Art bonanza for Whitney Museum - Front Page

Despite the economic setbacks plaguing museums around the country, the Whitney Museum in New York made an announcement in August that was reminiscent of better times. Thirteen of the museum's 40 trustees have given the Whitney 86 major works, estimated to be worth $200 million, by 23 artists (ten are promised gifts). Director Maxwell Anderson said that it is believed to be the "largest and most significant gift of postwar art ever made to any museum," surpassing the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's ballyhooed buying spree in the late `90s, in which trustees spent $130 million in two years.

Among the new acquisitions at the Whitney are 32 paintings, prints and drawings by Jasper Johns; seven works each by Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol; four canvases by Ellsworth Kelly; three works by Roy Lichtenstein; two sculptures and a painting by Cy Twombly; two paintings by Robert Rauschenberg; and pieces by Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, Helen Frankenthaler, Lucas Samaras and Kenneth Noland. The newly acquired group will be on view at the Whitney from Oct. 24, 2002, through Jan. 26, 2003.

Most of the works are seminal pieces. Among the Johns group are a 1961 painting from his "0-9" series, and 17 prints from the 1982 "Savarin Can" series. The Lichtenstein works include his first interior, Bathroom (1961), and the preparatory canvas for his 1964 World's Fair mural. Newman's canvas, The Promise (1949), was once given by the artist to Clement Greenberg as a wedding present. The sculptures by Oldenburg include Giant BLT (1963) and his room-size Bedroom Ensemble (1963/95). In addition, Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen recently gave the Whitney 88 drawings--some authored by Oldenburg alone, and others by the two in collaboration--which were on view over the summer [see p. 142].

The acquisitions effort, spearheaded by board chairman Leonard A. Lauder, began quietly three years ago with the intention of beefing up the museum's holdings of artists who emerged in the 1950s and `60s, particularly in the areas of Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. Fifteen of the works were donated from the trustees' personal collections; the rest were purchased specifically as gifts for the museum. With its ambitious acquisition scheme under way, the Whitney hired Rem Koolhaas last year to draw up preliminary designs for an expansion, though the museum has not formally announced any plans.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group