Heritage can be viewed from many perspectives: familial, historical, aesthetic, individual, social, material, and immaterial. But in all aspects, the question is always: what has the past given us, what has it left behind?
The Whitney Museum of American Art explores these questions in a new special exhibition, Inheritance, opening June 28. Rather than simply juxtaposing new acquisitions with long-standing works in the collection, the museum is retelling its own works under the theme of inheritance. On view are paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and installations from the 1970s to the present.
In the exhibition, the Whitney understands inheritance as a concept of transmission: It sees individual and intergenerational experiences not as separate, but as transformations from one person or idea to the next. (Re)birth, (re)generation, repetition, and recurrence shape the content of the exhibition. Instead of simply accepting the circumstances, the museum wants to make the visitor think. One should ask oneself what is hidden behind what is seen: Are there perhaps earlier experiences and ideas, and how did we get here?
The New York institution was inspired by Ephraim Asili's 2020 film of the same name, one of whose works will be on view. Other contemporary artists include Kevin Jerome Everson, Lorraine O'Grady, Mary Beth Edelson, and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto. Inheritance runs through February 2024.
