Whitney Museum

Whitney Museum of American Art
The front of the museum (2019)
Map
Interactive fullscreen map
Established1930 (1930)
Location99 Gansevoort Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°44′22.6″N 74°0′32.0″W / 40.739611°N 74.008889°W / 40.739611; -74.008889
TypeArt museum
Visitors768,000 (2023)[1]
FounderGertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
DirectorScott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director
CuratorKim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator
ArchitectRenzo Piano
Public transit accessSubway: "A" train"C" train"E" train"L" train at 14th Street – Eighth Avenue
Bus: M11, M12, M14A, M14D
Websitewhitney.org

The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a modern and contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. The institution was originally founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), a prominent American socialite, sculptor, and art patron after whom it is named.

The Whitney focuses on collecting and preserving 20th- and 21st-century American art. Its permanent collection, spanning the late-19th century to the present, comprises more than 25,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, films, videos, and artifacts of new media by more than 3,500 artists. It places particular emphasis on exhibiting the work of living artists as well as maintaining institutional archives of historical documents pertaining to modern and contemporary American art, including the Edward and Josephine Hopper Research Collection (the museum is the largest repository of Edward Hopper's artwork and archival materials in the world), the Sanborn Hopper Archive, and the Arshile Gorky Research Collection, among others.[2][3]

From 1966 to 2014, the Whitney was located at 945 Madison Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side in a building designed by Marcel Breuer and Hamilton P. Smith. The museum closed in October 2014 to relocate to its current building, which was designed by Renzo Piano at 99 Gansevoort Street and opened on May 1, 2015, expanding the museum exhibition space to 50,000 square feet.[4]

The museum organizes the Whitney Biennial, a bi-annual exhibition showcasing the work of emerging American artists, considered the longest-running and most important survey of contemporary art in the United States.[5][6][7] The museum also heads the Whitney Independent Study Program, which began in 1968, to support artists, critics and art historians by "encouraging the theoretical and critical study of the practices, institutions, and discourses that constitute the field of culture".[8][9] In 2023, with 768,000 visitors, the Whitney was the 26th most-visited museum in the United States and the 89th most-visited art museum in the world.[10]

  1. ^ Cheshire, Lee; da Silva, José; Research by Lillie Ellen Moller and Robert Palk (March 26, 2024). "The 100 most popular art museums in the world—blockbusters, bots and bounce-backs". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
  2. ^ "Institutional Archives". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  3. ^ "Edward and Josephine Hopper Resources". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved May 30, 2024. Today, the Whitney is the world's largest repository of Hopper's artwork and archival materials.
  4. ^ Smith, Roberta (April 30, 2015). "New Whitney Museum Signifies a Changing New York Art Scene". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  5. ^ Reinhard, Scott; Watkins, Derek; DeSANTIS, ALICIA; Taylor, Rumsey; Mitter, Siddhartha (July 5, 2019). "Where Does Major American Art Come From? Mapping the Whitney Biennial". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 19, 2024. the most prestigious American contemporary exhibition
  6. ^ Kelly, By Brian P. "Whitney Biennial 2024 Review: Reality Check". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2024. The most significant—and longest-running—survey of contemporary American art
  7. ^ Vartanian, Hrag; Haddad, Hrag Vartanian, Valentina Di Liscia, Natalie (March 14, 2024). "First Impressions From the 2024 Whitney Biennial". Hyperallergic. Retrieved March 14, 2024. As the Whitney Museum's signature event, the Biennial is a highly anticipated exhibition that often acts as a barometer of trends and ideas percolating in global art communities, as told through an American lens.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Singerman, Howard (February 1, 2004). "IN THEORY & PRACTICE: A HISTORY OF THE WHITNEY INDEPENDENT STUDY PROGRAM". Artforum. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  9. ^ "Independent Study Program (ISP)". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  10. ^ Cheshire, Lee; da Silva, José; Research by Lillie Ellen Moller and Robert Palk (March 26, 2024). "The 100 most popular art museums in the world—blockbusters, bots and bounce-backs". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved March 26, 2024.