The Whitney Museum in New York houses one of the world's foremost collections of modern and contemporary American art.
“At first I spent weeks just staring out of the window. I pretty much thought it was the end of my art making.” —Artist T.J. Wilcox on his Union Square penthouse studio, which provides the inspiration for his upcoming project, In the Air, opening September 19.
T.J. Wilcox’s Studio, New York, 2012. Photograph © Marco Anelli; courtesy Danziger Gallery
In conjunction with Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective, we’re screening Bruce Conner’s 1967 film THE WHITE ROSE—which captures the removal of DeFeo’s nearly one-ton masterpiece, The Rose, through the window of her second-story studio—through May 12.
Bruce Conner (1933–2008), still from THE WHITE ROSE, 1967. 16mm film, black-and-white, sound; 7 minutes. © Conner Famiy Trust. Image courtesy the Conner Family Trust
Before celebrating the best movies of 2012, revisit some rarely seen films, advertisements, and political campaign messages of the 1960s in Dark and Deadpan: Pop in TV and the Movies.
George Kuchar (1942–2011), still from HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED, 1966. 16mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 17 min. Image courtesy the Estate of George Kuchar. © The Estate of George Kuchar
Blues for Smoke opens today. This highly anticipated exhibition explores the blues not simply as a musical category but as an artistic sensibility—from John Coltrane to Jean-Michel Basquiat to the television show The Wire.
Mark Morrisroe (1959–1989), Untitled, c. 1981. © The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection) at Fotomuseum Winterthur
Opening February 7, Blues for Smoke brings into focus a wide range of contemporary art, music, literature, and film through the lens of the blues.
Bob Thompson (1937–1966), Garden of Music, 1960. Oil on canvas 79 1/2 x 143 in. (201.93 x 363.22 cm). Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection; courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Explore the ways in which television and cinema articulated the excitement, anxiety, and desire underlying pop culture in the 1960s in Dark and Deadpan: Pop in TV and the Movies.
Ger Van Elk (b. 1941), still from The Well-Shaven Cactus, 1969. 16mm film transferred to video, black and white, sound; 1:31 minutes. Image courtesy the artist and GRIMMGallery
On view now, Dark and Deadpan: Pop in TV and the Movies brings together rarely seen films, advertisements, and political campaign messages that reflect the extravagant yet deadpan excess of Pop.
Sherman Price (active 1960s), still from The Imp-Probable Mr. Weegee, 1966. 35mm film transferred to high-definition video, color, sound; 75 min. Image courtesy Something Weird Video
Audio of filmmaker Werner Herzog’s talk with 2012 Biennial curators Jay Sanders and Elisabeth Sussman is now up on our website. Hearsay of the Soul, Herzog’s Biennial contribution is on view through May 27, 2012.
Photograph by Tiffany Oelfke
Kevin Jerome Everson’s feature film Quality Control screens May 23-27, 2012. The Biennial closes May 27.
John C. Welchman, co-director of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, gave a lovely presentation on Kelley’s work on May 20, 2012. One of Welchman’s slides, above, features photos of Kelley and his childhood home, which was the inspiration for his Mobile Homestead project.
The 2012 Biennial is dedicated to Mike Kelley.
“In a way, I am like a sore thumb in your museum. In another way, I belong here and I’m proud to be here.”
See tweets and photos from Werner Herzog’s talk with the Biennial curators via Storify.
Werner Herzog shared slides of work by his favorite artists (Grünewald, da Vinci, Seghers) during today’s talk with Biennial curators Jay Sanders and Elisabeth Sussman.
Wu Tsang, Production still from WILDNESS, 2012. © Wu Tsang; courtesy the artist
Tsang will join fellow filmmaker Matt Wolf in conversation on Sunday.
Werner Herzog, Excerpt from Ode to the Dawn of Man, 2011.
Cellist Ernst Reijseger will be performing at the Whitney on May 11, 2012. Herzog’s short film, Ode to the Dawn of Man is incorporated into his Biennial work, Hearsay of the Soul.
Wu Tsang, Production still from WILDNESS, 2012. © Wu Tsang; courtesy the artist
WILDNESS screens May 9-13, 2012 as part of the 2012 Biennial. The film presents a portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic landmark bar on the east side of Los Angeles that has provided a home for Latin/LGBT immigrant communities since 1963.
