Happy Birthday, Hopper! The Whitney Collection is home to over 3,100 works by Edward Hopper, born on this day in 1882! Explore more of his works on whitney.org.
Happy birthday to Whitney Collection artist Jenny Holzer! UNEX Sign #1 (Selections from the Survival Series) from 1983 is one of the artist’s earliest works to present her Truisms—one-line aphorisms written by Holzer—with LED technology, a state-of the art means of public communication for government and institutional agencies. At the time of its making, the piece’s 54 statements may have been mistaken for ads, instructions, or public announcements. In a media-saturated world in which news and ads flash by for passive viewers, Holzer uses this instrument of communication to call us to attention.
[UNEX Sign #1 (Selections from the Survival Series) (1983) installed in the Whitney’s lobby, 2015. by Ron Amstuz]
Wanda Gág, who was born on this day in 1893, is publicly on record as a feminist and standard bearer for the “New Woman”—a twentieth-century ideal emphasizing autonomy and individuality. Here she presents an image of herself engaged in the act of drawing this very work.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was born on this day in 1848, was recognized at the turn of the century as the country’s finest sculptor and “Diana” is arguably his best-known work. See this goddess reign over our Great Stair Hall when you visit the museum.
Photo by Elizabeth Leitzell. “Diana, 1892–93, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who was born on this day in 1841, was a leading figure in the Impressionist movement. With its daubs of paint and bright colors, “The Grands Boulevards” is a classic example of the style. In this painting, the hustle and bustle of life in Paris is transmitted through Renoir’s visible paint strokes, allowing the viewer to perceive the scene as though it is passing by. See this painting in our European art galleries.
Winslow Homer, who was born on this day in 1836, was one of the most popular artists of the 1880s. One of his great successes, “The Life Line” engages age-old themes of peril at sea and the power of nature, while celebrating modern heroism. See this painting on view in our American art galleries.
Dorothy Norman was born in Philadelphia on this day in 1905. In 1927 she met and began collaborating with photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz. Norman made this photograph of Stieglitz’s final gallery, An American Place, shortly after his death. Unbroken planes of light on empty walls seem to highlight his absence.
Dox Thrash was a prolific printmaker who was born on this day in 1893 and settled in Philadelphia in the late 1920s. In 1937, at the height of the Great Depression, he became the first Black artist to work for the Fine Print Workshop of Philadelphia, a branch of the Works Progress Administration, a federal relief program designed to employ thousands of artists and share their work with the public. Learn more about the artist in the recently digitized publication “Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered.”
William Henry Johnson was born on this day in 1901. After studying painting at the National Academy of Design in New York in the early 1920s, Johnson left the US for France where he began to explore contemporary modes of depicting landscapes. In this representation of the countryside around Cagnes-sur-Mer, the region’s dramatic topography of steep hills and lush vegetation dominate the picture to the point that the horizon allows only a sliver of sky to peek through at the top of the canvas. See this work on view in our modern galleries.
Happy birthday to Man Ray, who produced works in a variety of artistic styles, including the production of photograms (which he called rayograms)—photographs created without the use of a camera by placing objects on light-sensitive material and then exposing the material to light.
