Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator said, “When the Whitney closed in March, we were in the midst of some of our most popular and critically acclaimed exhibitions ever. I’m thrilled that audiences will have another chance to connect with Vida Americana. The themes of social, racial, and economic justice that the artists in this exhibition were addressing in their art nearly a century ago remain relevant today. Cauleen Smith’s videos also feel especially timely in their beautiful meditations on Black feminist and spiritual histories, while resonating deeply with Agnes Pelton’s transcendent abstractions. We can’t wait to welcome visitors back to these shows and to our collection, and we remain as committed as always to supporting artists and providing a dynamic platform for their work and ideas.”
Additionally, on September 17, the Whitney will debut Collective Actions: Artist Interventions in a Time of Change. The exhibition, drawn entirely from the Museum’s Special Collections, showcases the critical role of artists in documenting moments of seismic change and protest and brings together prints, photographs, posters, and digital files that have been created this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. The majority of the works in Collective Actions were initiated by artist collectives to raise funds for anti-racist initiatives, including criminal justice reform, bail funds, Black trans advocacy groups, and other mutual aid work. The Whitney acquired the works on view as the projects were launched and distributed.
David Hammons’s Day’s End, a new public art project commissioned by the Whitney, is scheduled to be completed in late fall 2020 in Hudson River Park directly across from the Museum. A related exhibition, Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986, will debut on September 3, and remain on view through October 25. The exhibition considers the artwork that inspired Hammons’s sculpture, Gordon Matta-Clark’s Day’s End (1975), as well as artworks from the permanent collection that explore downtown New York as site, history, and memory. In 1975, Matta-Clark cut five openings into the original Pier 52 shed on Gansevoort Peninsula. Hammons’s artwork, developed in collaboration with the Hudson River Park Trust, will be an open structure that precisely follows the outline, dimensions, and location of the original Pier 52 site.
“We are honored to be realizing David Hammons’s public art installation Day’s End this fall following the Museum’s reopening. Hammons imagined this public artwork before the current pandemic crisis but its message is even more resonant today. It’s an ode to memory, loss, and yearning. The open form alludes to the history of the site, asks us to consider the passage of time, and celebrates New York’s creativity and resilience. It represents a commitment to community, open dialogue, and civic good,” said Weinberg.
To protect the health and well-being of staff and visitors, the Museum has made the difficult decision to cancel all on-site public and education programs, including guided tours and school visits, for the rest of 2020. The Whitney will continue to engage with audiences online via whitney.org and its social media channels. #WhitneyFromHome, the Museum’s expanded digital experience, provides an intimate lens into stories behind the Whitney’s art and artists and features programs such as Artmaking From Home and Art History From Home. Artport, the Whitney’s portal to Internet art, recently debuted American Artist’s online project Looted, which temporarily replaces all of the images on whitney.org with textures of wood, effectively boarding up the Museum’s website, while the backgrounds of the web pages change to black and the text on them fades.
On reopening, the Whitney will operate with new hours on Mondays, and Thursdays through Sundays. Member Days will take place from August 27–August 31 in advance of the public opening on September 3. Member-only hours will also be offered on Monday and Thursday evenings and weekend mornings throughout the initial reopening phase. For additional details about our visitor guidelines and new health and safety protocols, please see our Reopening Fact Sheet.
For more information about the Museum’s reopening plans or to reserve timed-entry tickets, please visit whitney.org.
| REOPENING EXHIBITION PROGRAM All dates subject to change. |
| THE FOLLOWING EXHIBITIONS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED: — Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist, extended through November 1, 2020 — Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, extended through January 31, 2021 — Cauleen Smith: Mutualities, extended through January 31, 2021 — Jill Mulleady: We Wither Time into a Coil of Fright, extended through January 2021 — Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019, extended through October 10, 2021 — The Whitney’s Collection: Selections From 1900 to 1965, extended through May 8, 2022 |
| DATES FOR THE FOLLOWING EXHIBITIONS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED: — American Artist: Looted, July 21–October 2020 — Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970–1986, September 3–October 25, 2020 — Collective Actions: Artist Interventions in a Time of Change, September 17, 2020–January 3, 2021 — David Hammons’s Day’s End, Opens late fall 2020 |
The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an ardent and pioneering supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists at a time when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which, from its earliest days, has championed the most innovative art of the United States. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists themselves, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today. 2020 marks the ninetieth anniversary of the Museum’s founding, and five years since the opening of the Whitney’s downtown building on Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District.
The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Beginning September 3, 2020, public hours are: Monday and Thursday: 11:30 am–6 pm; Friday: 1:30–9 pm; Saturday and Sunday: 1–6 pm. Member-only hours are: Monday and Thursday: 6–7 pm; Saturday and Sunday: 10:30 am–1 pm. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Admission is pay-what-you-wish through September 28, 2020. Visitors 18 years & under and Whitney members: FREE. Reserve timed-entry tickets in advance at whitney.org. For more information on reopening visit whitney.org. For general information please call (212) 570-3600 or visit whitney.org.
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