An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017
Aug 18, 2017–Aug 27, 2018
Through the lens of the Whitney’s collection, An Incomplete History of Protest looks at how artists from the 1940s to the present have confronted the political and social issues of their day. Whether making art as a form of activism, criticism, instruction, or inspiration, the featured artists see their work as essential to challenging established thought and creating a more equitable culture. Many have sought immediate change, such as ending the war in Vietnam or combating the AIDS crisis. Others have engaged with protest more indirectly, with the long term in mind, hoping to create new ways of imagining society and citizenship.
Since its founding in the early twentieth century, the Whitney has served as a forum for the most urgent art and ideas of the day, at times attracting protest itself. An Incomplete History of Protest, however, is by name and necessity a limited account. No exhibition can approximate the activism now happening in the streets and online, and no collection can account fully for the methodological, stylistic, and political diversity of artistic address. Instead, the exhibition offers a sequence of historical case studies focused on particular moments and themes—from questions of representation to the fight for civil rights—that remain relevant today. At the root of the exhibition is the belief that artists play a profound role in transforming their time and shaping the future.
An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017 is organized by David Breslin, DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the Collection; Jennie Goldstein, assistant curator; and Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator; with David Kiehl, curator emeritus; and Margaret Kross, curatorial assistant.
Major support for An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940‒2017 is provided by The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., Leonard A. Lauder, President.
Significant support is provided by the Ford Foundation.
The Usable Past
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Rather than relying on a single social issue as its organizing principle, this exhibition gathers artworks largely made after 2000 that evoke the “usable past”—the concept that a self-conscious examination of historical figures, moments, and symbols can shape current and future political formation. Many artists today are looking to the past to understand their present as well as to explore the possibilities, and the possible failure, of collective action. While some of the artworks demonstrate how memory can inform models of protest and activism now, others reveal how nostalgia can make it difficult to move forward. A 2005 film by Josephine Meckseper documents protests against the war in Iraq. By using Super 8 film, a format released in 1965, Meckseper imbues a contemporary action with a 1960s aesthetic. The film suggests both that yesterday’s counterculture can become today’s style and that we can learn from the past to address the needs of the present.
While initially resembling a purely abstract painting, Mark Bradford’s Constitution III (2013) contains excerpts from the United States Constitution. His embedding of this language within an aggressively worked surface suggests that the founding document is also a living one, subject to modification and debate. Similarly, Julie Mehretu’s Epigraph, Damascus (2016) embraces abstraction to convey content about the present. Under a swirl of black lines, the artist depicts architectural drawings of historic buildings in the Syrian capital, the center of a civil war since 2011. Presenting a place that is being transformed by violence, her work asks: Are we seeing buildings that are now gone? Could intervention have prevented this calamity? What do we learn from crisis?
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Untitled (Speech/Crowd) #2, 2000
![Dark screenprint of a crowd.](https://whitneymedia.org/assets/image/819653/large_P.2012.5_LigonGlenn.jpeg__1_.jpg)
Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Untitled (Speech/Crowd) #2, 2000. Screenprint ink, coal dust, oil stick, ink, graphite, and glue on paper, 40 x 54 in. (101.6 x 137.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich P.2012.5. Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London
![Dark screenprint of a crowd.](https://whitneymedia.org/assets/image/819653/large_P.2012.5_LigonGlenn.jpeg__1_.jpg)
Events
View all-
Wed,
July 18Member Night
7:30–10 pm
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Fri,
June 15Pride at the Whitney
7–9 pm
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Wed,
Apr 18Immigrant Justice Night
4–6 pm
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Fri,
Feb 16Verbal Description and Touch Tour: An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017
10–11:30 am
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Sat,
Feb 10Contemporaries Winter Brunch
11 am
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Sat,
Feb 10Stroller Tour:
An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017
9:30–10:30 am
Audio guides
“I make revolutionary art to propel history forward. I’m a visual artist.”
—Dread Scott
Hear directly from artists including Dread Scott, and Senga Nengudi as they discuss their work in An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017. Listen to additional commentary from curators on selected highlights from the exhibition.
Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection
View 213 works
In the News
"An Incomplete History of Protest examines how artists have become activists in order to help create a better future.”
—The Guardian
“Get To Know An Incomplete History Of Protest at the Whitney”
—NYLON
“The Whitney Museum’s latest exhibition takes a creative approach to political and social activism, and how the past can inform the present.”
—WWD
“At the root of the exhibition is the belief that artists play a profound role in transforming their time and shaping the future.”
—blouinartinfo