The Whitney moves downtown

america It finally happened. The Whitney opened downtown. We were lucky enough to go this past week and walk through the building with many from the art world taking it all in.

edwardhopper I am not sure how long this particular exhibit is up but it is absolute worth seeing. They have gone into the archives and pulled out an incredible array of pieces starting from the very beginnings of the Whitney collection. Each floor represents a time period. The 8th floor is older, the 7th floor gets younger and onward. Happened to love the 50’s floor.

views The outdoor space of the building might be the best thing. You can walk up and down on the outdoor staircases. The inside space is not as interesting. The space is large and certainly large pieces of art can be displayed but I just felt like the building is missing that “wow” moment that I got at Bilbao.

michelle:obama Regardless, I am thrilled to have the Whitney up the street from us. It has always been one of my favorite museums in NYC and now I can make sure I see every single exhibit include having a new restaurant in the neighborhood is an added bonus.

I went to The Whitney yesterday with my daughter. I was in awe of the outside spaces—it seemed like the whole outside was art too, down to the people on the balconies who became part of the space. And as we were walking down I said to my daughter Kit, “I know I was just talking to someone about The Whitney moving here and how cool the outside space is but I can’t remember who I was talking to.” And then I remembered that I wasn’t talking to anyone, had just read about it on your blog Joanne. But your blog always seems like a conversation and that is how my mind remembered it.We had a great time. My insight at the time was “Every material and every topic can be art.” Later, I was telling people at dinner how some things I loved, but some I hated. And a woman said “Hated, really?” And I said “The really abstract pieces—the pole leaning up against the grey square for example. Or—Kit and I were looking at what just looked like a large black piece of paper hanging to the floor. The description said the artist had used layers of graphite to create a fossilized effect. And we searched to try to figure out how it was supposed be like fossils. We stared at it up close and from far away. We just couldn’t see it—all we could see was black. But we tried….we really tried.” And the person we were with at dinner said “But isn’t that the point of art? To get a chance to step outside yourself and try to see something through the artist’s eyes? Even if you ultimately fail?”It was a wow of a day.

Comments (Archived):

lisa hickey Jul 6, 2015

I went to The Whitney yesterday with my daughter. I was in awe of the outside spaces—it seemed like the whole outside was art too, down to the people on the balconies who became part of the space. And as we were walking down I said to my daughter Kit, “I know I was just talking to someone about The Whitney moving here and how cool the outside space is but I can’t remember who I was talking to.” And then I remembered that I wasn’t talking to anyone, had just read about it on your blog Joanne. But your blog always seems like a conversation and that is how my mind remembered it.We had a great time. My insight at the time was “Every material and every topic can be art.” Later, I was telling people at dinner how some things I loved, but some I hated. And a woman said “Hated, really?” And I said “The really abstract pieces—the pole leaning up against the grey square for example. Or—Kit and I were looking at what just looked like a large black piece of paper hanging to the floor. The description said the artist had used layers of graphite to create a fossilized effect. And we searched to try to figure out how it was supposed be like fossils. We stared at it up close and from far away. We just couldn’t see it—all we could see was black. But we tried….we really tried.” And the person we were with at dinner said “But isn’t that the point of art? To get a chance to step outside yourself and try to see something through the artist’s eyes? Even if you ultimately fail?”It was a wow of a day.
1. Gotham Gal Jul 6, 2015
  
  love it.