Human Interest at the Whitney

When Bill and I visit a museum we like to start on the top floor and walk down.

So when we visited the Whiney Museum of American Art we took the elevator straight up to the 7th floor to the exhibition "Human Interest" -- a display of works from their permanent collection.

We liked this introductory wall of small drawings and photographs.

I zoomed in on two of my favourite photographs -- Robert Rauschenberg's portrait of Cy Twombly in Rome in 1952

and Walker Evans' gelatin silver print of Lincoln Kirstein (1929 or 30).

That's Fairfield Porter's The Screen Porch (1964) on the right.

A small Edward Hopper -- Study for Office at Night, 1940 (chalk and graphite on paper).

The Whitney's Collection is always fascinating. In George Bellows' Dempsey and Firpo, 1924, Argentinian boxer Luis Angel Firpo is shown knocking the American champion out of the ring!

 Night Fishing, 1987, by David Bates reminded us of Marsden Harley's portraits of Acadian fishermen.

The Whitney has devoted the entirety of the 6th and 7th floors to the Human Interest show.

Alexander Calder's wire portrait of Varèse, c. 1930

Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1983

Charles Ray, Puzzle Bottle, 1995, featuring a male figure in a bottle.

On the left, Joan Semmel, Touch, 1977. Right, Jack Pierson, Self-Portrait #4, 2003

Larry Rivers, Double Portrait of Berdie, 1955 

 Andy Warhol, Ethel Scull 36 Times, 1963. acrylic and screen print on canvas

 Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2008-2009

 Bryon Kim. Synecdoche. Oil and wax on wood. Each panel represents a flesh tone of a friend of the artist.

The show continued onto the Whitney's wonderful terrace. The bronze sculpture, Rhythm, 1930, is by Arthur Lee.

The Whitney's terrace views of the Hudson River are fabulous.

Paul McCarthy, White Snow #3, 2012 

Just in from the terrace we were fascinated by Standing Julian, an monumental wax portrait of Julian Schnabel by Urs Fischer, 2015. It has candles burning inside, and is slowly melting. When the statue has melted completely the museum will cast a new full-sized statue and start melting it again.

 Bill and I loved this huge oil on canvas by Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (After Sam), 2005-6.

 Duane Hanson, Woman with Dog, 1977. The materials list for this sculpture is fun: Acrylic and oil on cast polyvinyl with clothing, hair, eyeglasses, watch, shoes, upholstered wood chair, ceramic dog with collar, and woven rug.

Before we continued on to the Stuart Davis show, I took advantage of the Whitney's free wifi to post a new photograph to Instagram.