Whitney Museum of American Art

99 Gansevoort Street
A world famous center of American Art, the Whitney Museum's Permanent Collection is situated in its new building in lower Manhattan. Designed by architect Renzo Piano and abutting the High Line park, the building vastly increases exhibition and prog... more
A world famous center of American Art, the Whitney Museum's Permanent Collection is situated in its new building in lower Manhattan. Designed by architect Renzo Piano and abutting the High Line park, the building vastly increases exhibition and programming space and provide a comprehensive view of its vast collection of modern and contemporary American art. Since the Museum's opening in 1931, the collection has grown to more than 21,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs, representing over 3,000 individual artists and providing the most complete overview of twentieth-century American art of any museum in the world. At its core are Museum founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s personal holdings, totaling some 600 works when the Museum opened in 1931. These works served as the basis for the founding collection, which Mrs. Whitney continued to add to throughout her lifetime. The founding collection reflects Mrs. Whitney’s ardent support of living American artists of the time, particularly younger or emerging ones, including Peggy Bacon, George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Mabel Dwight, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, and John Sloan. This... more

A world famous center of American Art, the Whitney Museum's Permanent Collection is situated in its new building in lower Manhattan. Designed by architect Renzo Piano and abutting the High Line park, the building vastly increases exhibition and programming space and provide a comprehensive view of its vast collection of modern and contemporary American art.

Since the Museum's opening in 1931, the collection has grown to more than 21,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs, representing over 3,000 individual artists and providing the most complete overview of twentieth-century American art of any museum in the world. At its core are Museum founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s personal holdings, totaling some 600 works when the Museum opened in 1931. These works served as the basis for the founding collection, which Mrs. Whitney continued to add to throughout her lifetime. The founding collection reflects Mrs. Whitney’s ardent support of living American artists of the time, particularly younger or emerging ones, including Peggy Bacon, George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Mabel Dwight, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, and John Sloan. This focus on the contemporary, along with a deep respect for artists’ creative process and vision, has guided the Museum’s collecting ever since.

The collection begins with Ashcan School painting and follows the major movements of the twentieth century in America, with strengths in Modernism and Social Realism, Precisionism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Postminimalism, art centered on identity and politics that came to the fore in the 1980s and 1990s, and contemporary work. The Museum’s signature exhibition is its biennial (and annual, during certain periods) survey of contemporary art, which has always kept the focus on the present, in the spirit of its founder. The highlights of the collection are definitive examples of their type, but there is also much variety and originality in works by less well-known figures. The collection includes all mediums; over eighty percent is works on paper.

The Whitney has deep holdings of the work of certain key artists, spanning their careers and the mediums in which they worked, including Alexander Calder, Mabel Dwight, Jasper Johns, Glenn Ligon, Brice Marden, Reginald Marsh, Agnes Martin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and David Wojnarowicz.


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Meatpacking District Description

Whitney Museum of American Art is located in the Meatpacking District neighborhood of Manhattan. The Meatpacking District owes its name to the meat distribution companies that once dominated the area. While some meatpacking houses still exist, nowadays you are more likely to find meat of the celebrity variety, twirling around the Bermuda Triangle of SoHo House, Spice Market, and the uber-swanky Hotel Gansevoort. The signature feature of this luxurious hotel is its rooftop, featuring a richly landscaped roof garden and an expansive loft with soaring 20-foot ceilings that offers breathtaking city views in three directions. A 45-foot outdoor heated pool with underwater music anchors the roof's other side; it is unique in New York and reflects the ultra-trendiness that the district prides itself on. If it's Asian cuisine you’re craving you’ll definitely want to dine at Spice Market. The interior of the restaurant is as exotic as the cuisine: with a collection of artifacts imported from Rajastan, South India, Burma and Malaysia creating an interior of Eastern exotica including antique wall carvings, screens and pagodas. Spice Market provides a feast for all sense. Some art galleries have opened here, but the area is dominated by late-night establishments, high-end furniture stores, and fabulously expensive hairdressers. If you seek thrilling nightlife and pulsating action on the streets with traffic jams over century-old cobblestone streets, head here Cielo is one of hottest nightclubs. Its intimate size, impressive sound and sunken dance-floor make it perfect for catching a set by the latest hipster DJ. But given its notorious reputation as one of New York's toughest club to enter, good luck getting by the door. Speaking of tough doors, you might miss APT's door entirely, as the swanky lounge resides in a nondescript building that could easily be mistaken for a butcher shop. For more nightlife action, try the glittery, subterranean club that is 675 Bar. If you're looking for a quieter, more low-key way to spend time in the district, keep in mind that one of the most pleasant times of day to visit this neighborhood is between 10 and 11 in the morning. As you wander around the district, do head down Gansevoort Street to get a feel for how this neighborhood evolved. The now-defunct Florent restaurant was the first trendy place to open, and as you pass its old location on Gansevoort Street, you'll see the remnants of the old dilapidated elevated railway, which has been turned into America's first overhead park, called the High Line. West 14th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues should not be missed, replete with stylish boutiques such as Jeffrey, a few bakeries, and an enormous Bodum store as well. And then there's the legendary Old Homestead Steakhouse directly across from the new Apple Store on Ninth Avenue at West 14th Street. If you're curious about the intriguing new architecture and glass houses juxtaposed with meatpacking houses, you'll definitely want to follow this section of our new architecture of Manhattan walking tour.

Harold Cohen: AARON

This exhibition traces the evolution of Harold Cohen’s AARON, the earliest artificial intelligence (AI) program for artmaking. Leaving behind his practice as an established painter in London, Cohen (1928–2016) conceived the software in the late 1960s at the University of California, San Diego, and n... [ + ]amed it AARON in the early 1970s. The title alludes to the biblical figure anointed as speaker for his brother Moses, and questions how artistic creation is often glorified as a form of communication with the divine. Cohen understood his work with AARON to be a collaboration, and he devoted his life to exploring the potential of artificial intelligence to translate an artist’s knowledge and process into code.Over the decades the AARON software has created images meant to be executed by drawing and painting devices, as well as visuals for display on monitors or as projections. To generate AARON’s output, Cohen built his own plotters and painting machines, which interpret commands from a computer to make line drawings on paper with automated pens and add color with brushes. Drawn from the Whitney’s collection, this exhibition not only features AARON works, but also highlights the software as the central creative force behind them through screen-based versions of the program and drawings made by plotters operating live in the gallery.As artificial intelligence tools for image creation have entered the mainstream with text prompt–driven software such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, Harold Cohen: AARON provides important historical perspective. It also offers deeper explorations of ideas about creativity, authorship, and collaboration in the context of AI.

03/19/2024 10:30 AM
Tue, March 19
10:30AM
$
Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.
Get Tickets

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99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 570-3600
Website

Editorial Rating

Admission And Tickets

Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.

This Week's Hours

10:30am - 6:00pm

Closed Tuesdays

Nearby Subway

  • to 14th Street
  • to 8th Avenue

Upcoming Events

Harold Cohen: AARON

This exhibition traces the evolution of Harold Cohen’s AARON, the earliest artificial intelligence (AI) program for artmaking. Leaving behind his practice as an established painter in London, Cohen (1928–2016) conceived the software in the late 1960s at the University of California, San Diego, and n... [ + ]amed it AARON in the early 1970s. The title alludes to the biblical figure anointed as speaker for his brother Moses, and questions how artistic creation is often glorified as a form of communication with the divine. Cohen understood his work with AARON to be a collaboration, and he devoted his life to exploring the potential of artificial intelligence to translate an artist’s knowledge and process into code.Over the decades the AARON software has created images meant to be executed by drawing and painting devices, as well as visuals for display on monitors or as projections. To generate AARON’s output, Cohen built his own plotters and painting machines, which interpret commands from a computer to make line drawings on paper with automated pens and add color with brushes. Drawn from the Whitney’s collection, this exhibition not only features AARON works, but also highlights the software as the central creative force behind them through screen-based versions of the program and drawings made by plotters operating live in the gallery.As artificial intelligence tools for image creation have entered the mainstream with text prompt–driven software such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, Harold Cohen: AARON provides important historical perspective. It also offers deeper explorations of ideas about creativity, authorship, and collaboration in the context of AI.

03/19/2024 10:30 AM
Tue, March 19
10:30AM
$
Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.
Get Tickets

Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Seventy-one visionary artists and collectives will participate in the eighty-first installment of the Whitney Biennial, opening March 20, 2024. Tickets are now on sale and Members will enjoy five days of previews, beginning March 14. The artists and collectives in the latest chapter of the exhi... [ + ]bition—Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing—will follow in the footsteps of hundreds of Biennial artists before them to interpret our current landscape and tell stories, spark discussion, and comment on issues across a variety of media and disciplines. The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator and Meg Onli, Curator at Large, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker.

03/20/2024 10:00 AM
Wed, March 20
10:00AM
$
Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.
Get Tickets

Harold Cohen: AARON

This exhibition traces the evolution of Harold Cohen’s AARON, the earliest artificial intelligence (AI) program for artmaking. Leaving behind his practice as an established painter in London, Cohen (1928–2016) conceived the software in the late 1960s at the University of California, San Diego, and n... [ + ]amed it AARON in the early 1970s. The title alludes to the biblical figure anointed as speaker for his brother Moses, and questions how artistic creation is often glorified as a form of communication with the divine. Cohen understood his work with AARON to be a collaboration, and he devoted his life to exploring the potential of artificial intelligence to translate an artist’s knowledge and process into code.Over the decades the AARON software has created images meant to be executed by drawing and painting devices, as well as visuals for display on monitors or as projections. To generate AARON’s output, Cohen built his own plotters and painting machines, which interpret commands from a computer to make line drawings on paper with automated pens and add color with brushes. Drawn from the Whitney’s collection, this exhibition not only features AARON works, but also highlights the software as the central creative force behind them through screen-based versions of the program and drawings made by plotters operating live in the gallery.As artificial intelligence tools for image creation have entered the mainstream with text prompt–driven software such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, Harold Cohen: AARON provides important historical perspective. It also offers deeper explorations of ideas about creativity, authorship, and collaboration in the context of AI.

03/20/2024 10:30 AM
Wed, March 20
10:30AM
$
Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.
Get Tickets

Trust Me - Photographic Works from the Whitney Collection

Drawn from the Whitney’s collection, Trust Me brings together photographic works that invite shared emotional experience. The artists in the exhibition embrace intuition and indeterminacy as part of their creative process and recognize that vulnerability, usually associated with powerlessness and ex... [ + ]posure, can play a role in forging connection. Depicting familial and ancestral bonds, friendship, romantic partnership, and other networks of influence and exchange, these photographs make such connection visible—in the image and often beyond it—by evoking the overlapping lives and loves of the works’ creators, viewers, and caretakers.The exhibition features an intergenerational group of artists: Laura Aguilar, Genesis Báez, Alvin Baltrop, Jenny Calivas, Moyra Davey, Lola Flash, Barbara Hammer, Muriel Hasbun, Dakota Mace, Mary Manning, and D’Angelo Lovell Williams. Many of their images do not include people but instead offer reflections on everyday surroundings and experiences, with objects often representing intimate aspects of the artists’ lives. Precisely staged or in response to chance encounters, these images encourage careful attention. As artist and writer Lydia Okrent has said about Manning’s photographs, such work “emboldens available tenderness,” kindling through the image something already present in the viewer.In addition to taking up themes of vulnerability, the artists in the exhibition have chosen a precarious medium. Photographs emerge through combinations of light, chemicals, time, and chance, and yet these same elements can also push an image past legibility. Many of the artists draw parallels between material and emotional contingency, and welcome accidents, imperfections, and the unexpected. Gambling on the power of images to carry deep feeling, the works in Trust Me ultimately offer space for expanded capacity, reciprocity, and learning.

03/20/2024 10:30 AM
Wed, March 20
10:30AM
$
Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.
Get Tickets

Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Seventy-one visionary artists and collectives will participate in the eighty-first installment of the Whitney Biennial, opening March 20, 2024. Tickets are now on sale and Members will enjoy five days of previews, beginning March 14. The artists and collectives in the latest chapter of the exhi... [ + ]bition—Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing—will follow in the footsteps of hundreds of Biennial artists before them to interpret our current landscape and tell stories, spark discussion, and comment on issues across a variety of media and disciplines. The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator and Meg Onli, Curator at Large, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker.

03/21/2024 10:00 AM
Thu, March 21
10:00AM
$
Members: Free
Adults: $30
Seniors/Students: $24
Under 18: Free

Notes: Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available at the admissions desk on Fridays, 7–9:30 pm. They may not be purchased in advance.
Get Tickets
View All Upcoming Events

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