I love the Whitney! The Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of 20th-century and contemporary American art. It special focus lays on works by living artists.
It is located at the South end of the High Line. You should include a visit in your plans for a perfect day in the Meatpacking District and West Village.
Its’ Founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney who was a sculptor herself, saw that American artists with new ideas had trouble exhibiting or selling their work. Therefor, she began purchasing and showing their artwork at the beginning of the twentieth century. Eventually, she became the leading patron of American art from 1907 until her death in 1942.
She had assembled a collection of more than five hundred pieces by 1929 and set up her own institution because her offer to gift everything to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was declined. She founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1930, and opened the first location on West 8th Street near Fifth Avenue in 1931. The Whitney’s current building at 99 Gansevoort Street opened on May 1, 2015.
I enjoyed the impressive exhibition “Edward Hopper’s New York” in January, 2023 – a must for every New York fan. For Edward Hopper, New York was a city that existed in the mind as well as on the map. In his pictures it is a place that took shape through lived experience, memory, and the collective imagination. It was, he reflected late in life, “the American city that I know best and like most.”
This great exhibition ran until March, 5th, 2023.
The facts
You can find the current exhibitions and events on whitney.org. As with nearly every other museum, you should plan your visit in advance and you can easily buy tickets online. You should bring your whole family. All visitors 18 and under receive free admission and there are a lot of other free and discounted admission opportunities.
My Tip: Enjoy the Pay-What-You-Wish admission and buy these tickets a week in advance. Bt you always get tickets 1 oder 2 days in advance of your visit. If there is a rainy day coming, you can plan very flexible.