Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Apr 2, 2016–Apr 2, 2017

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The American art world grew rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century, instilling artists with both confidence and uncertainty. Excited by new opportunities yet pressed to distinguish themselves from their renowned European counterparts, American artists became preoccupied with depicting themselves and their intimate circles of friends, lovers, and collaborators in other fields. One such community was the Whitney Museum itself, along with its precursor, the Whitney Studio Club. Many of the portraits on view here reflect its early history as a magnet for figures such as Edward Hopper at a time when few artists had found institutional support or even gathering places for likeminded colleagues. Other works capture the vital presence of émigrés, such as Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Stella, or point to the rising prominence of women artists, such as Isabel Bishop and Georgia O’Keeffe. Alternately styled as virtuoso, hero, technician, bohemian, or everyman, both the creators and subjects of these portraits staked a claim to their authority as artists, addressing themselves directly to an audience increasingly attuned to their endeavors.

Below is a selection of works from Portrait of the Artist.

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Walker Evans is perhaps best known for his direct and unembellished photographs of Depression-era tenant farmers, but in the early 1930s he also made numerous photographs of his friend Lincoln Kirstein. Evans’s images of Kirstein are nearly all close-up shots. Some, such as this one, feature Kirstein posing as if for a mug shot, while in others he assumes the role of a gangster. Kirstein was not a criminal; rather, he was an influential force in twentieth-century American culture. In addition to cofounding the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet with choreographer George Balanchine, Kirstein also engaged with many notable literary and visual artists. He promoted Evans’s photography, and in 1938 he helped to organize the artist’s first major exhibition, Walker Evans: American Photographs, held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Portrait of the Artist

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LINCOLN KIRSTEIN, 1930

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Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Portrait of the Artist

3

LINCOLN KIRSTEIN, 1930

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection