Rachel Birtwistle
Studio Research I
Professor Jung
May 3rd, 2025
Extra Credit - The Whitney Museum
On April 18th, a friend and I visited the Whitney Museum of American Art. One of the exhibitions being promoted that weekend was Christine Sun Kim’s work titled “All Day All Night.” She dives into the dynamics of a person who is hard of hearing. She emphasizes things like the written word, body language, and symbols. The charming nature of her work is showcased with handwritten diagrams that emphasize the differences in language of people that have no problems with hearing and language of people who do have problems with it. This exhibition gives a glimpse into what it is like to use ASL and understand the importance of communication through sight and movement. This piece is exhibited both in the lobby and on the floors 3 and 8. There were also many pieces by Georgia O’Keeffe and one piece by Basquiat. One work that shocked me was “The Rose” by Jay DeFeo. It features many years of layered paint stacked in a way that resembles a flower. The impact of the painting alone is enough to make you ponder how much effort and care was put into the piece. This impact becomes more surreal after reading that it weighs almost 1000 pounds. My personal favorite from my visit was a performance piece by Alexander Calder on floor seven where he uses handmade puppets to reenact an endearing circus show. The puppets he used were also on display and it was interesting to see all their mechanics even though they were simple looking in the video. Overall, I would highly recommend the Whitney Museum of American Art if you are interested in paintings, sculptures and performances based art. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take many pictures, but I think not using my phone heightened my experience, but here’s some pictures I found on their website of the exhibits I was talking about. Also, visitors under 25 can get free admission!
“The Rose” by Jay DeFeo
“Lion Tamer, Lion and Cage” by Alexander Calder
“Attention” by Christine Sun Kim
Source: https://whitney.org/collection/works
i love that work by calder!
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