The Whitney Museum: Curated Picks

As Manhattan’s foremost collection of 20th- and 21st-century American art (albeit, debatably), The Whitney Museum of American Art has one of the country’s most compelling histories and most well-maintained mission statements. In 1931, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a sculptor and one of Manhattan’s most prominent socialites and elite party hostess, offered nearly a quarter of her art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since Whitney collected American, radical, avant-garde work, the Met, favoring European art, declined her donation, prompting Whitney to establish her own museum focused on American art and up-and-coming living artists. The museum helped establish American art as worthy of attention from art world elites. To this day, the museum is known for its unconventional exhibitions and its biennial, held every odd year, which focuses on lesser-known, living artists and spurred the careers of America’s most prominent artists, including Jackson Pollock and Georgia O’Keeffe.