„Eine kurze Geschichte der Whitney Biennale: Versprechen und Protest“ mit Adam D. Weinberg, Direktor Emeritus, Whitney Museum of American Art und Presidential Fellow der American Academy in Berlin. Organisiert von der Forschungsabteilung der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden im Lichthof des Albertinums und in Zusammenarbeit mit der American Academy in Berlin.
Die Whitney Biennale – offiziell 1932 ins Leben gerufen – wurde als Überblick über die zeitgenössische amerikanische Kunst zu einer Zeit ins Leben gerufen, als es nur wenige Möglichkeiten für progressive Künstler gab, ihre Werke in Museen oder Galerien zu präsentieren. Die Biennale sollte ein umfassendes, demokratisches Barometer aktueller künstlerischer Tendenzen sein, die sich zu einer „lebensfähigen“ amerikanischen Kunst zusammenfügen würden. Das Ethos der Organisatoren bestand darin, den Künstlern zu folgen, wohin sie auch immer führten, auch wenn dies oft mit Risiken verbunden war. Von Anfang an war die Biennale häufig das Ziel von Kritik seitens der Presse, der Öffentlichkeit und der Künstler: von den Abstrakten, die sich gegen die Realisten wandten, über die Regionalisten, die sich gegen die urbanistischen Künstler wandten, bis hin zu den Anfechtungen schwarzer und weiblicher Künstler wegen ihrer mangelnden Repräsentation und den Dekolonisatoren, die gegen die Machtstruktur des Museums selbst protestierten. Auch wenn solche Demonstrationen für das Whitney oft problematisch waren, ist es genau diese Offenheit, die die Biennale zu einer vitalen und reaktionsfähigen kulturellen Plattform macht. Dieser Vortrag wird die Geschichte, Struktur und Entwicklung der Biennale untersuchen.
Lisa and Heinrich Arnhold Lectures 2024: 24 April, 6PM „A Brief History of the Whitney Biennial: Promise and Protest“ with Adam D. Weinberg, Director Emeritus, Whitney Museum of American Art and Presidential Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. Organized by the Research Department of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in the Lichthof of the Albertinum and in cooperation with the American Academy in Berlin.
The Whitney Biennial – formally initiated in 1932 – was established as a survey of contemporary American art at time when there were few opportunities for progressive artists to showcase their work in museums or galleries. The Biennial sought to be an inclusive, democratic barometer of current artistic tendencies that would coalesce into a “viable” American art. The organizing ethos was to follow artists wherever they led even though it often entailed risk. From its earliest manifestations, the Biennial was often the target of criticism by the press and the public as well as artists: ranging from abstractionists who opposed realists and regionalists who opposed urbanist artists to the contestations of Black and women artists regarding their lack of representation and decolonizers who protest the power structure of the museum itself. While such demonstrations have often been fraught for the Whitney, it is precisely this openness that makes the Biennial a vital and responsive cultural platform. This lecture will explore the history, structure, and evolution of the Biennial on the occasion of the 2024 Biennial – Even better than the Real Thing – which opens in March.
Adam D. Weinberg has served as the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art since 2003. He holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop, SUNY-Buffalo. Weinberg previously served as director of the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, Andover, and as Senior Curator and Curator of the Whitney’s Permanent Collection, as artistic and program director of the American Center in Paris, and as director of education and assistant curator at the Walker Art Center. Weinberg is a board member of the American Academy in Rome, Terra Foundation for American Art, Storm King Art Center, and the Star of Hope (Robert Indiana) Foundation and has served prior on the boards of the American Federation of the Arts and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. He is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Archives of American Art, the Scientific Committees of the Sebançi Museum (Istanbul) and the Art Mill Museum (Doha) and a member of the director selection commission of the MADRE Museum (Naples). He served as the Chair of the Visiting Committee for the Harvard University Art Museums, a member of the Art Committee of Madison Square Park Conservancy, and as a member of the Committee of Selection of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Weinberg has received honorary degrees from Colby College, Hamilton College, and the Pratt Institute. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is the recipient of the Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects, Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City from New York University, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2015, Weinberg was awarded the Insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. Weinberg is the Presidential Fellow of the American Acacemy in Berlin Class of Spring in 2024.
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