In 1931, before the Whitney Museum of American Art opened to the public, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney made a gift that became the basis of the institution’s holdings of modern art. Her devotion to the work of living artists has defined how the Whitney has developed ever since.

Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe, Willem de Kooning, and Ed Ruscha are just a few of the American innovators on view in this presentation of works from the Whitney's collection. This exhibition highlights four broad themes that underscore the key developments of twentieth-century art in America: "Form Building, Form Breaking," "City and Machine," "The Figure and Its Realities," and "Mind, Body, Gesture." While these developments are grounded in historical periods, their qualities and ideas also overlap and connect, extending into the work of living artists who found new ways to apply them to creative expression.

Within the collection galleries this summer are two special curatorial focuses. Hopper in Paris explores how the young Edward Hopper developed his signature style during three trips to the French capital. Lucinda Childs: Dance brings together for the first time material that choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer Philip Glass, and artist Sol LeWitt generated for Dance, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1979.

Major support for this presentation is provided by the American Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art.