Devoted to the art of the U.S.A., the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of 20th Century and Contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. The Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting American art, and its collection is the Museum’s key resource. The Museum’s signature exhibition, the Biennial, is the country’s leading survey of the most recent developments in American art.
By Efi Michalarou Photo: Whitney Museum of American Art Archive
The Whitney’s collection includes over 22,000 works created by more than 3,000 artists during the 20th and 21st Centuries. At its core are Museum founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s personal holdings, totaling some 600 works when the Museum opened in 1931. These works served as the basis for the founding collection, which Mrs. Whitney continued to add to throughout her lifetime. The Whitney’s collection online provides access to over 21,000 works by more than 3,000 artists. These works in all mediums (painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, film, video, installation, and new media) serve as a remarkable resource for understanding art history and the creative process of artists in the U.D.A. from 1900 to today. The Whitney has deep holdings of the work of certain key artists, spanning their careers and the mediums in which they worked, including: Alexander Calder, Mabel Dwight, Jasper Johns, Glenn Ligon, Brice Marden, Reginald Marsh, Agnes Martin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and David Wojnarowicz.
Los Carpinteros, Transportable City, 1999, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of Dean Valentine and Amy Adelson
Alex Katz, 1977, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York – Purchase, with funds from Frances and Sydney Lewis
Andy Warhol, Ethel Scull 36 Times, 1963, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York – Jointly owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Gift of Ethel Redner Scull
Edward Hopper, A Woman in the Sun, 1961, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York – 50th Anniversary Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Hackett in honor of Edith and Lloyd Goodrich
Cindy Sherman, Untitled #70, 1980, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York – Gift of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz
Mike Kelley, Educational Complex, 1995, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York, Purchase, with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee
Jack Pierson, Jerry in the Dressing Room, 1993, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York, Purchase, with funds from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1983, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York, Purchase, with funds from the Burroughs Wellcome Purchase Fund, Leo Castelli, the Wilfred P. and Rose J. Cohen Purchase Fund, the Julia B. Engel Purchase Fund, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States Purchase Fund, The Sondra and Charles Gilman, Jr. Foundation Inc, S. Sidney Kahn, The Lauder Foundation, Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Fund, the Sara Roby Foundation, and the Painting and Sculpture Committee
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hollywood Africans, 1983, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York; Gift of Douglas S. Cramer
Rachel Harrison, Untitled, 2012, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York, Purchase, with funds from the Drawing Committee
Stuart Davis, The Paris Bit, 1959, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York, Purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art
Louise Bourgeois, Spider Woman, 2005, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York Purchase, with funds from the Print Committee
Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, 1975, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York, Gift of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Inc
Ellsworth Kelly, Camelia II, 1964, Whitney Museum of American Art – New York Purchase
Saul Leiter, Shoe of the Shoeshine Boy, c. 1950, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee
Devoted to the art of the U.S.A., the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of 20th Century and Contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. The Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting American art, and its collection is the Museum’s key resource. The Museum’s signature exhibition, the Biennial, is the country’s leading survey of the most recent developments in American art.
