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?


Ground Beneath Our Feet

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The works in this gallery touch on some of the painful and difficult legacies that have shaped the United States on a societal level, specifically the enslavement of Africans and all it has engendered, from racial violence and segregation to disproportionate incarceration and overpolicing to the significant health and economic disparities experienced by Black people and other communities of color. These inheritances are framed by the included artists as all-permeating; literally and figuratively, they are the ground beneath our feet. Yet no experience is monolithic, and artists’ voices and perspectives are as varied as their visual languages. These works are clear about the flawed legacies of this nation, but also sharply attuned to the inherent power of naming injustice and the ways in which historically oppressed people have harnessed that power to forge new realities for themselves and their communities.

  • Five radios in a row on a wall with a speaker beside.
    Five radios in a row on a wall with a speaker beside.

    Cameron Rowland, Life and Property, 2021. 5 UHF radios, antenna, recording device, speaker, and webpage, overall: 70 × 27 1/4 × 8 3/4 in. (177.8 × 69.2 × 22.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee 2022.60a-i. © Cameron Rowland

  • The silhouettes of two people facing each other against a blue background.
    The silhouettes of two people facing each other against a blue background.

    Kara Walker, still from " ...calling to me from the angry surface of some grey and threatening sea. I was transported.", 2007. Five channel video installation, color, sound, 11 min. looped. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; joint purchase with the Hammer Museum, with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee 2010.17. © Kara Walker. Image courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co, N.Y.

  • 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

  • A photograph of a small wooden house that is very dilapidated.
    A photograph of a small wooden house that is very dilapidated.

    Beverly Buchanan, Red Creek Barbecue, c. 1990–2005. Chromogenic print, sheet: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm) Image: 6 7/16 × 9 11/16 in. (16.4 × 24.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee 2021.37. © Estate of Beverly Buchanan, courtesy Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York

  • Many materials such as dresses, t-shirts, twigs, etc. create the image of a road leading to a sun.
    Many materials such as dresses, t-shirts, twigs, etc. create the image of a road leading to a sun.

    Kevin Beasley, The Road, 2019. Polyurethane resin, raw Virginia cotton, Virginia soil, Virginia twigs, Virginia pine needles, housedresses, kaftans, T-shirts, du-rags, altered housedresses, altered kaftans, altered T-shirts, altered garments, altered tires, scarf, guinea fowl feathers, down feathers, copper, jewelry, shoelaces, mobile phone, burlap satchel, windshield wipers, altered African fabrics, socks, Timberland boots, aluminum, steel, 96 × 120 × 10 in. (243.8 × 304.8 × 25.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee in memory of Ron Burrell 2021.59. © Kevin Beasley. Courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York. Photograph by Jason Wyche

  • People dressed in white perform manual labor on a hilly terrain with armed guards looking on.
    People dressed in white perform manual labor on a hilly terrain with armed guards looking on.

    Kambui Olujimi, Hart Island Crew, 2020. Watercolor, ink, and graphite pencil on paper, sheet: 23 1/2 × 28 1/8 in. (59.7 × 71.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Drawing and Print Committee 2021.72. © Kambui Olujimi

  • A map of the united states in green and red with violent historic events written across each state.
    A map of the united states in green and red with violent historic events written across each state.

    Faith Ringgold, United States of Attica, 1971. Offset lithograph, 21 3/8 × 27 3/16 in. (54.3 × 69.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of ACA Galleries in honor of Faith Ringgold 2017.163. © 2023 Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York




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Audio guides

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