Introduction to Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection

Adam Weinberg: I’m Adam Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection.

This exhibition presents highlights from Emily Fisher Landau’s spectacular gift to the museum of over 400 works of art by more than eighty-five modern and contemporary artists. Mrs. Landau is one of the preeminent collectors of post-war American art in the United States. She has been a long-time friend and supporter of the Whitney and a Trustee since 1987. 

As you will see today, Mrs. Landau has consistently supported risk-taking artists, who, in her words, “portray the world we are living in now.” This installation traces significant styles and ideas that have shaped art since the 1960s—abstraction, conceptualism, postmodernism, new approaches to photography, and explorations of personal identity and narrative. 

Through my own relationship with Mrs. Landau, I have been continually inspired by her keen eye for talent and deep curiosity about all that is new. Emily Fisher Landau once advised, “Never stop learning. Never stop looking. Art is the greatest teacher.”  It is in this spirit that we present works from her collection. The Whitney is proud to serve as stewards of her legacy.