Travels in the 2nd half

  The Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC always produces wonderful temporary exhibits. It also has its own excellent collection of works produced by American artists in the 20th and 21 centuries. They recently revamped their 7th floor display of highlights from that collection, and their current show makes me very happy. “Untitled” (America) (ongoing) Drawn from the Whitney’s permanent collection, this show features works that highlight key ideas in American art from 1900 through the 1980’s. What I really like about this collection is that it includes so many artists whose work I love. Paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Joseph Stella, Edward Ruscha, and many others are on display. Summer Days by Georgia O'Keeffe Dempsey and Firpo by George Bellows Pittsburgh by Elsie Driggs The Brooklyn Bridge: Variations on an Old Theme by Joseph Stella The Subway by George Tooker Day Clean by Eldzier Cortor Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights by Edward Ruscha  Best of all, in my opinion, “...

  The Whitney Museum is the home of contemporary art in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, after an offer of over 500 modern works of art to the Metropolitan Museum and was turned away. In 2014 the Whitney Museum of American Art moved into its third “permanent home”, a brand new building in the Meatpacking district of Manhattan. Today, the Whitney’s collection includes works by almost every major American artist of the 20th and 21st centuries. It also hosts major exhibitions and retrospectives.  photo by Beyond My Ken,  via Wikimedia commons Amy Sherald: American Sublime (through August 10, 2025)   The main show at the Whitney is a retrospective of the life work of Amy Sherald (b. 1973). Ms. Sherald is an African American painter who produces portraits that she describes as simplified realism. She presents her subjects against simple, usually monochromatic, backgrounds. Sherald’s subjects are all of African American descent, but s...