Where We Are: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1900–1960

Apr 28, 2017–June 2, 2019

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George Washington characterized the United States as a “great experiment,” but it also could be described as a collective dream—a gathering of diverse, and sometimes competing, aspirations, beliefs, symbols, and histories. Artists working in this country have looked to these symbols to study the nation’s history and their contemporary moment. Jasper Johns famously disclosed that the idea for painting an American flag came to him in a dream. The emblem remains potent and is part of our collective consciousness. Artists also have rendered the individuals—both unsung and eminent—who have fought for it. Daniel Chester French’s Standing Lincoln (1912) memorializes a figure whose actions during the Civil War guided how the United States might endure. In Herman Trunk Jr.’s 1932 depiction of Washington’s family home, Mount Vernon, the building is pulled apart to reveal another version within its walls. A surreal painting of a real place, it affirms that the dream and the reality of the nation are inseparable.

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