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.

Free at the Whitney

Every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month, admission to the Museum is free. Both offerings include free access to exhibitions, special programming, city views, and more. Visitors 25 and under are always free, every day. 

More about free offerings

The Whitney Biennial 

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. 

More about the Whitney Biennial

Child drawing on paper titled "Seven Soothing Sketches" with colorful markers and a pill organizer on a table.

Family Programs

Whitney family programs offer artmaking workshops, special events and tours, in-gallery activity guides, and at-home artmaking challenges. Join us for upcoming family events or Free Second Sundays.

More about family programs

A metal art sculpture over water with a city skyline in the background at sunset.

Video

Watch our latest video series to dive deeper into art at the Whitney.

A view of the Museum with people and traffic in the foreground.

Podcasts

Listen to Artists Among Us, featuring long-form and short-form podcasts exploring artworks and events in and around the Whitney through conversation.

Blurred images of mugshots arranged in a grid against a black background.

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

View all
  • Young girl gauges a boy's flexed arm while bold red text reads "We don't need another hero."
    Young girl gauges a boy's flexed arm while bold red text reads "We don't need another hero."

    Barbara Kruger, Untitled (We Don't Need Another Hero), 1987. Screenprint on vinyl, overall: 108 7/8 × 209 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (276.5 × 531.3 × 6.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection 2012.180. © Barbara Kruger
    Courtesy, Mary Boone Gallery, New York

  • A Black man wearing a black beret, suit jacket, and slacks sits in a peacock chair. The back of his chair is various shades of grey and features glimpses of newspaper clippings throughout. He holds a spear in his left hand and a rifle in the other. The floor is rust colored with an irregularly shaped zebra print rug. The wall behind him is off-white with rust colored intersecting lines.
    A Black man wearing a black beret, suit jacket, and slacks sits in a peacock chair. The back of his chair is various shades of grey and features glimpses of newspaper clippings throughout. He holds a spear in his left hand and a rifle in the other. The floor is rust colored with an irregularly shaped zebra print rug. The wall behind him is off-white with rust colored intersecting lines.

    Henry Taylor, Huey Newton, 2007. Acrylic and collaged photocopies on canvas, overall: 94 9/16 × 76 1/4 in. (240.2 × 193.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg in honor of Adam D. Weinberg 2016.86. © Henry Taylor

  • Broad swaths of black, navy, gray, orange, and pink soar across a white canvas.
    Broad swaths of black, navy, gray, orange, and pink soar across a white canvas.

    Ed Clark, Winter Bitch, 1959. Acrylic, oil, and pastel on canvas, overall: 77 × 77 in. (195.6 × 195.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee and partial gift of the artist 2019.307. © Ed Clark

  • 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

  • Mesh wires shaped into a long, fluid blob, like lava in a lava lamp
    Mesh wires shaped into a long, fluid blob, like lava in a lava lamp

    Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S.270, Hanging Six-Lobed, Complex Interlocking Continuous Form within a Form with Two Interior Spheres), 1955, refabricated 1957–1958. Brass and steel wire, overall: 63 7/8 × 14 15/16 × 14 15/16 in. (162.2 × 37.9 × 37.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Howard Lipman 63.38. © 2020 Estate of Ruth Asawa / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy The Estate of Ruth Asawa and David Zwirner

  • Colorful abstract artwork with faces, text, and symbols, including "Hollywood Africans" and "200 Yen."
    Colorful abstract artwork with faces, text, and symbols, including "Hollywood Africans" and "200 Yen."

    Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hollywood Africans, 1983. Acrylic and oil stick on canvas, overall: 84 1/16 × 84 in. (213.5 × 213.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Douglas S. Cramer 84.23. © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, 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.