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NYC 's Whitney Museum of American Art - New
Yorkled |
| The Whitney Museum of American Art is not only a historical museum of American Art but it is also a museum which seeks to present to the public innovations in artwork. Artwork by living artists, known and unknown. Today its Permanent Collection holds approximately 11,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs, representing more than 1,700 artists. In addition, the library's reference collection, focusing on 20th-century American art, includes more than 30,000 volumes. As the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, the Whitney Museum presents the full range of 20th-century American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. Exhibitions range from historical surveys and in-depth retrospectives of major 20th-century artists (including "Collection in Context" exhibitions that lend a fresh perspective to Permanent Collection works) to group shows introducing young or relatively unknown artists to a larger public. The Whitney was the first museum to take its exhibitions and programming beyond its walls by establishing corporate-funded branch facilities. The Downtown Branch Museum was opened at 55 Water Street from 1973 to 1983, and from 1988 to 1992 at the Federal Reserve Plaza on Maiden Lane. The Whitney Museum of American Art at the Equitable Center, at Seventh Avenue and 52nd Street, was open from 1986 to 1992. The Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion International Corporation in Stamford, Connecticut, opened in 1981, and the branch at Philip Morris Incorporated on Park Avenue and 42nd Street, opened in 1983. Both continue to be vital aspects of the Museum's overall programming.
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| History |
| The Whitney Museum of American Art emerged out of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's maverick activities on behalf of American artists. A sculptor, she recognized the obstacles facing American artists at the turn of the century, when it was almost impossible for artists concerned with new ideas to exhibit or sell their work. The leading patron of American art from 1907 until her death in 1942, she supported these artists by purchasing and showing their work. In 1914 in Greenwich Village, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney established the Whitney Studio, which presented exhibitions by living American artists whose work had been disregarded by the traditional academies. |
A very interesting piece of history is that by 1929 she had assembled a collection of more than 500 works, which she offered with an endowment to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. When the offer was refused, she set up her own museum, one with a new and radically different mandate: to be devoted exclusively to the art of this country. The Whitney Museum of American Art was founded in 1930, and opened in 1931 on West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village. The Museum moved to an expanded site on West 54th Street in 1954. Having outgrown that building by 1963, the Museum acquired the present site on Madison Avenue at 75th Street. This building, designed by Marcel Breuer and Hamilton Smith, with Michael Irving as consulting architect, opened in 1966. |
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| Whitney Info |
| Upper East Side / 945
Madison Ave at 75th Street |
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