In New York: Art as a reflection of US history
Henrietta K. Thomas
entitled "The American Century: Art & Culture, 1900-2000." It is
an ambitious attempt to use the works of US artists to trace the
history of the United States over the last century, covering such
familiar historical events as the two World Wars, the Roaring 20's,
and the Great Depression of the 1930's.
It's really two shows in one. The first half of the exhibit is showing
now through August 22, and the second half will show from September
26 through February, 2000. The first half covers US life through 1950,
and the second half carries it all the way to the present. All forms of
US art and media are used to present the material in segments with
such titles as "The City," "Immigration and the New Populations,"
"Social Reform," "Idealist America," and "Industry as Menace." More
than 200 period films will be shown at various times in connection with
other exhibits.
Whitney Museum curator Barbara Haskell spent four years on the
project, which features an eclectic mix of US fine and performing
artists, including George Bellows, Grant Wood, Alfred Stieglitz,
Paul Strand, Busby Berkeley, Orson Wells, Irving Berlin, Norman
Rockwell, Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler, and Charlie Chaplin.
The exhibit received high marks from Jo Ann Lewis of the Washington
Post, who called it an "encompassing, open-minded look at 20th
century American art and culture," and predicted that the show and its
web sites "might even turn up in history books as millennail landmarks."
If you are in New York, the admission fee is $12.50. If you're not
in New York, you can get a bird's eye on the web. You will find an
introduction to the exhibit at <http://www.whitney.org>, and a link
to the actual site, <http://whitney.artmuseum.net>. But you'll need
a JavaScript-enabled and frames-capable browser to view the
materials there.
Henrietta K. Thomas
Chicago, Illinois
h...@wwa.com
---
Support the new, improved us.* hierarchy! Ask your news admin
to get the list of active groups from usa...@wwa.com.
Leonard Pulver
Whitney Museum, an institution that has had
maybe 4 or 5 really good shows in the past 30
years. The last great show was one that even
the Whitney's curators could not diminish.
Red Grooms' "Ruckus Manhattan" is a NYC subway
train that snaked its way through 4 galleries (a whole
floor) and people walk through it. I could ride that
train for a week if they could let me.
Usually their shows are comprised of 2nd tier or worse
artists. If they get a good artist they pick
his/her least
works. If they get a good work they give it bad hanging.
I remember one Biennial, maybe 20 years ago or so when
6 or 8 curators combed the USA coast to coast,
North to
South, for "new and original" art. What they delivered
was mostly California artists' stuff that was
derivative
of work many NY artists had passed through several
years before. The best artist there was Judy Chicago
and it did not have her best work.
I guess it was in 1975 that I was at an opening at the
Whitney. The work was boring and so were the guests,
All the usual suspects you might say. So my
friend and I
went down to the first floor to view a mini
exhibition of
Mark Di Suvero's monumental sculptures. These were
very slick circular abstract forms of polished stainless.
I said WOW! Do you think Mark would put those on
cuff links for me? I heard a roar of laughter and
looked
around the corner. It was Sandy Calder holding
his
sides at my "funny". That was the last time I saw him.
He passed away the next year.