David Wojnarowicz, Americans Can’t Deal with Death (1990), via Art Observed

Few artists have managed to fly so consistently under the microscope of the art world’s fascination with downtown New York in the way that David Wojnarowicz has for so many years. Beginning in the late 1970s, the artist created a body of work that spanned photography, painting, music, film, sculpture, writing, and activism. Largely self-taught, he came to prominence in New York in the 1980s, a period marked by creative energy, financial precariousness, and profound cultural changes, yet his body of work has long been held off from the more hallmark names of the era in terms of impact and historical resonance.  This month, The Whitney seeks to remedy this situation, granting the artist his first major museum retrospective, and turning its focus on a body of work that has long shone brightly even away from the limelight. (more…)

Hélio Oiticica, P15 Parangolé Cape 11, I Embody Revolt (P15 Parangolé Capa 11, Eu Incorporo a Revolta) worn by Nildo of Mangueira, 1967. Courtesy of César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro. © César and Claudio Oiticica. Photograph by Claudio Oiticica

One of the most innovative artists and thinkers of the past century, Hélio Oiticica is currently being honored with an in-depth survey that breaks down key moments and artistic endeavors from the artist’s short but impressive career at the Whitney Museum of American Art. From his early days as part of the Neo-Concrete movement in his native Brazil to his time in New York’s East Village during the 1970s’, Oiticica’s inventive practice unfolds in sequences and segments throughout To Organize a Delirium, offering the audience a nuanced and participatory experience that exceeds traditional limits of art viewing experience, a point that strengthens his own conceptual engagement with art itself. (more…)

Raul de Nieves, via Art Observed

It’s been a long time coming for this year’s Whitney Biennial, an exhibition that has sat on pause for several years as the institution prepared for its move downtown, and got comfortable in its new space in the Meatpacking District.  Opening its first Biennial since 2014, the stage has been set for a particularly timely moment of reflection on both America and its art communities at a time when the national identity has rarely been so fiercely contested and examined.

Ajay Kurian, Childermass (2017), via Art Observed

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Stan VanDerBeek, Movie Mural (1968), via Art Observed

If there’s one distinct argument coming out of the Whitney’s expansive exhibition Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, it’s a reinforcement of the expression “the story’s in the telling.”  Drawing on a wide range of artists and collectives practicing in the late 20th Century and early 21st, the exhibition takes a decidedly narrative bent on increasingly pervasive communication technologies, and the cultural effects that these forms have left both on human interaction at large, and the art world itself.

Hito Steyerl, Factory of the Sun (2015), via Art Observed

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Carmen Herrera, Green and Orange (1958), via Art Observed

Taking over the top floor of the Whitney this fall is Lines of Sight, an exhibition delving into the first thirty years of Cuban-born artist Carmen Herrera’s unique investigations into the color field, minimalist abstraction, and the practice of painting.  On view through 2017, it provides a fitting context for the artist’s ongoing body of work, which now reaches into its seventh decade. (more…)

Sophia Al-Maria, still from Black Friday (2016). Digital video projected vertically, color, sound; 16:36 min. Collection of the artist; courtesy Anna Lena Films, Paris, and The Third Line, Dubai.

Currently showing on the first floor of the Whitney Museum is Black Friday, the American-Qatari artist Sophia Al-Maria’s solo debut in the United States.  Born in the U.S. and educated in London and Egypt, Al-Maria has been a central voice in the Gulf region’s burgeoning contemporary art scene.  At the helm of the art collective Gulf Cooperation Council as a founding member, Al-Maria’s work drives at a concept of “Gulf Futurism,” a term she coined to define the rapidly evolving economic and social landscape of the region.  As a writer, researcher and filmmaker, Al-Maria has been delivering a substantial body of work on oil-fueled wealth and its political/social consequences in the Middle East.

Sophia Al-Maria, still from The Litany (2016). Digital video projected vertically, color, sound; 16:36 min. Collection of the artist; courtesy Anna Lena Films, Paris, and The Third Line, Dubai. (more…)

Danny Lyon, Crossing the Ohio River, Louisville, 1966 (1966), via Whitney Museum of American Art

Exhibited at a critical moment of heightened tensions regarding civil liberties in America, Danny Lyon’s retrospective exhibition transforms the Whitney’s fifth floor into a space for cultural reflection.  Set against a backdrop that confronts pertinent issues regarding violence, incarceration, and inequality, Lyon’s work chronicles a complex photographic history of the racial, social, and political issues that are currently challenging the United States anew in the 21st Century.  The serious tone of his work is met with the intimacy in which he engages with his subjects, offering a sense of hope while putting a deeply human face on subjects who are marginalized and oppressed. (more…)

The Whitney Museum will stay open seven days a week during July and August, the institution announced today.  It will also be open late into the evening on Fridays and Saturdays, allowing visitors to view their current exhibitions through 10 pm. (more…)

The uptown studio of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, where the Whitney Museum was born, are set to open its doors to visitors next month.  “We think this place is a treasure,” says Stephanie K. Meeks, president and chief executive of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “and one that deserves more recognition for its history and more of an opportunity for the public to engage with it.” (more…)

The Whitney’s chief curator, Scott Rothkopf is profiled in the New York Times this week, and noted for his embrace of emerging artists and focus on dynamic programming.  “He has really reinvigorated the contemporary program,” says director Adam D. Weinberg. “What he’s doing is recognizing young talent and people who work hard and moving them up. It’s important for a museum devoted to contemporary art not to just have curators who are over 60.” (more…)

The Whitney Museum is naming its new Meatpacking District building after collector and philanthropist Leonard Lauder, following a dinner last night at the museum where Lauder was also awarded with the inaugural Whitney Collection Award.  “Leonard Lauder is one of the greatest benefactors in the Whitney’s history,” says Director Adam D. Weinberg. “I cannot express how grateful we are to Leonard for his exceptional generosity, leadership, and devotion.” (more…)

The New Yorker has published a selection of photos by Bill Jacobsen, documenting the transitional period between the Whitney’s departure and the Met’s arrival in the Breuer building.  The photos, showing the space’s stripped bare architecture, welcomes both a familiarity with the Whitney’s former home, and an appreciation for the unique architecture its original designer had embraced. (more…)

Vanity Fair reports on the increasingly heated conflicts over the estate of Melva Bucksbaum, the late vice chairwoman of the Whitney Museum, whose will is currently being challenged by her husband, Raymond Learsy.  Learsy claims he is entitled to half of Bucksbaum’s fortune, leading to fierce clashes with her children. (more…)

The New Yorker profiles the efforts of the Whitney’s conservation department in preserving some of the more challenging works in its collection.  “I was excited by the immediacy of it—how I was often the first person restoring a canvas, as opposed to dealing with a century of past restorations,” says Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, who works as head of the museum’s replication committee. “And I loved, whenever possible, consulting with the artists themselves.” (more…)

Critic Adrian Searle has released his list of 2015’s best shows, topped by the Whitney’s triumphant reopening exhibition America is Hard to See, noting the exhibition’s tasteful use of its museum archives and curatorial muscle.  “There is a lesson here for Tate Britain, which this year lost and gained a director. With its relentless historical timeline, the display of Tate’s permanent collection – and particularly of art since 1900 – is more than hard to see, let alone look at.” he writes. “Much remains in storage. The enormous resources of the gallery’s collection could be used to tell multiple stories, just as the Whitney is now able to do. This was both my museum – and my show – of the year.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles Sheena Wagstaff, The Met’s new head of Modern and Contemporary Art and former Tate Modern Chief Curator, in her mission to transform the museum’s offerings for more recent work, focused around its new exhibition space at the Breuer Building, former home to the Whitney.  “My work at the Tate Modern, along with my colleagues, too, was very much about re-addressing the Western canon, re-addressing the idea of what modernism actually means, and broadening and expanding that scope,” she says. (more…)

France has awarded Adam D. Weinberg, the Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, with the insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.  Weinberg’s work has involved a number of collaborations with French institutions including the Centre Pompidou, Grand Palais, and Le Consortium in Dijon. (more…)

The Whitney Museum has named Christopher Y. Lew and Mia Locks as the co-curators for the 2017 Biennial, first Biennial presented in the Whitney’s new building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.  “Every Whitney Biennial is a galvanizing process for the Museum, a tradition that goes back to the institution’s roots while retaining its freshness and immediacy,” says Director Adam D. Weinberg.  “Endeavoring to gauge the state of art in America today, the Biennial demands curators who are attuned to the art of the current moment and there is no question that Chris Lew and Mia Locks have their fingers on the pulse.” (more…)

Frank Stella, Harran II (1967), via Art Observed

Upon entering Frank Stella’s career retrospective at the Whitney, one is immediately assailed by a flourish of color and form, with the artist’s massive mural work Das Erdbeben in Chili spanning almost the full length of the fifth floor wall.  The show, which marks one of the largest for the artist in the US since his 1987 MoMA Retrospective, is a fitting introduction to his work, spanning his nearly seventy year career. (more…)

The Whitney’s move to the foot of the Highline has resulted in double the number of visitors during the four month span than the museum saw in the previous year.  “People feel so strongly about the Whitney because it’s a museum that is very much in and of New York,” Museum President Adam Weinberg said. “The Whitney is a spirit, not a place.” (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its renovation plans for the repurposed Breuer Building, former home of the Whitney Museum, set to open in March 2016.  The plans for the space will include a “book bar” and restaurant.  “Our approach to inhabiting and interpreting the building honors Breuer’s intent for the space, highlighting its unique character as an environment for the presentation of modern and contemporary art,” says Thomas P. Campbell, the director and CEO of the Met. “The wonderfully scaled galleries and interior spaces of The Met Breuer provide a range of opportunities to present our modern and contemporary program, in addition to our galleries in the Fifth Avenue building.” (more…)

Melva Bucksbaum, the vice chairman of the Whitney Museum, and a trustee of the Aspen Institute, the American friends of the Israel Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, has passed away.  Bucksbaum had a reputation for her charitable support of artists and institutions. “They support artists, even new ones. They buy according to their hearts, and they have good ones,” artist Pat Steir said of Bucksbaum and her husband. (more…)

The Renzo Piano Workshop has unveiled a handbag design collaboration with fashion designer Max Mara, taking the facade of the Whitney Museum as its inspiration.  Proceeds from the bag’s sale will go to benefit the Renzo Piano Foundation.  “We tried to maintain a simple, pure design,” says the architect, “working only on the details by applying a creative use of technology and placing the accent on respect for the materials.” (more…)

Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1 (1927), via The Whitney Museum of Art

On view currently at the Whitney Museum is a showcase of some of the museum’s deeper holdings of American artwork from the first half of the twentieth century, exploring the years before the mid-century advent of Abstract Expressionism. This part of the rotating exhibition, which began in December 2012, will continue through May 2013 before moving on to a new selection of works.

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