Artblog | whitney museum of american art

November 15, 2023 by Pete Sparber

Exceptional Artists of Los Angeles and Philadelphia, Henry Taylor, Branche Coverdale and O’Neil Scott

Our new contributor, Pete Sparber sees work by three Black artists, whose works resonate with him. The artists, Henry Taylor, whose current show is at the Whitney Museum of Art until Jan. 28, 2024; Branche Coverdale, recently at Paradigm Gallery and Studio; and O’Neil Scott, recently at Corridor Contemporary, have kinship with each other in their creation of Black universes that are present as witnesses and celebrants of their culture.

January 14, 2022 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Upstairs and downstairs, the question of what goes where and why, at the museum

Our contributor Janyce Denise Glasper writes an opinionated essay about artists’ placement in museums. Where does Jasper Johns go? Where does Emma Amos? Some artists receive accolades mostly after their death, while others receive praise again and again in life. The art world is still a mostly white world and mostly a white man’s club.

January 13, 2022 by Roberta

Black Quantum Futurism gets Creative Capital, Judilee Reed to US Artists, Wayne Thiebaud at Brandywine River Museum of Art, Moe Brooker passes, plus Opportunities and More

With energy and money, the new year charges in. Creative Capital awards $2.5 Million to 50, including Philadelphia’s Black Quantum Futurism (Rasheedah Phillips and Camae Ayewa). William Penn Foundation’s Judilee Reed becomes president and CEO of US Artists. With sadness we note the recent passing of beloved artist and educator, Moe Brooker.

January 11, 2022 by Kate Brock

Transparency, opacity and the limits of human understanding in Jennifer Packer’s “The Eye is not Satisfied with Seeing,” at the Whitney Museum

New Artblog Contributor Kate Brock reviews ‘Jennifer Packer: The Eye is Not Satisfied With Seeing,’ a retrospective of the painter’s radiant portraits, interiors, and funerary bouquets. “The lack of dimensional representation of Black people, especially Black women, in the history of painting… leaves the eye unsatisfied… Packer’s vision reveals the historic absences,” Kate says. Catch the show at the Whitney before it closes April 17, 2022.

December 13, 2021 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Quiet, beautiful and atmospheric, Jennifer Packer’s people and funerary bouquets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Filled with saturated color and light emanating from unexplained places, Jennifer Packer’s atmospheric works suggest a “provocative harmony,” says Janyce Denise Glasper, in her review of the artist’s solo show at LA MOCA. The show is up to Feb. 21, 2022. Packer also has a solo show at the Whitney Museum right now, on view til April 17, 2022. Be sure to catch this rising star, whose approach to figuration is truly new.

February 25, 2020 by Andrea Kirsh

A three-book starter pack to contemporary indigenous art, Part 1

Andrea Kirsh reviews three books about indigenous art. Part one of two reviews Philip J. Deloria’s “Becoming Mary Sully; Toward an American Indian abstract.”

July 25, 2018 by Andrea Kirsh

David Wojnarowicz retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, painful, important, a must-see

Andrea Kirsh visits the moving retrospective of multi-disciplinary artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz, one of three exhibits on the artist currently on view in New York. Kirsh also takes a look at the catalog for this timely exhibition, which does important research that should open the door for more. The show runs through September 30th at the Whitney Museum.

March 20, 2017 by Kathy Cho

On intimacy in the age of technology, Brown Girls, and Dana Schutz’s Open Casket painting in the Whitney Biennial 2017

Kathy Cho considers aspects of art and the artist’s life and brings to the reader’s attention several web projects to explore. We find the question of race in Dana Schutz’s painting Open Casket, based on a photo of the slain Emmitt Till, especially important to ponder. Why did Schutz make this grotesque portrayal (based on a shocking photo of the young man in his open casket)? Why did the Whitney Museum choose to exhibit it in the Biennial, their signature show?