Inheritance
28 Jun 2023 - 01 Feb 2024
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Andrea Carlson, Red Exit, 2020; Mary Beth Edelson, Shell Venus, 1974-75; Mary Beth Edelson, Red Sophia, 1974-75; Mary Beth Edelson, Louise, 1974-75. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: An-My Lê, Monument, General P.G.T. Beauregard, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016; Chitra Ganesh, Sultana’s Dream, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Hank Willis Thomas, Strike, 2018; Carissa Rodriguez, Not Yet Titled (Red Curve), 2015; Lorraine O’Grady, Rivers, First Draft, 1982, printed 2015. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: An-My Lê, Monument, General P.G.T. Beauregard, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016; Faith Ringgold, United States of Attica, 1971; Kevin Beasley, The Road, 2019; Pat Phillips, The Farm, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Carissa Rodriguez, Not Yet Titled (Red Curve), 2015; Wade Guyton, Untitled Action Sculpture (Breuer), 2003; [in back] Lorraine O’Grady, Rivers, First Draft, 1982, printed 2015; Hank Willis Thomas, Strike, 2018; Joan Wallace, Bob’s your Uncle, 1991. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Deana Lawson, The Garden, Gemena, DR Congo, 2015; Diedrick Brackens, they spring from the embers of my mouth, 2019; Emily Jacir, Munir, 2001-03; Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Environmental, 1993; Sophie Rivera, I am U, 1995; Sophie Rivera, Terracotta Goddess, n.d.; Kevin Jerome Everson, Ninety-Three, 2008. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Inheritance traces the profound impacts of legacy and the past across familial, historical, and aesthetic lines. Featuring new acquisitions and rarely-seen works from the Whitney collection by forty-three leading artists, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and time-based media installations from the 1970s to today. This diverse array of works consider what has been passed on and how it may shift, change, or live again.
Drawing inspiration from Ephraim Asili’s 2020 film of the same title, Inheritance reflects on multiple meanings of the word, whether celebratory or painful, from one era, person, or idea to the next. The exhibition takes a layered approach to storytelling by interweaving narrative with documentary and personal experiences with historical and generational events. A group of works examining the cycle from birth to death opens the exhibition, while other galleries take up different kinds of lineages, such as how artists borrow from and remake art history or unspool legacies of racialized violence and their recurrences.
The poet Rio Cortez speaks of being “framed by our future knowing”—even as we sit in this moment, we slide backward and forward in time, between our foremothers and the descendants we will never know. Rather than passively accepting our current state, the artists whose work is on view here ask: How did we get here, as individuals and as a society, and where are we going?
Artists featured in this exhibition include Ephraim Asili, Sadie Barnette, Kevin Beasley, Diedrick Brackens, Beverly Buchanan, Widline Cadet, Andrea Carlson, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Ralston Crawford, Mary Beth Edelson, John Edmonds, Kevin Jerome Everson, Chitra Ganesh, Todd Gray, Wade Guyton, David Hartt, Emily Jacir, Wakeah Jhane, Mary Kelly, Deana Lawson, An-My Lê, Maggie Lee, Sherrie Levine, Dindga McCannon, Ana Mendieta, Thaddeus Mosley, Lorraine O’Grady, Kambui Olujimi, John Outterbridge, Pat Phillips, Faith Ringgold, Sophie Rivera, Carissa Rodriguez, Cameron Rowland, Sturtevant, Hank Willis Thomas, Clarissa Tossin, Kara Walker, Joan Wallace, Carrie Mae Weems, WangShui, and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto.
Drawing inspiration from Ephraim Asili’s 2020 film of the same title, Inheritance reflects on multiple meanings of the word, whether celebratory or painful, from one era, person, or idea to the next. The exhibition takes a layered approach to storytelling by interweaving narrative with documentary and personal experiences with historical and generational events. A group of works examining the cycle from birth to death opens the exhibition, while other galleries take up different kinds of lineages, such as how artists borrow from and remake art history or unspool legacies of racialized violence and their recurrences.
The poet Rio Cortez speaks of being “framed by our future knowing”—even as we sit in this moment, we slide backward and forward in time, between our foremothers and the descendants we will never know. Rather than passively accepting our current state, the artists whose work is on view here ask: How did we get here, as individuals and as a society, and where are we going?
Artists featured in this exhibition include Ephraim Asili, Sadie Barnette, Kevin Beasley, Diedrick Brackens, Beverly Buchanan, Widline Cadet, Andrea Carlson, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Ralston Crawford, Mary Beth Edelson, John Edmonds, Kevin Jerome Everson, Chitra Ganesh, Todd Gray, Wade Guyton, David Hartt, Emily Jacir, Wakeah Jhane, Mary Kelly, Deana Lawson, An-My Lê, Maggie Lee, Sherrie Levine, Dindga McCannon, Ana Mendieta, Thaddeus Mosley, Lorraine O’Grady, Kambui Olujimi, John Outterbridge, Pat Phillips, Faith Ringgold, Sophie Rivera, Carissa Rodriguez, Cameron Rowland, Sturtevant, Hank Willis Thomas, Clarissa Tossin, Kara Walker, Joan Wallace, Carrie Mae Weems, WangShui, and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto.