and stainless steel. Overall: 48 3/4 × 72 1/8 × 17 5/16 in. (123.8 × 183.2 × 44 cm). Unique edition. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase 54.14 Art (c) Estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Jay DeFeo, The Rose, 1958–66. Oil with wood and mica on canvas, 128 7/8 × 92 1/4 × 11 in. (327.3 × 234.3 × 27.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of The Jay DeFeo Trust and purchase, with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee and the Judith Rothschild Foundation 95.170. © 2015 The Jay DeFeo Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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Nam June Paik (1932-2006), Magnet TV, 1965. Modified black-and-white television set and magnet, 38 3/4 × 19 1/4 × 24 1/2 in. (98.4 × 48.9 × 62.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase, with funds from Dieter Rosenkranz 86.60a-b © artist or artist’s estate
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Glenn Ligon (1960-), Rückenfigur, 2009. Neon and paint, Overall: 24 × 145 1/2 × 5 in. (61 × 369.6 × 12.7 cm). AP 1/2, Edition of 3. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee 2011.3a-I Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles
While You're Here
Audio Guide
Listen and learn about some of the work in the exhibition.
Explore the New Building
The Whitney’s new building was designed by architect Renzo Piano. Piano’s design was inspired by the industrial character of the neighboring buildings in the Meatpacking District. The building is constructed mostly of steel and glass. Inside you’ll see other materials like concrete, stone, and wood.
Sketch by Renzo Piano
From the Outside
This is a sketch of the Whitney’s new building by the architect Renzo Piano. He’s included the High Line with some trees and the morning sun.
The building viewed from its north side. Photograph by Nic Lehoux
On the north side, you can see the building’s cooling towers and exhaust pipes. Perhaps they remind you of an industrial building, a factory, or a power plant!
The first visitors to the new Whitney when it opened on May 1, 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak
The transparent glass walls of the first-floor lobby connect the Museum and the art inside to the street and the surrounding neighborhood.
The building’s southern face. Photograph by Nic Lehoux
Steel panels that were spray-painted by hand are “wrapped” around the building like a skin. Some of the panels are over sixty feet long! The panels are hung from the top with attached with clips at the sides, but they are not fastened at the bottom because they expand and contract with the weather temperature. The color of the panels (and the whole building) changes with the light and time of day.
The new building’s exterior stairs, December 2014. Photograph by Timothy Schenck
Inspired by the fire escapes on buildings all over New York City, the Museum’s architect, Renzo Piano designed a special outdoor staircase that goes from the sixth to the eighth floors.
Installation view of America Is Hard to See (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 1—September 27, 2015). From left to right: Sue Coe, Aids and the Federal Government, 1990; Robert Mapplethorpe, American Flag, 1977; Susan Rothenberg, For the Light, 1978-1979; Charles Ray, Boy, 1992; Kiki Smith, Black Flag, 1989. Photograph by Ronald Amstutz
From the Inside
Here’s an installation view of the exhibition America Is Hard to See in the fifth floor gallery. When the walls for the exhibition are removed, the gallery is about as big as a football field, which will give artists the freedom to do all kinds of amazing projects in the space.
Richard Artschwager (b. 1923, Washington, DC; d. 2013, Albany, NY), Six in Four – E4, 2012–15. Stainless steel and powder-coated metal. Commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Image courtesy El Tigre Productions.
Step into an artwork! Artist Richard Artschwager designed the four elevators for the new building and gave them the title of Six in Four. The elevators are based on six themes that Artschwager explored from the mid-1970s onward: door, window, table, basket, mirror, rug.
Each elevator is an immersive installation. The largest elevator is like being inside a giant woven basket that lifts you up and down. In the second elevator you can peer into a looking glass. The third elevator opens, revealing a window and a door that might transport you to another world. In the fourth elevator, it is as if you were inside one of Artschwager’s sculptures, under a table!
Mary Heilmann, Sunset, 2015. Photograph by Marco Anelli
Art Everywhere!
There’s art all over the new Whitney! You can see artworks in the galleries and outside. Check out the views as you sit on artist Mary Heilmann’s chairs on level five.