Whitney Museum debuts ‘Singular Visions’ of contemporary art

Paul Chan, 1st , 2005 (installation view, 2006 Whitney Biennial: Day for Night
Whitney Museum of Art, 2006)
Digital animated projection, black-and-white and color, silent; 14 minutes,
dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Whitney Museum debuts ‘Singular Visions’ of contemporary art Whitney Museum of American Art debuts Singular Visions, a new installation of its fifth-floor Leonard & Evelyn Lauder Galleries, devoted to works from the Permanent Collection. December 16, 2010 – December 16, 2011]]>

Source: Whitney Museum of American Art
Taking a fresh approach, Whitney curators Dana Miller and Scott Rothkopf are presenting justtwelve rarely seen postwar works, some of which have not been on view for decades,each individually installed in a separate gallery to encourage and provoke a direct andintimate encounter.

The installation will remain on view for a year – with periodic substitutions – and will becomplemented by a series of collection exhibitions on the Museum’s second floor,beginning in spring 2011.

“Singular Visions,” explained Donna De Salvo, the Whitney’s Chief Curator and DeputyDirector for Programs, “is a bold first step within a broader Whitney initiative toreconsider the Museum’s collection, especially our most challenging and complex works,as we prepare for our downtown expansion. The organizing premise of Singular Visionsstems from the Whitney’s long-held belief in the primacy of the authentic artexperience.”

Curators Miller and Rothkopf note: “At a time when people are constantly barraged byimages everywhere from their TVs to their mobile phones, Singular Visions encouragesviewers to slow down and experience artworks in a focused way. Each work was selectedto convey a distinct impression and a powerful sense of its maker’s vision, whethersomber or celebratory, figurative or abstract, quiet or bold. Some of the works on viewrequire their own spaces because they are large or comprise many parts, while othersexplore difficult topics or emotions that we might wish to consider more privately.”