As the Whitney Museum of American Art prepares to open its doors to the Public this Friday, it is interesting to note that this museum was definitely not what Mrs. Whitney had in mind when she began collecting American art. NY1 Arts and Culture reporter Stephanie Simon continues her series on the museum with a look back at its history.
The Whitney Museum of American Art is coming home. The brand new, ultra-modern glass and steel building is a showcase of the newest thinking in curating and showing art, but it's also a return to the museum's earliest days, when sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt-Whitney had the Whitney Studio and then the museum just a few block away.
“Mrs. Whitney didn’t intend to create a museum,” says Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director. “She mostly was trying to support American artists, buy their work, give them opportunities to exhibit it, try to create a market for them so they could support themselves. So her idea was to take her collection, donate it to the Metropolitan Museum - which she did offer to do. But before she even had the chance to say she was going to give them two million dollars to build a new wing, they basically said 'We have enough of that second rate art in our basement which we never show.’ So that in effect was, that refusal was the birth of the Whitney. She basically took her paintings and went home and said ‘Well, if nobody else is going to do it, I guess we’re going to have to do it.’”
And she did, founding the first museum to focus on American art back in 1930. It later moved to Midtown, and then its best known location - The Breuer Building at 75th Street and Madison Avenue. It is a mistake the Met does not plan to repeat. It is taking over the Breuer building.
“Even though it’s very small, it’s a terrific space. And the idea that they can use it to expand their program and that maybe on occasion we can work together on some things, we’re really delighted that it has such wonderful use,” says Weinberg.
In the meantime, the lobby gallery of the new Whitney pays tribute to its founder with historic photos, and art works that were in Mrs. Whitney's early collection.
“Behind us is a portrait of Mrs. Whitney, a commissioned portrait by one of her favorite artists named Robert Henri, and you're seeing her in a kind of wonderful silk gown, in a very sort of dramatic way,” says Weinberg.
With a nod to the future, the museum has made the lobby gallery free - hoping visitors will get a taste and want to see more.