REJECTING THE STANDARD

American Modernism” opened May 7 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This illuminating show of modernist American works created between 1900 and 1930, often looks fresh to our eyes in 2022, much in the way we find ourselves captivated and appreciative of 1960s and ’70s conceptualism. The Whitney has just chosen the right moment to pull these many selections out of storage and gather them together with newly acquired works of the period, many by lesser-known modernists. The show, on view through January 1, 2023, enables us not only to see these images but also to contextualize them in unexpected ways. In this light-filled Renzo Piano–designed contemporary-modernist structure, we can view the Hudson River to the west giving substance to our sense of art and time in motion, while, off to the east, there is the city itself, as it was and sort-of-still is—that is, the solid appearance of real life. To understand this expansive gathering requires us