America Is Hard to See

May 1–Sept 27, 2015

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The decade after the First World War brought the United States new material prosperity and unparalleled social freedom, fueling a massive appetite for entertainment that grew unabated throughout the mid-twentieth century. Cinemas and theaters opened at a rapid pace, tabloid newspapers exploded in circulation, and celebrity photographs and gossip columns became the common currency of a booming spectacle culture. “The celebrities in New York,” writer David Cort quipped in 1925, “outnumber the nonentities about 100,000 to one.”

Largely inspired by these mass amusements and their audiences, the works on view in this chapter play with the entwinement of voyeurism and exhibitionism, seeing and being seen. Nearly all are set in dim interiors or under the cloak of night, rendered in lurid colors or the high contrast lent by spotlights, signs, and the flashbulb’s glare. Some present striking portraits of great performers such as John Coltrane, Paul Robeson, and Jessica Tandy, while others depict ordinary people strutting and posing or caught unawares by one another and by us. Classes, races, and genders mix within an atmosphere of physical pleasure or menace. Photographs by Lisette Model and Weegee capture the underbelly of mainstream culture, presenting a world at once seductive and discomfiting. Alexander Calder combined live spectacle with sculpture in Calder’s Circus, a motley crew of daredevils, animal acts, and scantily clad dancers that the artist would personally bring to life to the delight of his rapt observers.

Below is a selection of works from this chapter.

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A painting of people standing outside of a movie theater covered in advertisements.

During the 1930s, when Reginald Marsh painted Twenty Cent Movie, more than half of all Americans went to the cinema every week. There audiences sought entertainment and distraction from the economic hardships of the Great Depression. Marsh emphasized the signage surrounding the theater, which trumpets the glamour and titillation that await inside: one poster on the right brazenly advertises “Joys of the Flesh.” At the same time, the painting also draws attention to the action unfolding in front of the movie house, with a cast of characters intent on putting on a show of their own.

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America Is Hard to See

The Circus

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REGINALD MARSH (1898-1954), TWENTY CENT MOVIE, 1936

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On the Hour

America Is Hard to See

The Circus

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REGINALD MARSH (1898-1954), TWENTY CENT MOVIE, 1936

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection