This American Art World

Deborah Solomon, WNYC art critic and the author of American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), talks about how the Whitney and other museums are addressing Michelle Obama's challenge to be more inclusive. The images below are from the Whitney's first exhibition "America Is Hard to See:" 

1. 

Lee Krasner (1908 1984). The Seasons, (1957). Oil and house paint on canvas, 92 3/4 × 203 7/8in. (235.6 × 517.8 cm).

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Frances and Sydney Lewis by exchange, the Mrs. Percy Uris Purchase Fund and the Painting and Sculpture Committee 87.7 © 2015 The Po/Whitney Museum of American Art)

2. 

Agnes Pelton (1881 1961), Untitled, 1931.Oil on canvas, 36 3/16 × 24 3/16in. (91.9 × 61.4 cm)

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Modern Painting and Sculpture Committee 96.175/Whitney Museum of American Art)

3.

Hedda Sterne (1910 2011). New York, N.Y., 1955, (1955). Airbrush and enamel on canvas, 36 1/4 × 60 1/4in. (92.1 × 153 cm).

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of an anonymous donor 56.20 © 2015 Estate of Hedda Sterne/Artists Rights Society (ARS), N.Y./Whitney Museum of American Art)

4.

Mary Heilmann: Sunset (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 1, 2015–)

(Photograph by Marco Anelli © 2015/Whitney Museum of American Art)

5. 

Fred Wilson (b. 1954). Guarded View, (1991). Wood, paint, steel and fabric, Dimensions variable.

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Peter Norton Family Foundation 97.84a d © Fred Wilson, Courtesy Pace Gallery/Whitney Museum of American Art)

6.

Arshile Gorky (c. 1902 1948). The Artist and His Mother, (1926 c. 1936). Oil on canvas, 60 × 50 1/4in. (152.4 × 127.6 cm).

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Julien Levy for Maro and Natasha Gorky in memory of their father 50.17 © 2015 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), N.Y. /Whitney Museum of American Art)

7.

George Bellows (1882 1925). Floating Ice, 1910. Oil on canvas, 45 × 63in. (114.3 × 160 cm)

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 31.96/Whitney Museum of American Art)

8.

E.E. Cummings(1894 1962). Noise Number 13, (1925). Oil on canvas, 59 5/8 × 42 3/4in. (151.4 × 108.6 cm).

(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee 93.98. Used by permission by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust /Whitney Museum of American Art)

9.

Richard Artschwager's elevators at the Whitney Museum of American Art

(Jonathan & Elan Bogarin // El Tigre Productions/Whitney Museum of American Art)

Here's @deborahsolo in the studio today, talking art, access and the new Whitney: pic.twitter.com/9Z33hidOHd

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 14, 2015