A small vintage circus dancer puppet in a leaping pose on a red fringe-covered platform.
A small vintage circus dancer puppet in a leaping pose on a red fringe-covered platform.

Alexander Calder, Calder's Circus (detail), 1926-31 (installation view, High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 9, 2026). Wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. One half the funds were contributed by the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust. Additional major donations were given by The Lauder Foundation; the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.; the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc.; an anonymous donor; The T. M. Evans Foundation, Inc.; MacAndrews & Forbes Group, Incorporated; the DeWitt Wallace Fund, Inc.; Martin and Agneta Gruss; Anne Phillips; Mr. and Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller; the Simon Foundation, Inc.; Marylou Whitney; Bankers Trust Company; Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Dayton; Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz; Irvin and Kenneth Feld; Flora Whitney Miller. More than 500 individuals from 26 states and abroad also contributed to the campaign 83.36.1-72. © 2026 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Gus Powell

Last chance

High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100
Through Mar 9
Learn more about the exhibition Book Tickets
A large group of people dance together outdoors, raising their arms, while others watch and walk nearby.

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The Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art, and has been a hallmark of the Museum since 1932. The current format—a survey show of work in all media occurring every two years—has been in place since 1973. Mark your calendars for the next iteration, opening March 2026. 

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artport

Check out art that's created specifically for the web on artport—the Whitney's gallery space for Internet and new-media art.

Dive Into Our Collection

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  • A background of blue obscured almost completely by bright red streaks running up and down the canvas.
    A background of blue obscured almost completely by bright red streaks running up and down the canvas.

    Alma Thomas, Mars Dust, 1972. Acrylic on canvas, overall: 69 1/4 × 57 1/8 in. (175.9 × 145.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from The Hament Corporation 72.58. © Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family)/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • A red hanging mobile with multiple leaf-shaped pieces balanced on thin wires.
    A red hanging mobile with multiple leaf-shaped pieces balanced on thin wires.

    Alexander Calder, Big Red, 1959. Painted sheet metal and steel wire, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and by exchange 61.46a-c. © Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Strings of hanging light bulbs cascade down a stairwell, with several bulbs coiled on the floor.
    Strings of hanging light bulbs cascade down a stairwell, with several bulbs coiled on the floor.

    Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled" (America), 1994. Twelve parts, each: 42 light bulbs, waterproof rubber light sockets, and waterproof electrical cord, dimensions variable . Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee 96.74.1a-l. © The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

  • Seven young women stand confidently on concrete arches in a fenced urban schoolyard.
    Seven young women stand confidently on concrete arches in a fenced urban schoolyard.

    Kwame Brathwaite, Untitled (Photo shoot at a school for one of the many modeling groups who had begun to embrace natural hairstyles in the 1960s), c.1966, printed 2018. Inkjet print, sheet (sight): 29 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (75.2 × 75.2 cm) Image (sight): 29 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (75.2 × 75.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Brian Silver 2018.136. © Kwame Brathwaite

  • A black plaque with gold letters advising to limit acting against your nature, like sleeping with people you hate.
    A black plaque with gold letters advising to limit acting against your nature, like sleeping with people you hate.

    Jenny Holzer, Untitled with selection from "Living Series", 1980–1982. Bronze wall plaque, overall: 7 15/16 × 10 × 1/4 in. (20.2 × 25.4 × 0.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Promised gift of Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner P.2011.179. © Jenny Holzer/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • A portrait bust of a Black woman, her face lifted slightly towards the sky
    A portrait bust of a Black woman, her face lifted slightly towards the sky

    Elizabeth Catlett, Head, 1947. Terracotta, overall: 10 3/4 × 6 1/2 × 8 3/4 in. (27.3 × 16.5 × 22.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Jack E. Chachkes Purchase Fund, the +6
    Schmidt Shubert Purchase Fund, and the Wilfred P. and Rose J. Cohen Purchase Fund in memory of Cecil Joseph Weekes 2013.103. © Catlett Mora Family Trust / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.