Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986

Sept 3–Nov 1, 2020

A photograph of a massive hole in a dilapidated building with sunlight streaming in

Anticipating the completion of David Hammons’s Day’s End, a major public artwork located in Hudson River Park, the Whitney will present a selection of works from the Museum’s collection that explore downtown New York as site, history, and memory. Central to this presentation is Gordon Matta-Clark’s Day’s End, the innovative project that inspired Hammons’s sculpture. In 1975, Matta-Clark cut several massive openings into the dilapidated building that existed on Pier 52 where Gansevoort Street meets the Hudson River. He described it as a “temple to sun and water.”

Matta-Clark’s attempt to extract beauty and create poetic experiences in unlikely places exemplifies the aims of many artists working at this earlier time of crisis and uncertainty in the city. The exhibition will include works by approximately fifteen artists who were active in overlapping downtown Manhattan scenes in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their works intervene in the urban fabric of the city in various ways: Matta-Clark and Joan Jonas present the city itself as a character, pointing to New York as a place that embodies both presence and invisibility. For other artists, like Alvin Baltrop and Jimmy Wright, the periphery of the city became synonymous for historically marginalized populations; their depictions of the West Side piers and Meatpacking district reveal how queer life found community and intimacy in forgotten, and reclaimed, corners. And Martin Wong and others made visceral works that engage with the ways particular downtown neighborhoods, like the Bowery and Lower East Side, were impacted by deteriorating economic conditions. For these artists, as in David Hammons’s new Day’s End, the city is seen as material, inspiration, specter, and provocation.

This exhibition is organized by Laura Phipps, assistant curator, with Christie Mitchell, senior curatorial assistant.

Major support for Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 is provided by the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation.

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Installation Photography

An architectural model of the sculpture Day's End in a glass box.

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). Architectural model for David Hammons’s Day’s End, Catherine Seavitt and Rennie Jones of Guy Nordenson and Associates, 2017. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Lobby view of an architectural model covered in glass and a video projection.

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Architectural model for David Hammons’s Day’s End; Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End, 1975. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

An architectural model of Day's End surrounded by a glass box with a video projection above in the distance.

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). Front: Architectural model for David Hammons’s Day’s End; Back: Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End, 1975; Left: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (America), 1994. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

The entrance to the gallery of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970-1986.

Gallery view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970-1986

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End, 1975; Gordon Matta-Clark, Days End Pier 52.1 (Documentation of the action "Day's End" made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977; Gordon Matta-Clark, Untitled, c. 1975; Gordon Matta-Clark, Days End Pier 52.2 (Documentation of the action "Day's End" made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977; Gordon Matta-Clark, Days End Pier 52.3 (Documentation of the action "Day's End" made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977; Christo, Package on Hand Truck, 1973; Joan Jonas, Songdelay, 1973. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End, 1975; Gordon Matta-Clark, Days End Pier 52.1 (Documentation of the action "Day's End" made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977; Gordon Matta-Clark, Untitled, c. 1975; Gordon Matta-Clark, Days End Pier 52.2 (Documentation of the action "Day's End" made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977; Gordon Matta-Clark, Days End Pier 52.3 (Documentation of the action "Day's End" made in 1975 in New York, United States), 1975, printed 1977; Christo, Package on Hand Truck, 1973; Jimmy Wright, Anvil #1, 1975; G. Peter Jemison, Liberty for Sale, 1986; David Wojnarowicz and Kiki Smith, Untitled (Psychiatric Clinic: Department of Hospitals), 1983; Martha Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems, 1974/1975. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Plaid), 1982; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1982; Anton van Dalen, Street Woman on Car, 1977; Christo, Package on Hand Truck, 1973; David Hammons, Delta Spirit, 1985; Vitrine, clockwise: Avalanche, Fall 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Fake Men on the Stairs, 1983; David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978 (printed 1990). Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: David Hammons, Delta Spirit, 1985; Vitrine, clockwise: Avalanche, Fall 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Carol Goodden, Documentation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Jacks, 1971; Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Fake Men on the Stairs, 1983; David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978 (printed 1990); Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (collapsed architecture, couple buttfucking), 1979 (print date unknown); Alvin Baltrop, Marsha P. Johnson, n.d. (1975–86, print date unknown); Alvin Baltrop, Untitled, 1978 (print date unknown); Jimmy Wright, Anvil #1, 1975. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (collapsed architecture, couple buttfucking), 1979 (print date unknown); Alvin Baltrop, Marsha P. Johnson, n.d. (1975-86, print date unknown); Alvin Baltrop, Untitled, 1977 (print date unknown); Jimmy Wright, Anvil #1, 1975; G. Peter Jemison, Liberty for Sale, 1986; David Wojnarowicz and Kiki Smith, Untitled (Psychiatric Clinic: Department of Hospitals), 1983. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Plaid), 1982; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1982; Anton van Dalen, Street Woman on Car, 1977; Mel Bochner, Pier 18, Instruction Card: Measurement Series, 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, Mel Bochner, “Measurement Series,” 1971; Robert Morris, Pier 18, Instruction Card: Configurations in Anticipation of the Equinox Sunset, 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, Robert Morris, “3 Configurations in Anticipation of the Equinox Sunset,” 1971; William Wegman, Pier 18, Instruction Card: Bowling, 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, William Wegman, “Bowling,” 1971; Gordon Matta-Clark, Pier 18, Instruction Card: Parked Island Barges on the Hudson, 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, Gordon Matta-Clark, “Parked Island Barges on the Hudson,” 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, Gordon Matta-Clark, “Parked Island Barges on the Hudson,” 1971; Richard Serra, Pier 18, Instruction Card: untitled, 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, Richard Serra, “untitled,” 1971; Harry Shunk and János Kender, Richard Serra, “untitled,” 1971. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Martin Wong, Closed, 1984–85; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Plaid), 1982; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1982; Anton van Dalen, Street Woman on Car, 1977. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Fake Men on the Stairs, 1983; David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978 (printed 1990); Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (collapsed architecture, couple buttfucking), 1979 (print date unknown); Alvin Baltrop, Marsha P. Johnson, n.d. (1975–86, print date unknown); Alvin Baltrop, Untitled, 1978 (print date unknown). Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970-1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Joan Jonas, Songdelay, 1973; Dawoud Bey, David Hammons, Pissed Off, 1981 (printed 2019). Photograph by Ron Amstutz

Installation view of Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 3–November 1, 2020). From left to right: Martha Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems, 1974/1975; Joan Jonas, Songdelay, 1973. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

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"The Whitney Museum puts the grit of 1970s and ’80s Lower Manhattan on display" —The Architect's Newspaper