Book Description
Accompanying an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, An American Legacy, A Gift to New York records an unprecedented gift of postwar art. The gift, from fifteen Whitney trustees, encompasses eighty-seven key works by twenty-three of the most prominent artists to come of age in the 1950s and 1960s, including Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol. Dedicated to the presentation of American art, the Whitney has long supported and exhibited the artists represented in this gift, many from early in their careers. Whitney Chairman Leonard A. Lauder oversaw the selection of these works to add depth to the Museum’s permanent collection, particularly in the areas of Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. Many of the works illustrated here mark milestones in the development of pivotal American artists. Claes Oldenburg’s Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich) (1963), for example, is one of the first soft vinyl sculptures for which the artist is best known. Other highlights include thirty-two works by Jasper Johns, making the Whitney’s collection one of the largest in the world, and with the addition of four Ellsworth Kelly paintings, the Museum’s Kelly collection spans fifty years of the artist’s career. In quality and scope, these works greatly expand and enrich the Whitney’s already impressive collection of postwar American art. A comprehensive catalogue of the exhibition, including biographical notes on each of the artists, An American Legacy, A Gift to New York offers nearly one hundred beautiful color reproductions of some of the most significant American artworks of the twentieth century.

About the Author
Marla Prather is curator of postwar art at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Her publications include History of Modern Art; Willem de Kooning: Paintings; and Alexander Calder, 1898–1976. Dana A. Miller is assistant curator of postwar art at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Recently she co-curated New York Renaissance: From the Whitney Museum of American Art, at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, and coauthored the accompanying publication.

FROM THE PUBLISHER