What It Becomes
Aug 24, 2024–Jan 12, 2025
Rick Bartow, Autobiographical Hawk, 1991. Pastel and graphite on paper, 46 5/8 × 59 7/8 in. (118.4 × 152.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Richard E. Bartow Trust 2022.69. © Richard E. Bartow Trust
As an act of direct mark making, drawing offers an immediate and spontaneous way for ideas to unfold and images to come into being. Informed by the medium’s potential to illustrate change, this exhibition brings together works from the Whitney’s collection by artists who use drawing as an act of transformation. In their hands, drawing presents a tool to reveal the unseen and make the familiar unrecognizable, or as the artist Toyin Ojih Odutola has remarked, “What it becomes is what I’m interested in.”
Although the works in this exhibition range from the graphic arts to photographs and videos, the processes inherent to drawing play a fundamental role in the creation of each of them. Certain artists employ techniques like inscribing and erasure to alter or reclaim existing images, as seen in works by Ojih Odutola and Wendy Red Star. Others, such as David Hammons and Maren Hassinger, emphasize the tactility of the medium by using their own bodies as drawing tools or surfaces to transform their likeness. All the works bear a close relationship to the figure, ranging from traditional modes of portraiture to more abstract graphic records of human gesture. Harnessing the relationship between drawing, touch, and formation, the artists explore the malleable nature of identity and the possibility of shaping and redefining oneself.
What It Becomes is organized by Scout Hutchinson, Curatorial Fellow.
Generous support for What It Becomes is provided by David Bolger.
Installation photography
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). From left to right: clockwise from top left: Blythe Bohnen, Self Portrait: Horizontal Motion Bisected by Vertical Motion, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Pivotal Motion From Chin, Large, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Pivotal Motion, Small, Vertical Motion, Small, 1983; Blythe Bohnen, Horizontal Motion Large, Bisected by Vertical Motion, Large, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Horizontal Circular Motion, Small, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Square Motion, Small, 1974; Rick Bartow, Autobiographical Hawk, 1991; Maren Hassinger, Daily Mask, 1997-2004; Darrel Ellis, Self-Portrait after photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, 1989; Jim Hodges, Untitled, 1992; David Hammons, Close Your Eyes and See Black, 1969; Catherine Opie, Self-Portrait/Cutting, 1993; Toyin Ojih Odutola, The Treatment 20, 2015; Wendy Red Star, Déaxitchish / Pretty Eagle, 2014. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). From left to right: clockwise from top left: Blythe Bohnen, Self Portrait: Horizontal Motion Bisected by Vertical Motion, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Pivotal Motion From Chin, Large, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Pivotal Motion, Small, Vertical Motion, Small, 1983; Blythe Bohnen, Horizontal Motion Large, Bisected by Vertical Motion, Large, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Horizontal Circular Motion, Small, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Square Motion, Small, 1974; Rick Bartow, Autobiographical Hawk, 1991; Darrel Ellis, Self-Portrait after photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, 1989; Jim Hodges, Untitled, 1992; David Hammons, Close Your Eyes and See Black, 1969; Catherine Opie, Self-Portrait/Cutting, 1993; Toyin Ojih Odutola, The Treatment 20, 2015; Wendy Red Star, Déaxitchish / Pretty Eagle, 2014. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). From left to right: David Hammons, Close Your Eyes and See Black, 1969; Catherine Opie, Self-Portrait/Cutting, 1993. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). From left to right: Catherine Opie, Self-Portrait/Cutting, 1993; Toyin Ojih Odutola, The Treatment 20, 2015; Wendy Red Star, Déaxitchish / Pretty Eagle, 2014. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). From left to right: Naotaka Hiro, Untitled (Whirlwind), 2018; Naotaka Hiro, Untitled (5432112345), 2018; Darrel Ellis, Self-Portrait after photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, 1989; Jim Hodges, Untitled, 1992; David Hammons, Close Your Eyes and See Black, 1969. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). From left to right: Rick Bartow, Autobiographical Hawk, 1991; Maren Hassinger, Daily Mask, 1997-2004; Naotaka Hiro, Untitled (Whirlwind), 2018; Naotaka Hiro, Untitled (5432112345), 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of What It Becomes (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 24, 2024-January 12, 2025). On left, clockwise from top left: Blythe Bohnen, Self Portrait: Horizontal Motion Bisected by Vertical Motion, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Pivotal Motion From Chin, Large, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Pivotal Motion, Small, Vertical Motion, Small, 1983; Blythe Bohnen, Horizontal Motion Large, Bisected by Vertical Motion, Large, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Horizontal Circular Motion, Small, 1974; Blythe Bohnen, Square Motion, Small, 1974. On right: Rick Bartow, Autobiographical Hawk, 1991. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
