Doodle 4 Google Finalists Presented By The Whitney Museum of American Art's Education Department

The Whitney's Education Department presents the finalists in the annual Doodle 4 Google, a competition where kids and teens were invited to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo. This year, the theme is "What I’d like to do someday…". One young artist, Matteo Lopez, has taken home a $15,000 college scholarship and $25,000 technology grant for his school. In addition, his artwork will appear on the Google.com homepage for millions to see. Google partnered with the Whitney Museum of American Art for the competition and formal exhibit of the 40 Regional Finalists.

"negro sunshine" by Glenn Ligon at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Hanging in the window of the Whitney Museum of American Art is New York conceptual artist Glenn Ligon's piece, "negro sunshine". The title "negro sunshine" was taken from a 1909 novella by Gertrude Stein about a mixed-race woman.  Mr. Ligon has been creating art for more than twenty years. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Hirshhorn Museum and the Sculpture Garden in Washington.  His "Black Like Me #2," was chosen by President and Mrs. Obama for their private quarters at the White House.  Currently on exhibit at the Whitney Museum is the retrospective, "Glenn Ligon: America," which will run through June 5, 2011.  The Whitney retrospective's curator, Scott Rothkopf, says "the decision to call the show, "Glen Ligon: America" was a very conscious one.  Although he emerged amidst a generation of artists who deal with race and sexual identity, his work speaks more broadly - not just to African-Americans or gay Americans, but to all Americans."  According to, Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, says about Mr. Ligon, "he is a political artist but not a protest artist." (from The New York Times).

Jenny Holzer Exhibit at the WHITNEY

Video from Art21org

On view until May 31 is JENNY HOLZER's work called PROTECT PROTECT at the WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART. Last Sunday, I went to the Whitney to view this exhibition. Jenny Holzer's pioneering approach to language as a carrier of content and her use of nontraditional media and public settings as vehicles for that content make her one of the most interesting and significant artists working today. Alternating between fact and fiction, the public and the private, the universal and the particular, Holzer's work offers an incisive social and psychological portrait of our times. PROTECT PROTECT centers on Holzer's work since the 1990s and is the artist's most comprehensive exhibition in the United States in more than fifteen years (from the official website). The Whitney is located on Madison Avenue at 75th Street.

ALEXANDER CALDER at the WHITNEY MUSEUM

On view at the WHITNEY MUSEUM are the works of ALEXANDER CALDER. Among the displayed works of art, I found Calder's wire portraits most fascinating. The exhibit runs through February 15, 2009. The Whitney Museum is located at 945 Madison Avenue (Madison Avenue and 75th Street).

From the official website:

"For decades [Calder's] Circus, lent by the artist in 1970 to the Whitney Museum of American Art, has set flight to the imaginations of visiting children and adults. Now the museum is celebrating its genesis in "Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933," an exhibition opening on Thursday that brings the young Calder and the giddy ferment of his artistic circle to life." 

--The New York Times, October 12, 2008

When Alexander "Sandy" Calder (1898–1976), arrived in Paris in 1926, he aspired to be a painter; when he left in 1933, he had evolved into the artist we know today: an international figure and defining force in twentieth-century sculpture. In these seven years Calder's fluid, animating drawn line transformed from two dimensions to three, from ink and paint to wire, and his radical innovations included openform wire caricature portraits, a bestiary of wire animals, his beloved and critically important miniature Circus (1926–31), abstract and figurative sculptures, and his paradigm-shifting "mobiles."

The Whitney has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder in any museum and is proud to be the exclusive American venue for this landmark exhibition, co-organized with the Centre Pompidou.

SUMMER OF LOVE: ART OF THE PSYCHEDELIC ERA at the WHITNEY MUSEUM

Last Sunday, we visited the new exhibit of psychedelic art at the Whitney Museum of American Art on Madison Avenue. It’s called Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era. A major attraction of the show is a hand-painted 1965 Porsche 356c Cabriolet super c once owned by the lead rock singer of the 60s' JANIS JOPLIN. Shown above are photographs I made of the “psychedelic” car featuring the artwork by DAVE RICHARDS. The exhibition has travelled from England to Frankfurt and Vienna before coming to the Manhattan Museum.

Psychedelic art, characterized by its use of vibrant colors, complex design, and vivid imagery, came of age during the period of intense racial, and political revolution of the 20th century. During a time of tumultuous social and political upheaval, defined by several events including the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War, artists, filmmakers, poets, architects and musicians created visionary art that illustrated a desire for alternative lifestyles. The exhibition showcases these works of art which runs through mid-September.

From: http://www.rockhall.com/

"Janis Joplin paid about $3500 for this 1965 Porsche 356c Cabriolet when she bought it from a Beverly Hills auto dealer in September 1968. Prior to the sale, the dealer had painted the car oyster white. Joplin, however, wanted something more dramatic, and Dave Richards, a friend and Big Brother roadie, created this psychedelic design, which includes an image of Janis and Big Brother on the front left fender.

The car quickly became identified with Joplin, who drove it around San Francisco, where she lived, and down to Los Angeles, where she recorded. Whenever she parked it somewhere, fans would leave notes under the wipers. Once, while Joplin was at a gig, the car was stolen. The thief spray painted it gray, but when it was retuned, Joplin found an auto shop that was able to recover the psychedelic finish.

A few months after Joplin’s death in 1970, her family gave the car to Albert Grossman, Janis’ manager. He kept it in Bearsville, New York, where it was used by visiting artists, friends and clients. In 1973, he returned the car to the Joplins, who used it as a family car.

The car has been restored several times over the years. Most of the engine and body parts are original. The seats have been re-covered, and the cloth on the convertible top is new. The body was repainted as close as possible to the original design by the Denver Center Theatre Company paint shop in 1994."