Inheritance

June 28, 2023–Feb 4, 2024

Superimposed black and white film photos of a child.

Inheritance traces the profound impacts of legacy and the past across familial, historical, and aesthetic lines. Featuring new acquisitions and rarely-seen works from the Whitney collection by forty-three leading artists, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and time-based media installations from the 1970s to today. This diverse array of works consider what has been passed on and how it may shift, change, or live again.

Drawing inspiration from Ephraim Asili’s 2020 film of the same title, Inheritance reflects on multiple meanings of the word, whether celebratory or painful, from one era, person, or idea to the next. The exhibition takes a layered approach to storytelling by interweaving narrative with documentary and personal experiences with historical and generational events. A group of works examining the cycle from birth to death opens the exhibition, while other galleries take up different kinds of lineages, such as how artists borrow from and remake art history or unspool legacies of racialized violence and their recurrences.

The poet Rio Cortez speaks of being “framed by our future knowing”—even as we sit in this moment, we slide backward and forward in time, between our foremothers and the descendants we will never know. Rather than passively accepting our current state, the artists whose work is on view here ask: How did we get here, as individuals and as a society, and where are we going?

This exhibition is organized by Rujeko Hockley, Arnhold Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art with David Lisbon, curatorial assistant.

Events

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Installation photography

Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). From left to right: Mary Kelly, Antepartum, 1973; Sadie Barnette, Family Tree II, 2022. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Deana Lawson, The Garden, Gemena, DR Congo, 2015; Diedrick Brackens, they spring from the embers of my mouth, 2019; Sadie Barnette, Family Tree II, 2022. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). From left to right: Maggie Lee, Mommy, 2012-15; Wakeah Jhane, Grandmother’s Prayers, 2021; Widline Cadet, Sé Sou Ou Mwen Mété Espwa m #1 (I Put All My Hopes On You #1), 2021; [top] Dindga McCannon, Pregnant Woman, 1977; [bottom] Dindga McCannon, Father & Son, 1981; [right] Dindga McCannon, Summer, 1972; Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Run away with me, 2019. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Deana Lawson, The Garden, Gemena, DR Congo, 2015; Diedrick Brackens, they spring from the embers of my mouth, 2019; Emily Jacir, Munir, 2001-03; Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Environmental, 1993; Sophie Rivera, I am U, 1995; Sophie Rivera, Terracotta Goddess, n.d.; Kevin Jerome Everson, Ninety-Three, 2008. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Hank Willis Thomas, Strike, 2018; Carissa Rodriguez, Not Yet Titled (Red Curve), 2015; Lorraine O’Grady, Rivers, First Draft, 1982, printed 2015. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Carissa Rodriguez, Not Yet Titled (Red Curve), 2015; Wade Guyton, Untitled Action Sculpture (Breuer), 2003; [in back] Lorraine O’Grady, Rivers, First Draft, 1982, printed 2015; Hank Willis Thomas, Strike, 2018; Joan Wallace, Bob’s your Uncle, 1991. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). From left to right: Todd Gray, Onisimo / Leopold, 2019; Kambui Olujimi, Your King Is on Fire, 2020; Pat Phillips, The Farm, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: An-My Lê, Monument, General P.G.T. Beauregard, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016; Chitra Ganesh, Sultana’s Dream, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). From left to right: Kevin Beasley, The Road, 2019; Cameron Rowland, Lynch Law in America, 2021; Cameron Rowland, Life and Property, 2021; Andrea Carlson, Red Exit, 2020; Kambui Olujimi, Hart Island Crew, 2020. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: An-My Lê, Monument, General P.G.T. Beauregard, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016; Faith Ringgold, United States of Attica, 1971; Kevin Beasley, The Road, 2019; Pat Phillips, The Farm, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024.). From left to right: Andrea Carlson, Red Exit, 2020; Mary Beth Edelson, Shell Venus, 1974-75; Mary Beth Edelson, Red Sophia, 1974-75; Mary Beth Edelson, Louise, 1974-75. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). From left to right: Carrie Mae Weems, Sea Islands, 1992; David Hartt, Archive at the Johnson Publishing Company Headquarters, Chicago, Illinois, 2011, printed 2013; John Outterbridge, The Elder, Ethnic Heritage Series, 1971-72. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). Ephraim Asili, The Inheritance, 2020. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Inheritance (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2023—February, 2024). Sturtevant, Gonzalez-Torres Untitled (Blue Placebo), 2004. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

In the News

“The thematic content of the show is ambitious, ranging from slavery and the Great Migration to Covid, African religious traditions, the human lifespan, colonization and the sources of artistic creativity.” —The Guardian

“The show considers some of the painful and difficult legacies that have shaped our society…” —Aesthetica Magazine

“...a captivating group show at the Whitney” —Whitewall

“This is an exhibition that raises a number of questions about how we as individuals respond to our world…” —Highbrow Magazine