America Is Hard to See
May 1–Sept 27, 2015
Drawn entirely from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s collection, America Is Hard to See takes the inauguration of the Museum’s new building as an opportunity to reexamine the history of art in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Comprising more than six hundred works, the exhibition elaborates 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. Numerous pieces that have rarely, if ever, been shown appear alongside beloved icons in a conscious effort to unsettle assumptions about the American art canon.
The title, America Is Hard to See, comes from a poem by Robert Frost and a political documentary by Emile de Antonio. Metaphorically, the title seeks to celebrate the ever-changing perspectives of artists and their capacity to develop visual forms that respond to the culture of the United States. It 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.
Organized chronologically, the exhibition’s narrative is divided into twenty- three thematic “chapters” installed throughout the building. These sections revisit and revise established tropes while forging new categories and even expanding the definition of who counts as an American artist. Indeed, 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. Works of art across all mediums are displayed together, acknowledging the ways in which artists have engaged various modes of production and broken the boundaries between them.
America Is Hard to See reflects the Whitney’s distinct 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. By simultaneously mining and questioning our past, we do not arrive at a comprehensive survey or tidy summation, but rather at a critical new beginning: the first of many stories still to tell.
America Is Hard to See is organized by a team of Whitney curators, led by Donna De Salvo, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs, including Carter E. Foster, Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawing; Dana Miller, Curator of the Permanent Collection; and Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Associate Director of Programs; with Jane Panetta, Assistant Curator; Catherine Taft, Assistant Curator; and Mia Curran, Curatorial Assistant.
Sponsored by
Distracting Distance
22
Over the past fifteen years, a revolution in digital technologies has fundamentally transformed the way we make and consume images. As with the proliferation of the printing press, camera, and television in earlier centuries, today the spread of the Internet, smartphones, and desktop printers has made it faster and easier to create and share pictures than ever before. Despite these changes, as the works on view here suggest, we live in a transitional age, navigating between screens and books, printed photographs and JPEGs, technologies on the brink of obsolescence and on the rise.
Wade Guyton and Cory Arcangel seize directly on digital technologies like inkjet printing or outdated video games but purposefully misuse them to new aesthetic ends. Kelley Walker scrambles past and present by funneling scans of old Volkswagen advertisements through high-tech modeling software before screenprinting them by hand. This interest in images as artifacts extends to R. H. Quaytman’s restaging of Edward Hopper’s iconic 1961 painting A Woman in the Sun and Christopher Williams’s clinical documentation of a remnant of printed wallpaper by the artist Daniel Buren. These works heighten both the allure and distance of past movements and styles, as does Carol Bove’s carefully curated library of sexual, political, and artistic tracts. Throughout the chapter, images flicker lightly across surfaces or burrow deep within them, come sharply into focus or all but disappear. An atmosphere of quiet contemplation—melancholy, even—reminds us that with each technological or aesthetic advance something is lost or fades away.
Below is a selection of works from this chapter.
JOSH KLINE (B. 1979), COST OF LIVING (ALEYDA), 2014
To make Cost of Living (Aleyda) and the other works in this series, Josh Kline interviewed workers—janitorial staff and package deliverers—and then made casts of the body parts they use to complete their daily tasks. In this case he spoke with a housekeeper named Aleyda at the Rivington Hotel.
The artist created each element of the sculptural assemblage using a 3-D printer. The results call attention to the laboring bodies of an often invisible workforce and offer a grim reminder that that workers’ humanity is often valued less than the tools they use to complete their job. Cost of Living (Aleyda) reflects what the artist has described as “the relentless push to squeeze more productivity out of workers—turning people into reliable, always-on office appliances.”
Artists
- Berenice Abbott
- Michele Abeles
- Vito Acconci
- Ansel Adams
- Robert Adams
- Carl Andre
- Kenneth Anger
- Eleanor Antin
- Diane Arbus
- Cory Arcangel
- David Armstrong
- Richard Artschwager
- Ruth Asawa
- Asco
- Charles Atlas
- Lutz Bacher
- Peggy Bacon
- Jo Baer
- Alex Bag
- Malcolm Bailey
- Lamar Baker
- John Baldessari
- Alvin Baltrop
- Lewis Baltz
- Matthew Barney
- Richmond Barthé
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Romare Bearden
- Cecil Beaton
- Robert Beavers
- Robert Bechtle
- Ericka Beckman
- Larry Bell
- George Bellows
- Lynda Benglis
- Thomas Hart Benton
- Wallace Berman
- Bernadette Corporation
- Judith Bernstein
- Huma Bhabha
- David Bienstock
- Henry Billings
- Ilse Bing
- Dara Birnbaum
- Nayland Blake
- Oscar Bluemner
- Peter Blume
- Lee Bontecou
- Jonathan Borofsky
- Louise Bourgeois
- Margaret Bourke-White
- Carol Bove
- Mark Bradford
- Stan Brakhage
- Robert Breer
- Patrick Henry Bruce
- Bernarda Bryson Shahn
- Charles Burchfield
- Jacob Burck
- Chris Burden
- Scott Burton
- Mary Ellen Bute
- Paul Cadmus
- John Cage
- Alexander Calder
- Cameron
- Luis Camnitzer
- Peter Campus
- James Castle
- Elizabeth Catlett
- Maurizio Cattelan
- Vija Celmins
- John Chamberlain
- Paul Chan
- Sarah Charlesworth
- Ayoka Chenzira
- Chryssa
- Larry Clark
- Chuck Close
- Sue Coe
- Anne Collier
- Bruce Conner
- Joseph Cornell
- Eldzier Cortor
- Miguel Covarrubias
- John Covert
- Ralston Crawford
- E.E. Cummings
- Imogen Cunningham
- John Currin
- John Steuart Curry
- Allan D'Arcangelo
- James Daugherty
- Emma Lu Davis
- Stuart Davis
- Roy DeCarava
- Jay DeFeo
- Willem de Kooning
- Walter De Maria
- Charles Demuth
- Maya Deren
- Jim Dine
- Mark di Suvero
- Arthur Dove
- Thomas Downing
- Elsie Driggs
- Guy Pène Du Bois
- Carroll Dunham
- Sam Durant
- Jimmie Durham
- Mabel Dwight
- William Eggleston
- Nicole Eisenman
- Wharton Esherick
- Walker Evans
- Kevin Jerome Everson
- Loretta Fahrenholz
- Andreas Feininger
- Lyonel Feininger
- Duncan Ferguson
- Rafael Ferrer
- Paul Fiene
- Morgan Fisher
- John B. Flannagan
- Hollis Frampton
- Robert Frank
- Andrea Fraser
- LaToya Ruby Frazier
- Hermine Freed
- Jared French
- Lee Friedlander
- Brian Frye
- Charles Gaines
- Anna Gaskell
- GCC
- Gerald K. Geerlings
- Hugo Gellert
- Sandra Gibson
- Luis Gispert
- William Glackens
- Milton Glaser
- Robert Gober
- Nan Goldin
- Wayne Gonzales
- Felix Gonzalez-Torres
- Boris Gorelick
- Arshile Gorky
- Dan Graham
- William Gropper
- Nancy Grossman
- George Grosz
- Louis Guglielmi
- Philip Guston
- Walter Gutman
- Wade Guyton
- Hans Haacke
- Peter Halley
- David Hammons
- Keith Haring
- Rachel Harrison
- Marsden Hartley
- David Hartt
- David Haxton
- Sharon Hayes
- Al Held
- Robert Henri
- Carmen Herrera
- Eva Hesse
- Lewis Hine
- Nancy Holt
- Jenny Holzer
- Edward Hopper
- Roni Horn
- Earl Horter
- Alex Hubbard
- Peter Hujar
- Victoria Hutson Huntley
- Richard Hunt
- Robert Indiana
- Abraham Jacobs
- Ulysses Jenkins
- Neil Jenney
- Candy Jernigan
- Jess
- Jasper Johns
- Rashid Johnson
- Ray Johnson
- William H. Johnson
- Joan Jonas
- Joe Jones
- Philip Mallory Jones
- Michael Joo
- Donald Judd
- Alex Katz
- On Kawara
- Mike Kelley
- Ellsworth Kelly
- Sister Corita Kent
- Rockwell Kent
- Karen Kilimnik
- William Klein
- Franz Kline
- Josh Kline
- Jeff Koons
- Lee Krasner
- Barbara Kruger
- Yasuo Kuniyoshi
- Yayoi Kusama
- Suzanne Lacy
- David Lamelas
- Dorothea Lange
- Liz Magic Laser
- Robert Laurent
- Louise Lawler
- Jacob Lawrence
- An-My Lê
- William Leavitt
- Zoe Leonard
- Alfred Leslie
- Howard Lester
- Sherrie Levine
- Herschel Levit
- Helen Levitt
- Sol LeWitt
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Glenn Ligon
- Kalup Linzy
- Alvin Loving
- Lee Lozano
- Louis Lozowick
- George Luks
- Helen Lundeberg
- Len Lye
- Danny Lyon
- Stanton Macdonald-Wright
- Tala Madani
- Sylvia Plimack Mangold
- Man Ray
- Robert Mapplethorpe
- Christian Marclay
- Brice Marden
- Marisol
- Kyra Markham
- Reginald Marsh
- Agnes Martin
- Fletcher Martin
- Gordon Matta-Clark
- Cynthia Maughan
- Keith Mayerson
- Paul McCarthy
- John McCracken
- Adam McEwen
- John McLaughlin
- Josephine Meckseper
- Jonas Mekas
- Ana Mendieta
- Sam Middleton
- Aleksandra Mir
- Joan Mitchell
- Toyo Miyatake
- Lisette Model
- Donald Moffett
- Abelardo Morell
- Robert Morris
- Mark Morrisroe
- Gerald Murphy
- Elizabeth Murray
- Julie Murray
- Reuben Nakian
- Bruce Nauman
- Alice Neel
- Louise Nevelson
- Barnett Newman
- Isamu Noguchi
- David Novros
- Jim Nutt
- Chiura Obata
- Georgia O'Keeffe
- Claes Oldenburg
- Catherine Opie
- José Clemente Orozco
- Raphael Montañez Ortiz
- Alfonso Ossorio
- Tony Oursler
- Bill Owens
- Akosua Adoma Owusu
- Nam June Paik
- Gordon Parks
- Agnes Pelton
- I. Rice Pereira
- Raymond Pettibon
- Elizabeth Peyton
- Paul Pfeiffer
- Howardena Pindell
- Adrian Piper
- Horace Pippin
- Lari Pittman
- Jackson Pollock
- Liliana Porter
- Richard Pousette-Dart
- Richard Prince
- Nancy Elizabeth Prophet
- Noah Purifoy
- R. H. Quaytman
- Walid Raad
- Yvonne Rainer
- Christina Ramberg
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Charles Ray
- Luis Recoder
- Jeffrey Reed
- Robert Reed
- Earl Reiback
- Ad Reinhardt
- Hans Richter
- Faith Ringgold
- Dorothea Rockburne
- James Rosenquist
- Martha Rosler
- Theodore Roszak
- Susan Rothenberg
- Mark Rothko
- Edward Ruscha
- Morgan Russell
- Betye Saar
- David Salle
- Lucas Samaras
- Jacolby Satterwhite
- Peter Saul
- Matt Saunders
- Morton Schamberg
- Carolee Schneemann
- Dana Schutz
- Dread Scott
- George Segal
- Richard Serra
- Ben Shahn
- Joel Shapiro
- Paul Sharits
- Charles Sheeler
- Cindy Sherman
- Roger Shimomura
- Everett Shinn
- Amy Sillman
- Laurie Simmons
- Taryn Simon
- Lorna Simpson
- John Sloan
- David Smith
- Jack Smith
- Kiki Smith
- Robert Smithson
- Tony Smith
- Keith Sonnier
- Edward Steichen
- Ralph Steiner
- Frank Stella
- Joseph Stella
- Harry Sternberg
- Hedda Sterne
- Florine Stettheimer
- May Stevens
- Alfred Stieglitz
- John Storrs
- Michelle Stuart
- Sturtevant
- Wayne Thiebaud
- Alma Thomas
- Rirkrit Tiravanija
- George Tooker
- Bill Traylor
- Ryan Trecartin
- Trisha Brown Dance Company
- Anne Truitt
- Wu Tsang
- Richard Tuttle
- Cy Twombly
- Stan VanDerBeek
- Kara Walker
- Kelley Walker
- Carl Walters
- Andy Warhol
- Max Weber
- Weegee
- William Wegman
- Lawrence Weiner
- Tom Wesselmann
- H.C. Westermann
- Charles White
- Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
- Jack Whitten
- Hannah Wilke
- Christopher Williams
- Sue Williams
- Fred Wilson
- Garry Winogrand
- William Winter
- Karl Wirsum
- David Wojnarowicz
- Jordan Wolfson
- Martin Wong
- Grant Wood
- Francesca Woodman
- Hale Aspacio Woodruff
- Christopher Wool
- Andrew Wyeth
- William Zorach
Events
View all-
Founding Members Preview Weekend
Saturday, April 25, 2015
10:30 am–6 pm -
New Building Founding Members Opening Cocktail Reception
Saturday, April 25, 2015
7:30–10 pm -
New Building Member Preview Days
Monday, April 27, 2015
10:30 am–6 pm -
New Building VIP Member Viewing and Cocktail Reception
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
7–8 pm
Audio guides
99 Objects
Listen to selections from the in-gallery programs series named in honor of the Whitney’s new address, 99 Gansevoort Street. Artists, writers, Whitney curators and educators, and an interdisciplinary group of scholars focus on individual works of art from the Museum’s collection on view in America Is Hard to See.
America Is Hard to See
Hear directly from artists and curators on selected works from the exhibition.
View guide
Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection
View 646 works
In the News
“2015 was the Year of the Whitney…the cross-disciplinary approach taken by America Is Hard to See and Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, is becoming the model for a new generation of curators.”
—Hyperallergic
“2015 belonged to the Whitney…both my museum—and my show—of the year.”
—Adrian Searle in The Guardian
"Best of 2015: Our Top 20 NYC Art Shows"
—Hyperallergic
"The museum’s inaugural show in its new building, America Is Hard to See, tells a different story of modern and contemporary American art than the lily-white version we’re used to"
—The New Yorker
Interview: Curator Scott Rothkopf speaks about America Is Hard to See on Slate's Culture Gabfest
—Slate
"New Whitney Museum Signifies a Changing New York Art Scene"
—The New York Times
"With its abundantly sumptuous holdings, the museum tells us how we got where we are, offering a teeming lineage of the art of this country"
—Hyperallergic
"The Whitney Opens With a Winner"
—Artnews
"Review: New Whitney Museum’s First Show, America Is Hard to See"
—The New York Times
"Curators at the Whitney Museum of American Art discuss their largest exhibition to date at their new downtown location, designed by architect Renzo Piano"
—The Wall Street Journal
"The exhibition will include plenty of crowd-pleasers—Hopper, O’Keeffe, Calder’s “Circus”—but, with the Whitney’s brilliant chief curator, Donna De Salvo, at the helm, expect major twists in the conventional art-historical plot."
—The New Yorker
"The Whitney Museum, Soon to Open Its New Home, Searches for American Identity"
—The New York Times
"One of this year's most anticipated art world events"
—Huffington Post