America Is Hard to See

Info

Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014
May 1 – September 27, 2015

Words

The Whitney Museum of American Art is currently holding the inaugural exhibition at their new building on New York City's High Line. It runs until September 27th and is bound to resonate with anyone who has an interest in 20th century painting, sculpture, photography and filmmaking. Acting as an historical survey of the major events in American art during this period and a record of the Whitney’s acquisitions, there are more than 600 works on show, separated into 23 distinct chapters which group together like-minded artists from concurrent eras. As is often the case with such ambitiously assembled exhibitions, not everything on show will be to everyone's taste, but it does feature important pieces from all movements and a number of lesser-seen works. The Scotch Tape chapter particularly appeals to me, with contributions from Bruce Conner and Al Held, as well as Jay DeFeo’s more than 1500 pound sculptural masterpiece, The Rose.

—Whitney Museum of American Art

Collecting Calder

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Images

—01. Varèse, c. 1930.
—02. Object with Red Discs, c. 1931.

Words

From July 17th until October 19th, the Whitney Museum of American Art will be exhibiting Collecting Calder, a retrospective of the work of Alexander Calder. The New York City institution boasts the largest collection of Calder’s work in the world and will be exhibiting his drawings and sculptures, giving equal representation to the two main aspects of his output. Calder’s Circus – miniature circus-themed dioramas rendered from wire, string, cork, wood, paper, metal and cloth – will be shown alongside the whimsical mobiles he is known for, as well as static sculptures he called ’stabiles’. This exhibit is a must for anyone one who is interested in the American artist and wants to see a large selection of his work collected in one venue.

—Whitney Museum of American Art