America Is Hard to See

May 1–Sept 27, 2015

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The Whitney Museum of American Art was established as a place for artists, a legacy it has cherished since its earliest incarnation as the Whitney Studio—an exhibition space opened by the artist and arts patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1914 in a townhouse at Eight West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village. With the energetic support of her assistant, Juliana Force, in 1918 she transformed the Studio into the Whitney Studio Club, which was a home for American artists then disdained by the conservative establishment. Over the next decade, the Studio Club expanded into the neighboring townhouses that together served as a social and creative hub for its artist-members. Force regularly organized exhibitions, lectures, and classes and provided American artists financial support (and food and drink) with the backing of Mrs. Whitney.

The works on view in this chapter evoke the diverse activities of the Studio Club, as well as the broad tastes of these two remarkable women. Paintings by Robert Henri, William Glackens, John Sloan, and George Luks are evidence of Mrs. Whitney’s adventurous early advocacy of a group of mavericks known as “The Eight,” proponents of the so-called Ashcan School who favored gritty urban realism. Photographs by Charles Sheeler and Berenice Abbott capture the townhouses’ interiors and the exhibitions held therein, while humorous drawings by Guy Pène du Bois chronicle the characters on the scene. A group of Edward Hopper’s figure studies from life-drawing class there affirm that the Studio Club was a site not just for exhibiting art but for making it. When the Whitney Museum of American Art was founded in 1931, with a collection donated by Mrs. Whitney and with Juliana Force as its first director, the institution’s identity and mission as the artist’s museum were already firmly in place.

Below is a selection of works from this chapter.

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When Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Juliana Force opened the Whitney Studio Club on West Fourth Street in 1918, one of their primary goals was to host affordable life drawing classes. They charged artists twenty cents per session; since most members could not afford to pay the hourly rates for professional models, the low price had enormous appeal.

Edward Hopper attended the classes regularly between 1920 and 1925, during which time the Studio Club migrated to West Eighth Street. He made hundreds of drawings there. These studies in red and black chalk demonstrate both Hopper’s gift for capturing light and his deep interest in the human form.

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America Is Hard to See

Eight West Eighth

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Edward Hopper (1882-1967), (Standing Female Nude, Rear View), 1920-25

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America Is Hard to See

Eight West Eighth

1

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), (Standing Female Nude, Rear View), 1920-25

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection