CULTURE AND SOCIETYThe collection comes largely from the private collection of Gertrude Vanderbilt Withney, a sculptor and art collector who founded this museum in 1930 with the aim of promoting artists ignored by museums and art galleries. Withney decided to found her own museum with Juliana Rieser Force as director after the Metropolitan Museum of Art rejected her collection of over 500 works in 1929.
The current collection of 22,000 works by 3,000 artists and is one of the largest of its kind with a complete view of American art from the twentieth century to the present day. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures and drawings by many artists including Josef Albers, Joe Andoe, Donald Baechler, Thomas Hart Benton, Lucile Blanch, Louise Bourgeois, Charles Burchfield, Alexander Calder, Ching Ho Cheng, Dan Christensen, Greg Colson, Ronald Davis, Stuart Davis, Richard Diebenkorn, Arthur Dove, William Eggleston, Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Keith Haring, Grace Hartigan, Marsden Hartley, Robert Henri, Carmen Herrera, Eva Hesse, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, Terence Koh, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Ronnie Landfield, John Marin, Knox Martin, John McCracken, John McLaughlin, Robert Motherwell, Bruce Nauman, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Paul Pfeiffer, Jackson Pollock, Larry Poons, Maurice Prendergast, Kenneth Price, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Mark Rothko, Morgan Russell, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Cindy Sherman, John Sloan, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol.
The museum’s program also includes temporary exhibitions, films and avant-garde dances.
In March 2008 the American entrepreneur Leonard Lauder donated $ 131 million to the museum, making it the biggest donation of all time. About two months later, Renzo Piano was entrusted with the design of the current headquarters, which was inaugurated in 2015. The building is located in the Meatpacking District, on the Hudson River where the pedestrian path built on an old elevated railway, the High Line, begins.
ITA