In 1931, before the Whitney Museum of American Art opened to the public, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney made a gift that became the basis of the institution’s holdings of modern art. Her devotion to the work of living artists has defined how the Whitney... more
In 1931, before the Whitney Museum of American Art opened to the public, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney made a gift that became the basis of the institution’s holdings of modern art. Her devotion to the work of living artists has defined how the Whitney has developed ever since.
Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe, Willem de Kooning, and Ed Ruscha are just a few of the American innovators on view in this presentation of works from the Whitney's collection. This exhibition highlights four broad themes that underscore the key developments of twentieth-century art in America: "Form Building, Form Breaking," "City and Machine," "The Figure and Its Realities," and "Mind, Body, Gesture." While these developments are grounded in historical periods, their qualities and ideas also overlap and connect, extending into the work of living artists who found new ways to apply them to creative expression.