Ask a Curator: David Hammons and Gordon Matta-Clark in the Whitney’s Collection

Online, via Zoom

Join Whitney curators Adrienne Edwards and Elisabeth Sussman for a special edition of “Ask a Curator.” Reflecting on the recent completion of Day’s End—a new public sculpture by David Hammons that pays homage to an earlier work of the same name by Gordon Matta-Clark—the curators will explore the interconnections between these artists through the lens of the Whitney’s collection.

David Hammons works across mediums using strategies of refusal, humor, and provocation. Over a career spanning five decades, he has created a body of work that inspires and intrigues. Gordon Matta-Clark is best known for his “building cuts,” large-scale sculptural forms realized by cutting into existing architecture. Over the course of his intense and sustained career, he produced works of art grounded in the belief that the world around us is not fixed or concrete, but brimming with untapped potential. 

For the event, Edwards and Sussman will share their insights about works by each artist in the Whitney’s holdings and take questions from the audience.

Adrienne Edwards joined the Whitney in 2018 as Engell Speyer Curator and Curator of Performance, and as of July 1, 2021, will assume the position of Engell Speyer Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. Part of the team that worked to realize David Hammons’s Day's End, she also organized Jason Moran (2019) and Dave McKenzie: The Story I Tell Myself (2021) and is co-curating the 2022 Whitney Biennial with David Breslin.

Elisabeth Sussman serves as Sondra Gilman Curator and Curator of Photography at the Whitney. She co-curated the 1993 and 2012 Whitney Biennials, and organized the retrospective Gordon Matta-Clark: “You Are the Measure” in 2007. Her recent exhibitions include Danny Lyon: Message to the Future (2016), Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium (2017), and Rachel Harrison Life Hack (2019).