Rückenfi gur by Glenn Ligon, ’61 Pontiac by Robert Bechtle (top right) and Edward Hopper’s Early Sunday Morning (right)
Six in Four, the title Artschwager gave the Whitney elevators, is the last major artwork he created before his death. The four elevators are the culmination of a body of work based on six themes: Door, Window, Table, Basket, Mirror, and Rug that were the subject of hundreds of drawings and sculptures Artschwager made throughout his career. Each elevator is an immersive installation featuring these themes. Visitors enter the elevators and have the experience of standing under a table; on a rug and in front of a mirror; opposite a door and next to a window; or in a giant woven basket. Throughout the day, the four elevators will be used by the museum’s many visitors (and the largest will also be used to transport art). We hope they’ll become a beloved touchstone for our visitors – a visual memory that fosters a lasting connection with the museum.
What will be on display? Until the end of September, the entire museum is dedicated to the exhibition America is Hard to See, a presentation of more than 600 works from the permanent collection. The exhibition reexamines the history of art in the US from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. The exhibition elaborates the themes,
ideas, beliefs and passions that have galvanised American artists in their struggle to work within and against established
©CYBERTREK 2015 AM 3 2015
The new building
reaffi rms Whitney’s core identity as the “artists’ museum”
conventions, often directly engaging their political and social contexts. Numerous pieces that have rarely, if ever, been shown appear alongside beloved icons in a conscious effort to unsettle assumptions about the American art canon. Works of art across all mediums are
displayed together, acknowledging the ways in which artists have engaged various modes of production and broken the boundaries between them. Also on view is Mary Heilmann: Sunset, a site-specifi c installation that inaugurates the largest outdoor gallery and the building itself. It includes a group of colourful sculptural chairs on the terrace, two large pink wall panels adhered to the building’s north façade and her video Swan Song – made with Kembra Pfahler in 1982 – which depicts Manhattan’s west side waterfront. The installation knits the museum’s architecture and visitors into their setting.
What is the content of the museum? The Whitney has the foremost collection of 20th and 21st-century American art. It presents a rigorous and varied schedule of important exhibitions both from our holdings and from the collections of individuals and institutions worldwide. Exhibitions range from historical surveys and in-depth retrospectives of major 20th-century and contemporary artists to group shows introducing young or relatively unknown artists to a larger public. The Biennial, an invitational show of work produced in the preceding two years, was introduced by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1932. It’s the only continuous series of exhibitions in the country to survey recent developments in American art. The Whitney also presents acclaimed exhibitions of fi lm and video, architecture, photography and new media.
How will you be using technology in the museum? All indoor and outdoor spaces are wired for data and electricity and the whole building is wireless so that the public will have access to educational downloads. We have two “black boxes” that can be used for either performance or gallery space that are fully equipped with state-of-the-art sound, fi lm, video, and lighting. The large box is completely sound insulated so it can be used as a recording or broadcast studio. ●
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PHOTOS: WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
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