The Women of the Whitney Biennials: Artists In and Out of the Mainstream

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City has presented special exhibits of contemporary American art since 1932. As the longest-running survey of American art, these invitational exhibitions, along with the Whitney Young America exhibits, have brought well-deserved attention to countless young artists. The Biennial of 1987 saw the protest by the Guerilla Girls for alleged racism and sexism, but the 1993 Biennial presented the most diverse group of artists ever up to that point in an American museum show. In 2010, for the first time, the majority of artists in the Biennial were women.

This session seeks papers that explore the role of the Biennial and the several Whitney Young America exhibits in the artistic careers of American women artists. Alice Forman, a member of the Young America 1960 show at the Whitney Museum, presented outstanding examples of Abstract Expressionism, but afterwards turned to representational art and floral still lifes. On the other hand, the Gullah artist, Verneda Lights, was part of the Occupy Museums Group exhibit of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, and has used that exhibit as a launching pad for "Gullah Me," a collection of works of 21st century Gullah art that “pushes back and builds upon the historic aesthetic of Gullah visual art.” How did participation in a Whitney show affect an artist’s future work and success? How did/does the artist herself view her participation in the show? This session welcomes papers on all aspects of women artists’ experiences in the Whitney special exhibitions.