The Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney is so much more than just a biennial. The Whitney Museum of American Art is the leading collection of 20th-century American contemporary art located right in the heart of Manhattan on the Upper East Side.
The Whitney was founded in 1931 with the donation of 700 objects from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Whitney, herself a well regarded sculptor, initially attempted to make the donation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but the donation was declined, leading Whitney to be the founding member of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Currently, the permanent collection consists of over 12,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations, drawings, prints, and photographs. The permanent collection includes numerous works by Edward Hoppers, Georgia O’Keefe, Japser Johns, Ad Reinhardt. The acquisition budget of the Whitney has always modest, thus leading the museum to make the most of its resources by purchasing the work of living artists, particularly those who were young and not well known artists.
The Museum’s collections start at 1900 and continue to the present. The fifth floor galleries contain art from the permanent collection, 1900 to 1949; the second floor exhibits art from l950 to the present day. Other floors are devoted to changing exhibitions.
On view now is the huge Whitney Biennial. The show is widely regarded as the leading event in contemporary art (including performance art, as shown), featuring lesser-known avant garde artists. This is the last week to catch the full biennial exhibition; the full exhibition will be on view through Sunday, June 1st and select floors will be on view through June 22nd.
Location: Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave at East 75th Street (map), 212-570-3676
Subway: 6 to 77th Street
Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 11am-6pm; Friday 1-9pm; Saturday-Sunday 11am-6pm
Cost: $15; students and seniors $10. Every Friday from 6-9pm is “pay what you wish” admission.
Photo credit: exterior, Dom Dada via flickr; Whitney Biennial performance art, Michael Smith, A Nite with Mike. Performance, Videobrasil, Sao Paolo, 1998, courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art;
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POSTED IN: Art, Museums, Upper East Side
2 opinions for The Whitney Museum of American Art
Mary Jo
May 26, 2008 at 10:33 am
Many visits to the city, but I still haven’t managed to make it to the Whitney!
National Museum of the American Indian
Jun 2, 2008 at 8:42 am
[…] out last week’s Museum Monday post on the Whitney Museum of American Art. Museum Monday continues next week with a post on the Merchant House Museum. […]
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