Inheritance

June 28, 2023–Feb 4, 2024

Superimposed black and white film photos of a child.
Superimposed black and white film photos of a child.

Sophie Rivera, I am U, 1995. Gelatin silver print, 38 5/8 × 38 9/16 in. (98.1 × 97.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the artist 2019.390. © Estate of Dr. Martin Hurwitz 




Inheritance traces the profound impacts of legacy and the past across familial, historical, and aesthetic lines. Featuring new acquisitions and rarely-seen works from the Whitney collection by forty-three leading artists, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and time-based media installations from the 1970s to today. This diverse array of works consider what has been passed on and how it may shift, change, or live again.

Drawing inspiration from Ephraim Asili’s 2020 film of the same title, Inheritance reflects on multiple meanings of the word, whether celebratory or painful, from one era, person, or idea to the next. The exhibition takes a layered approach to storytelling by interweaving narrative with documentary and personal experiences with historical and generational events. A group of works examining the cycle from birth to death opens the exhibition, while other galleries take up different kinds of lineages, such as how artists borrow from and remake art history or unspool legacies of racialized violence and their recurrences.

The poet Rio Cortez speaks of being “framed by our future knowing”—even as we sit in this moment, we slide backward and forward in time, between our foremothers and the descendants we will never know. Rather than passively accepting our current state, the artists whose work is on view here ask: How did we get here, as individuals and as a society, and where are we going?

This exhibition is organized by Rujeko Hockley, Arnhold Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art with David Lisbon, curatorial assistant.


En Español

Esta exposición traza la idea de herencia (lo que nos queda o lo que hemos recibido del pasado) a través de líneas familiares, históricas y estéticas. Presentando en su mayoría nuevas adquisiciones y obras rara vez vistas de la colección permanente, la muestra explora las nociones de repetición y referencia, nacimiento y renacimiento, generación y regeneración, mediante una variada selección de obras desde 1970 hasta hoy.

Inspirándose en la película The Inheritance de Ephraim Asili de 2020, Herencia se acerca al relato desde diversos niveles, entrelazando narrativa con documentales y experiencias personales con eventos históricos y generacionales. La exhibición considera múltiples significados de herencia, ya sean celebratorios o dolorosos, de una era, persona o de una idea a otra. Un grupo de obras que abre la muestra, examinan el ciclo del nacimiento hasta la muerte, mientras que otras galerías exploran diferentes tipos de linajes, como las maneras en que los artistas toman prestada de la historia del arte y la reescriben, o revelan legados de violencia racial y sus recurrencias.

La poeta Rio Cortez habla de estar “enmarcados por nuestro conocimiento futuro”, incluso mientras nos ubicamos en este momento temporal, nos desplazamos hacia atrás y hacia adelante, pensando no sólo en nuestras antepasadas, sino también en los descendientes que nunca vamos a conocer. Las pinturas, esculturas, videos, fotografías e instalaciones aquí reunidas plantean preguntas sobre lo que nos fue transmitido y cómo podría desplazarse, cambiar o vivir de nuevo. Más que una aceptación pasiva del estado actual de las cosas, los artistas en la exposición nos piden ponderar qué ideas y experiencias pueden estar detrás de lo que vemos o creemos saber. Fundamentalmente, ¿cómo llegamos aquí, como individuos y sociedad, y hacia dónde nos dirigimos?


Homage

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Artists have always looked to their predecessors for inspiration, comparison, or context, and in homage or critique (or both). Consciously or not, artists are the inheritors of past generations of makers across time and space. The works in this gallery make this continuity explicit, looking to influential art historical and political movements of the twentieth century—Surrealism, industrial design, the 1930s labor movement, social documentary photography, hard-edge painting, and Minimalism—and updating them through shifts in medium, scale, and intent.

  • A bright red quarter-circle canvas mounted on a white wall.
    A bright red quarter-circle canvas mounted on a white wall.

    Carissa Rodriguez, Not Yet Titled (Red Curve), 2015. Cast salt, overall: 72 5/8 × 90 1/8 × 2 5/16 in. (184.5 × 228.9 × 5.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Avo Samuelian and Hector Manuel Gonzalez 2019.430. © Carissa Rodriguez

  • A man lying down and looking at the camera holding a fan.
    A man lying down and looking at the camera holding a fan.

    John Edmonds, Tête d'Homme, 2018. Inkjet print, 23 5/8 × 29 9/16 in. (60 × 75.1 cm). Edition 3/3. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Henry Nias Foundation 2020.38. © John Edmonds

  • A shiny, metallic sculpture of a humanoid figure with a sword, displayed on a white pedestal against a grey background.
    A shiny, metallic sculpture of a humanoid figure with a sword, displayed on a white pedestal against a grey background.

    Hank Willis Thomas, Strike, 2018. Stainless steel, overall: 32 3/4 × 32 1/4 × 7 1/4 in. (83.2 × 81.9 × 18.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee 2019.324. © Hank Willis Thomas

  • A photograph of a soldier in black and white behind shifting plywood pieces of red and black.
    A photograph of a soldier in black and white behind shifting plywood pieces of red and black.

    Joan Wallace, Bob's your Uncle, 1991. Acrylic on canvas, plywood, and photograph: closed, 96 × 60 × 11 3/8 in. (243.8 × 152.4 × 28.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Robert Shiffler. © Joan Wallace. Image courtesy the artist and Elizabeth Dee, New York

  • A black and white photograph of a woman looking into the camera.
    A black and white photograph of a woman looking into the camera.

    Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans: 4, 1981. Gelatin silver print, sheet: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm) Image: 9 7/16 × 7 7/16 in. (24 × 18.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee 96.2. © 1981 Sherrie Levine ©Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Courtesy paula Cooper Gallery, New York

  • A photograph of a soldier in black and white behind shifting plywood pieces of red and black.
    A photograph of a soldier in black and white behind shifting plywood pieces of red and black.

    Joan Wallace, Bob's your Uncle, 1991. Acrylic on canvas, plywood, and photograph: closed, 96 × 60 × 11 3/8 in. (243.8 × 152.4 × 28.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Robert Shiffler. © Joan Wallace. Image courtesy the artist and Elizabeth Dee, New York




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A monument of a man riding a horse behind a translucent banner hung between two columns on a grassy street island
A monument of a man riding a horse behind a translucent banner hung between two columns on a grassy street island

An-My Lê, Monument, General P.G.T. Beauregard, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, from the series The Silent General, 2015-2017. Inkjet print, 39 1/4 × 55 13/16 in. (99.7 × 141.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee 2018.86. © An-My Lê, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery

Hear directly from artists and curators on selected works from the exhibition.

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In the News

“The thematic content of the show is ambitious, ranging from slavery and the Great Migration to Covid, African religious traditions, the human lifespan, colonization and the sources of artistic creativity.” —The Guardian

“The show considers some of the painful and difficult legacies that have shaped our society…”  —Aesthetica Magazine 

“...a captivating group show at the Whitney” —Whitewall

“This is an exhibition that raises a number of questions about how we as individuals respond to our world…” —Highbrow Magazine