New York City

Lower Manhattan, 1930s–1970s

Selected artists

Lower Manhattan: 1930s–1970s

HUDSON

RIVER

1st avenue

PARK AVENUE

chelsea

10th avenue

Madison

Square

Park

EAST 23RD STREET

whitney museum

(SINCE 2015)

5th avenue

F.D.R. DRIVE

union

square

6th avenue

3rd avenue

Greenwich

Village

EAST

RIVER

christopher street

ORIGINAL SITE OF

THE WHITNEY MUSEUM

7th avenue

THE CEDAR

TAVERN

washington

square

park

1st avenue

2nd avenue

holland tunnel

tompkins

square

park

East

Village

WEST SIDE HIGHWAY

houston street

Soho

delancey street

Lower

East Side

canal street

tribeca

GRAND STREET

columbus

park

west broadway

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE

broadway

F.D.R. Drive

manhattan bridge

Financial

District

brooklyn bridge

EAST

RIVER

HUDSON

RIVER

PARK AVENUE

8th avenue

1st avenue

whitney museum

of american art

(SINCE 2015)

6th avenue

fdr drive

3rd avenue

Greenwich

Village

christopher street

7th avenue

1st avenue

2nd avenue

East

Village

WEST SIDE HIGHWAY

houston street

HUDSON

RIVER

Soho

delancey street

tribeca

Lower

East Side

canal street

west broadway

FDR Drive

Financial

District

EAST

RIVER

whitney museum

(SINCE 2015)

Greenwich

Village

East

Village

HUDSON

RIVER

Soho

Lower

East Side

Financial

District

EAST

RIVER

Marsden Hartley, New England Still Life, 1928. San Antonio Museum of Art

Elizabeth Murray, Children Meeting, 1978. The Murray-Holman Family Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Edward Hopper, Room in New York, 1932. Heirs of Josephine Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Roy Lichtenstein, Red and White Brush Strokes, 1965. Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

The early Whitney Annuals were a neighborly affair. With the institution housed on West Eighth Street, many American Modernists and early Abstract Expressionists only had to haul their work from a few blocks away.

Even in 1932, Greenwich Village was already the heart of New York bohemia. Edward Hopper, the Village painter par excellence, established his studio on Washington Square North back in 1913 and stayed there until his death in 1967. He took part in the first Annual. So did Ben Shahn, Marsden Hartley and Stuart Davis, living a few blocks north.

The Cedar Tavern, first at University Place, was headquarters for the Abstract Expressionists and their Beat pals after 1949. It was an easy stumble home for Willem de Kooning, then listed on Fourth Avenue. Franz Kline’s studio was nearby, on East 10th Street.

Soon, a great migration began. Artists mostly moved south. Some went all the way to the waterfront, where Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin and others lived near each other at Coentjes Slip, around Water Street.

By the mid-1960s, the center of gravity had moved again — to the warehouse world of SoHo. Spaces were huge, cheap and not necessarily legal. Artists as distinct as Chuck Close, Romare Bearden and Eva Hesse were all listed within a few blocks of one another.

Balcomb Greene

LONG ISLAND SOUND

Alexander Brook

Willem De Kooning

Robert Motherwell

Jackson Pollock

Lee Krasner

EAST HAMPTON

Matsumi Kanemitsu

Peter Cain

Paul Georges

Fairfield Porter

Roy Lichtenstein

LONG ISLAND

Robert Grosvenor

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Balcomb Greene

LONG ISLAND SOUND

Alexander Brook

Willem De Kooning

Robert Motherwell

Jackson Pollock

Lee Krasner

EAST HAMPTON

Matsumi Kanemitsu

Peter Cain

Paul Georges

LONG ISLAND

Fairfield Porter

Roy Lichtenstein

ATLANTIC OCEAN

LONG ISLAND

SOUND

Balcomb Greene

Willem De Kooning

Robert Motherwell

Jackson Pollock

Lee Krasner

Matsumi Kanemitsu

Paul Georges

Fairfield Porter

LONG ISLAND

Roy Lichtenstein

ATLANTIC OCEAN

LONG ISLAND

SOUND

Balcomb Greene

Alexander Brook

Willem De Kooning

Robert Motherwell

Jackson Pollock

Lee Krasner

Matsumi Kanemitsu

LONG ISLAND

Paul Georges

Fairfield Porter

Roy Lichtenstein

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Long Island Jackson Pollock and his wife, the painter Lee Krasner, moved to East Hampton after they married in 1945. Robert Motherwell was already there, and others followed, including Willem de Kooning, making the East End an art hub for a time.

Los Angeles

1930s–1970s

Selected artists

Los Angeles, 1930s–1970s

BURBANK

PASADENA

LOS FELIZ

BEVERLY

HILLS

BEL AIR

LA CIENEGA BOULEVARD

HOLLYWOOD

INTERSTATE 10

INTERSTATE 405

DOWNTOWN

INTERSTATE 10

SANTA

MONICA

OCEAN

PARK

INTERSTATE 110

VENICE

INGLEWOOD

INTERSTATE 105

PACIFIC

OCEAN

TORRANCE

LONG

BEACH

BEVERLY

HILLS

BEL AIR

LA CIENEGA BOULEVARD

HOLLYWOOD

INTERSTATE 405

DOWNTOWN

INTERSTATE 10

SANTA

MONICA

VENICE

INTERSTATE 110

INGLEWOOD

INTERSTATE 105

TORRANCE

PACIFIC

OCEAN

LONG

BEACH

BEVERLY

HILLS

HOLLYWOOD

DOWNTOWN

VENICE

INGLEWOOD

TORRANCE

PACIFIC

OCEAN

John Baldessari, An Allegory About Wholeness (Plate And Man With Crutches), 1976. John Baldessari

Vija Celmins, Untitled, 1970. Vija Celmins; via Matthew Marks Gallery

Ed Ruscha, Glass of Milk, Falling, 1967. Ed Ruscha

Richard Diebenkorn, Window, 1967. Richard Diebenkorn Foundation

Until the 1960s, many Los Angeles artists — at least the ones who appealed to the Whitney’s curators back in New York — lived in Hollywood, Pasadena or the hills. Galleries that mattered were clustered along a stretch of La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood. By the early 1970s, the new scene was near the water.

In the rundown Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, the painter Richard Diebenkorn, the conceptual artist John Baldessari and the painter William Wegman (with his famous dog Man Ray), among others, lived within a few blocks of the beach. The photorealistic painter Vija Celmins and the sculptor Fred Eversley, a Brooklyn emigré, took up residence in what was then a seedy section of Venice Beach.

Eversley, Betye Saar and Melvin Edwards took part in the 1970 Annual — three Angelenos among the few African-American artists on the roster. For the most part, however, artists in the Los Angeles black art scene, which thrived in this period on its own terms, would appear in the Biennial only much later, if at all.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Richard Tuttle

Kenneth Price

Larry Bell

Agnes Martin

Max Ernst

Sherrie Levine

Bruce Nauman

ARIZONA

NEW MEXICO

Lew E. Davis

Peter Hurd

Vernon Fisher

Bill Bomar

Luis Jiménez

Alexandre Hogue

Richard T. Pyle

TEXAS

Donald Judd

Peter Saul

Ward Lockwood

Everett Spruce

Charles Campbell

Georgia O’Keeffe

Richard Tuttle

Kenneth Price

Larry Bell

Agnes Martin

Max Ernst

Sherrie Levine

Bruce Nauman

ARIZ.

N.M.

Lew E. Davis

Vernon Fisher

Bill Bomar

Peter Hurd

Luis Jiménez

Alexandre Hogue

Richard T. Pyle

TEX.

Donald Judd

Peter Saul

Ward Lockwood

Everett Spruce

Charles Campbell

Georgia O’Keeffe

Richard Tuttle

Kenneth Price

Larry Bell

Agnes Martin

Max Ernst

Alexandre Hogue

Richard T. Pyle

N.M.

ARIZ.

Luis Jiménez

Lew E. Davis

Peter Hurd

Vernon Fisher

Bill Bomar

TEX.

Donald Judd

Peter Saul

Ward Lockwood

Everett Spruce

The Southwest The landscapes and light of the Southwest have long made it a haven for artists from the coasts. The most famous was one of the earliest: Georgia O’Keeffe, who arrived in 1940, after two decades in New York City. (She had been included in the very first Whitney Annual.) Agnes Martin and Donald Judd were among notable later expatriates.

Chicago

1930s–1970s

Selected artists

Chicago 1930s–1970s

WILMETTE

EVANSTON

ROGERS PARK

NORTH LINCOLN AVENUE

ROSEHILL

CEMETERY

EDGEWATER

MONTROSE

POINT

LAKE SHORE DR.

UPTOWN

ROSCOE

VILLAGE

NORTH CICERO AVENUE

INTERSTATE 90

LOGAN

SQUARE

LAKE

MICHIGAN

WEST NORTH AVENUE

HUMBOLDT

PARK

EAST

GARFIELD

PARK

DOWNTOWN

school of the

Art Institute

of Chicago

INTERSTATE 290

LAKE SHORE DR.

NORTHERLY

ISLAND

LITTLE

VILAGE

INTERSTATE 90

INTERSTATE 55

CHICAGO SANITARY AND SHIP CANAL

BACK OF

THE YARDS

hyde park art center

HYDE PARK

MIDWAY

INTERNATIONAL

AIRPORT

MARQUETTE

PARK

WILMETTE

EVANSTON

ROGERS PARK

WEST PETERSON AVENUE

LAKE

MICHIGAN

EDGEWATER

INTERSTATE 90

UPTOWN

ROSCOE

VILLAGE

LOGAN SQUARE

EAST GARFIELD

PARK

School of the

Art Institute

of Chicago

DOWNTOWN

INTERSTATE 290

LITTLE VILAGE

INTERSTATE 55

BACK OF THE YARDS

HYDE PARK

ART CENTER

HYDE PARK

WILMETTE

EVANSTON

ROGERS PARK

LAKE

MICHIGAN

EDGEWATER

UPTOWN

ROSCOE

VILLAGE

LINCOLN

PARK

OLD TOWN

EAST GARFIELD

PARK

school of the

Art Institute

of Chicago

LITTLE VILAGE

BACK OF

THE YARDS

hyde park

art center

HYDE PARK

Christina Ramberg, Waiting Lady, 1972. Estate of Christina Ramberg and Corbett vs. Dempsey

Karl Wirsum, The Odd Awning Awed, 1966. Karl Wirsum, Derek Eller Gallery and Corbett vs. Dempsey

Roger Brown, Ablaze and Ajar, 1972. Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Ed Paschke, Paula, 1972. Ed Paschke

Chicago’s presence in the Whitney show has been steady and mostly low-key. Artists from the city have been involved in the Annual from the start. A high-water mark came in the 2014 Biennial, with 17 Chicago artists out of a total of 118. Two of the show’s three curators that year, Michelle Grabner and Anthony Elms, had long histories in Chicago, and several other artists they selected had spent time there, giving their work what Chicago magazine called a “Chicago vibe.”

That vibe — independent, a bit grass-roots, a bit defiant of the New York scene and its tendencies — crystallized in the mid-1960s, with the three “Hairy Who” exhibitions at the artist-founded Hyde Park Art Center and the emergence of the Chicago Imagists, a movement inspired by Surrealism, folk art, and the era’s casting off of inhibitions. The 1967 Whitney exhibition picked up on this scene, with two of the six “Hairy Who” artists, Gladys Nilsson and Karl Wirsum; the first Biennial, in 1973, included Nilsson’s husband Jim Nutt, along with fellow Imagists Christina Ramberg, Roger Brown and Ed Paschke. All four reappeared in at least one other edition.

The Imagists were Chicago loyalists: While several moved away briefly, almost all made their way back to the city.

WISCONSIN

John Steuart Curry

iowa

Bob White

NEBRASKA

Grant Wood

IOWA CITY

Philip Guston

Terence R. Duren

ILLINOIs

William Story

Walter Meigs

Rudy Pozzatti

Joe Lasker

INDIANA

Carl Pope

Leroy Lamis

KANSAS CITY

Robert Laurent

Alton Pickens

Thomas Hart Benton

Edward Laning

Wallace Rosenbauer

James B. Turnbull

Siegfried Reinhardt

Fred Conway

KANSAS

MISSOURI

wisc.

John

Steuart Curry

iowa

Bob White

neb.

Grant Wood

Philip Guston

Terence R. Duren

IOWA CITY

ill.

William Story

Walter Meigs

Rudy Pozzatti

ind.

Joe Lasker

MO.

Carl Pope

Leroy Lamis

KANSAS CITY

Thomas Hart Benton

Edward Laning

Wallace Rosenbauer

Robert Laurent

Alton Pickens

James B. Turnbull

Siegfried Reinhardt

Fred Conway

kan.

wisc.

John Steuart Curry

iowa

neb.

Bob White

Grant Wood

William

Story

Philip Guston

Walter Meigs

Rudy Pozzatti

ill.

Joe Lasker

ind.

Leroy Lamis

Carl

Pope

MO.

kan.

Thomas Hart Benton

Edward Laning

Wallace Rosenbauer

James B. Turnbull

Siegfried Reinhardt

Fred Conway

The Midwest Grant Wood, a native Iowan trained in Chicago, appeared in the first Annual in 1932, two years after his famous “American Gothic.” His fellow regionalist, the Missourian Thomas Hart Benton, left New York to settle back in Kansas City. Midwestern universities also drew artists for stretches of several years — for instance, Philip Guston, who took part in every Annual from 1942-46, while teaching for much of that time in Iowa City.

2019

Artists of this year’s Biennial

Artists of the 2019 Whitney Biennial

WASH.

Me.

Portland

Mont.

N.D.

Vt.

Ore.

Minn.

N.H.

New

York

Cambridge

Wis.

Idaho

S.D.

Mass.

R.I.

Conn.

Wyo.

Mich.

Detroit

Somerset

Pa.

Chicago

Iowa

Philadelphia

Neb.

N.J.

New York

39 artists

Nev.

Ohio

Baltimore

Ind.

DEL.

Bay Area

Ill.

Utah

MD.

W. Va.

Colo.

Va.

Kan.

Calif.

Mo.

KY.

N.C.

Los Angeles

7 artists

Tenn.

Okla.

Ariz.

N.M.

S.C.

Ark.

Birmingham

Ga.

Miss.

Ala.

La.

Texas

New Orleans

ALASKA

Fla.

Sitka

Laredo

Puerto Rico

Miami

HAWAII

WASH.

Me.

Portland

Mont.

N.D.

Vt.

Minn.

Ore.

N.H.

N.Y.

Wis.

Idaho

S.D.

Mass.

Mich.

R.I.

Conn.

Wyo.

Detroit

Pa.

Iowa

Philadelphia

Chicago

Nev.

Neb.

N.J.

New York

39 artists

Ohio

Bay Area

Baltimore

Ind.

DEL.

Utah

Ill.

MD.

W. Va.

Colo.

Va.

Calif.

Kan.

Mo.

KY.

Los Angeles

7 artists

N.C.

Tenn.

Okla.

Ark.

N.M.

Ariz.

S.C.

Birmingham

Ga.

Miss.

Ala.

La.

Texas

New Orleans

ALASKA

Fla.

Sitka

Laredo

Miami

HAWAII

Puerto Rico

Portland

Detroit

Chicago

Philadelphia

Bay Area

New York

39 artists

Los Angeles

7 artists

Birmingham

New Orleans

Sitka

Laredo

Miami

Puerto Rico

Portland

Chicago

Philadelphia

Bay Area

New York

39 artistst

Los Angeles

7 artists

Birmingham

New Orleans

Sitka

Laredo

Miami

Puerto Rico

Source: Whitney Museum

Kota Ezawa, National Anthem (Buffalo Bills), 2018. Kota Ezawa and Haines Gallery, San Francisco

Alexandra Bell, Friday, April 21, 1989 — Front Page, 2019. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

Daniel Lind-Ramos, Maria-Maria, 2019. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

Robert Bittenbender, Sister Carrie, 2017. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

At first look, mapping the locations of artists in the 2019 Whitney Biennial shows how little has changed. The New York area still supplies the lion’s share of participants. Los Angeles still runs a distant second. This year’s exhibition has no artists located in the Great Plains or Mountain West, and only three currently working in the South. For all of the country’s regional art scenes, artists who made the cut for the most prestigious American contemporary exhibition still work in many of the same places as they did decades ago.

Now, when nearly half of the artists in this year’s Biennial live in New York City, the vast majority of them list addresses in Brooklyn. It suggests that despite the gentrification and the rising cost of studio space, artists — especially the younger ones — still find a benefit in remaining in the city, and are finding ways to make it work.

New York City neighborhoods with the most artists in the exhibition in …

1932

1973

2019

Bronx

Manhattan

greenwich

village

QUEENS

williamsburg

soho

Brooklyn

1932

1973

2019

Manhattan

greenwich

village

williamsburg

soho

Brooklyn

1932

1973

2019

Manhattan

Brooklyn

Note: Color scale proportional to respective year of exhibition. Areas divided by zip code. Source: Whitney Museum

Still, this is a diverse biennial, with more artists of color than white artists and more women than men. It includes Native artists and five who list addresses in Puerto Rico. As is now common, a number of artists in the show live outside the U.S.; the museum has loosened its definition of “American art,” and many artists live peripatetic lives. It is far too soon to know how strong an imprint this year’s Biennial will leave as a marker of the current American social and cultural climate. But the exhibition, as an institution, has maintained and arguably reinforced its influence on the art scene, in no small part by expanding the frame.