It is a bit my own fault. I spent the last few years looking at the opinion of my Europe centric friends and have missed a whole flurry of movements that were going on in Photography here in the United States. Now I am in for an education. While the Guggenheim Show currently on display felt a bit like the living room, or maybe the bedroom, the two photographic exhibitions I saw at the Whitney today felt a bit like the nicely decorated gallery of the better educated kid from the house across the street. There is plenty of quite excellent photography to be looked at in the Whitney Galleries and if I had to make the decision whether to spend my $12 on the FLW experience or the Marcel Breuer trip, I would probably opt for the Tornado building with the Rectangular coordinates. The one that is the Museum of American Art, yet was built by a German Architect. Maybe it is the excitement that came from the large collection of relatively small photographs on 1.5 Floors that made today’s visit so special. Maybe it was the feeling that the photographs I was looking at were not really photographs, but something of a bigger idea. They were illustrations of concepts, entry points into magical worlds or horror cabinets, they were documents and copies, they were series and “Unikate”. And they seemed quite well curated.
So I suggest that you see Visions from America: Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-2001, which is on view now through September 22, 2002. and (if you can find the gallery) take a look at What's New: Recent Acquisitions in Photography (scroll all the way down). (same dates)
And since you are there, you might as well take a look at the Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen drawings, which are a great introduction to sculptures which you might then visit on the Roof of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But that’s tomorrow’s story.
All in all, my impression is that the Whitney has just embraced the opportunity that the MoMA shipped its collection to Berlin and the rest to Queens and is now really worth a visit. But hey, it all stays in the Lauder family. Sort of. I am turning cryptic here. Go, visit the Whitney.
Or buy the catalogue, as it is available at the river book mart, (for $31.50).