Whitney Museum, New York

99 Gansevoort Street
NY 10014 New York

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whitney.org (212) 570-3600 info@whitney.org

artists & participants

Berenice Abbott,  Michele Abeles,  Vito Acconci,  Robert Adams,  Ansel Adams,  An-My Le,  Carl Andre,  Kenneth Anger,  Eleanor Antin,  Diane Arbus,  Cory Arcangel,  David Armstrong,  Richard Artschwager,  Ruth Asawa,  Asco,  Hale Aspacio Woodruff,  Charles Atlas,  Lutz Bacher,  Peggy Bacon,  Jo Baer,  Alex Bag,  Malcolm Bailey,  Lamar Baker,  John Baldessari,  Alvin Baltrop,  Lewis Baltz,  Matthew Barney,  Richmond Barthe,  Jean-Michel Basquiat,  Romare Bearden,  Cecil Beaton,  Robert Beavers,  Robert Bechtle,  Ericka Beckman,  Larry Bell,  George Bellows,  Lynda Benglis,  Thomas Hart Benton,  Wallace Berman,  Bernadette Corporation,  Judith Bernstein,  Huma Bhabha,  David Bienstock,  Henry Billings,  Ilse Bing,  Dara Birnbaum,  Nayland Blake,  Oscar Bluemner,  Peter Blume,  Lee Bontecou,  Jonathan Borofsky,  Louise Bourgeois,  Margaret Bourke-White,  Carol Bove,  Mark Bradford,  Stan Brakhage,  Robert Breer,  Patrick Henry Bruce,  Bernarda Bryson Shahn,  Charles Burchfield,  Jacob Burck,  Chris Burden,  Scott Burton,  Mary Ellen Bute,  Paul Cadmus,  John Cage,  Alexander Calder,  Cameron,  Luis Camnitzer,  Peter Campus,  James Castle,  Elizabeth Catlett,  Maurizio Cattelan,  Vija Celmins,  John Chamberlain,  Paul Chan,  Sarah Charlesworth,  Ayoka Chenzira,  Chryssa,  Larry Clark,  Chuck Close,  Sue Coe,  Anne Collier,  Bruce Conner,  Corita Kent,  Joseph Cornell,  Eldzier Cortor,  Miguel Covarrubias,  John Covert,  Ralston Crawford,  E. E. Cummings,  Imogen Cunningham,  John Currin,  James Daugherty,  Stuart Davis,  Willem De Kooning,  Walter De Maria,  Roy Decarava,  Jay DeFeo,  Charles Demuth,  Maya Deren,  Mark di Suvero,  Jim Dine,  Arthur Dove,  Thomas Downing,  Elsie Driggs,  Carroll Dunham,  Sam Durant,  Jimmie Durham,  Mabel Dwight,  Allan D´Arcangelo,  William Eggleston,  Nicole Eisenman,  Wharton Esherick,  Walker Evans,  Kevin Jerome Everson,  Loretta Fahrenholz,  Andreas Feininger,  Lyonel Feininger,  Duncan Ferguson,  Rafael Ferrer,  Paul Fiene,  Morgan Fisher,  John B. Flannagan,  Hollis Frampton,  Robert Frank,  Andrea Fraser,  Hermine Freed,  Jared French,  Lee Friedlander,  Brian Frye,  Charles Gaines,  Anna Gaskell,  Hugo Gellert,  Sandra Gibson,  Luis Gispert,  William Glackens,  Milton Glaser,  Robert Gober,  Nan Goldin,  Wayne Gonzales,  Felix Gonzalez-Torres,  Boris Gorelick,  Arshile Gorky,  Dan Graham,  William Gropper,  Nancy Grossman,  George Grosz,  Louis Guglielmi,  Philip Guston,  Walter Gutman,  Wade Guyton,  Hans Haacke,  Peter Halley,  David Hammons,  Keith Haring,  Rachel Harrison,  Marsden Hartley,  David Hartt,  David Haxton,  Sharon Hayes,  Al Held,  Robert Henri,  Carmen Herrera,  Eva Hesse,  Lewis Hine,  Nancy Holt,  Jenny Holzer,  Edward Hopper,  Roni Horn,  Earl Horter,  Alex Hubbard,  Peter Hujar,  Richard Hunt,  Victoria Hutson Huntley,  Robert Indiana,  Abraham Jacobs,  Ulysses Jenkins,  Neil Jenney,  Candy Jernigan,  Jess,  Jasper Johns,  William H. Johnson,  Rashid Johnson,  Ray Johnson,  Joan Jonas,  Joe Jones,  Michael Joo,  Donald Judd,  Gerald K. Geerlings,  Alex Katz,  On Kawara,  Mike Kelley,  Ellsworth Kelly,  Karen Kilimnik,  William Klein,  Franz Kline,  Josh Kline,  Jeff Koons,  Lee Krasner,  Barbara Kruger,  Yasuo Kuniyoshi,  Yayoi Kusama,  Suzanne Lacy,  David Lamelas,  Dorothea Lange,  LaToya Ruby Frazier,  Robert Laurent,  Louise Lawler,  Jacob Lawrence,  William Leavitt,  Len Lye,  Zoe Leonard,  Alfred Leslie,  Howard Lester,  Sherrie Levine,  Herschel Levit,  Helen Levitt,  Norman Lewis,  Sol LeWitt,  Roy Lichtenstein,  Glenn Ligon,  Kalup Linzy,  Liz Magic Laser,  Alvin Loving,  Lee Lozano,  Louis Lozowick,  Emma Lu Davis,  George Luks,  Helen Lundeberg,  Danny Lyon,  Stanton Macdonald-Wright,  Tala Madani,  Philip Mallory Jones,  Sylvia Plimack Mangold,  Robert Mapplethorpe,  Christian Marclay,  Brice Marden,  Marisol,  Kyra Markham,  Reginald Marsh,  Fletcher Martin,  Agnes Martin,  Gordon Matta-Clark,  Cynthia Maughan,  Keith Mayerson,  Paul McCarthy,  John McCracken,  Adam McEwen,  John McLaughlin,  Josephine Meckseper,  Jonas Mekas,  Ana Mendieta,  Sam Middleton,  Aleksandra Mir,  Joan Mitchell,  Toyo Miyatake,  Lisette Model,  Donald Moffett,  Raphael Montanez Ortiz,  Abelardo Morell,  Robert Morris,  Mark Morrisroe,  Gerald Murphy,  Elizabeth Murray,  Julie Murray,  Reuben Nakian,  Bruce Nauman,  Alice Neel,  Louise Nevelson,  Barnett Newman,  Isamu Noguchi,  David Novros,  Jim Nutt,  Chiura Obata,  Claes Oldenburg,  Catherine Opie,  Jose Clemente Orozco,  Alfonso Ossorio,  Tony Oursler,  Bill Owens,  Akosua Adoma Owusu,  Georgia O´Keeffe,  Nam June Paik,  Gordon Parks,  Agnes Pelton,  Guy Pene Du Bois,  Raymond Pettibon,  Elizabeth Peyton,  Paul Pfeiffer,  Howardena Pindell,  Adrian Piper,  Horace Pippin,  Lari Pittman,  Jackson Pollock,  Liliana Porter,  Richard Pousette-Dart,  Richard Prince,  Nancy Elizabeth Prophet,  Noah Purifoy,  R. H. Quaytman,  Walid Raad,  Yvonne Rainer,  Christina Ramberg,  Robert Rauschenberg,  Charles Ray,  Man Ray,  Luis Recoder,  Robert Reed,  Jeffrey Reed,  Earl Reiback,  Ad Reinhardt,  I. Rice Pereira,  Hans Richter,  Faith Ringgold,  Dorothea Rockburne,  James Rosenquist,  Martha Rosler,  Theodore Roszak,  Susan Rothenberg,  Mark Rothko,  Ed Ruscha,  Morgan Russell,  Betye Saar,  David Salle,  Lucas Samaras,  Jacolby Satterwhite,  Peter Saul,  Matt Saunders,  Morton Schamberg,  Carolee Schneemann,  Dana Schutz,  Dread Scott,  George Segal,  Richard Serra,  Ben Shahn,  Joel Shapiro,  Paul Sharits,  Charles Sheeler,  Cindy Sherman,  Roger Shimomura,  Everett Shinn,  Amy Sillman,  Laurie Simmons,  Taryn Simon,  Lorna Simpson,  John Sloan,  Kiki Smith,  David Smith,  Tony Smith,  Jack Smith,  Robert Smithson,  Keith Sonnier,  Edward Steichen,  Ralph Steiner,  Joseph Stella,  Frank Stella,  Harry Sternberg,  Hedda Sterne,  Florine Stettheimer,  John Steuart Curry,  May Stevens,  Alfred Stieglitz,  John Storrs,  Michelle Stuart,  Elaine Sturtevant,  Wayne Thiebaud,  Alma Thomas,  Rirkrit Tiravanija,  George Tooker,  Bill Traylor,  Ryan Trecartin,  Anne Truitt,  Richard Tuttle,  Cy Twombly,  Stan Vanderbeek,  Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney,  Kara Walker,  Kelley Walker,  Carl Walters,  Andy Warhol,  Max Weber,  Weegee,  William Wegman,  Lawrence Weiner,  Tom Wesselmann,  H. C. Westermann,  Charles White,  Jack Whitten,  Hannah Wilke,  Christopher Williams,  Sue Williams,  Fred Wilson,  Garry Winogrand,  William Winter,  Karl Wirsum,  David Wojnarowicz,  Jordan Wolfson (1980),  Martin Wong,  Grant Wood,  Francesca Woodman,  Christopher Wool,  Wu Tsang,  Andrew Wyeth,  William Zorach 

curators

Mia Curran , Donna De Salvo , Carter E. Foster , Dana Miller , Jane Panetta , Scott Rothkopf , Catherine Taft 

press release

Drawn entirely from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s collection, America Is Hard to See takes the inauguration of the Museum’s new building as an opportunity to reexamine the history of art in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Comprising more than six hundred works, the exhibition elaborates the themes, ideas, beliefs, and passions that have galvanized American artists in their struggle to work within and against established 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.

The title, America Is Hard to See, comes from a poem by Robert Frost and a political documentary by Emile de Antonio. Metaphorically, the title seeks to celebrate the ever-changing perspectives of artists and their capacity to develop visual forms that respond to the culture of the United States. It also underscores the difficulty of neatly defining the country’s ethos and inhabitants, a challenge that lies at the heart of the Museum’s commitment to and continually evolving understanding of American art.

Organized chronologically, the exhibition’s narrative is divided into twenty- three thematic “chapters” installed throughout the building. These sections revisit and revise established tropes while forging new categories and even expanding the definition of who counts as an American artist. Indeed, each chapter takes its name not from a movement or style but from the title of a work that evokes the section’s animating impulse. 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.

America Is Hard to See reflects the Whitney’s distinct record of acquisitions and exhibitions, which constitutes a kind of collective memory—one that represents a range of individual, sometimes conflicting, attitudes toward what American art might be or mean or do at any given moment. By simultaneously mining and questioning our past, we do not arrive at a comprehensive survey or tidy summation, but rather at a critical new beginning: the first of many stories still to tell.

America Is Hard to See is organized by a team of Whitney curators, led by Donna De Salvo, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs, including Carter E. Foster, Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawing; Dana Miller, Curator of the Permanent Collection; and Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Associate Director of Programs; with Jane Panetta, Assistant Curator; Catherine Taft, Assistant Curator; and Mia Curran, Curatorial Assistant.