"The American century: art & culture 1900-2000.".

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART 

The question "What is American in American art?" has perhaps been asked ever since the first easel was pitched on colonial soil. Answers, when they have not been contested outright, are at best deemed woefully inadequate. A more comprehensive reply should be offered by the Whitney Museum of American Art's massive two-part exhibition "The American Century: Art & Culture 1900-2000." Continuing in the contextualist vein characteristic of former director David Ross's regime (Ross initiated this project before leaving for SF MOMA), this show, the biggest in the museum's history, will take up all four floors of exhibition space, in consecutive installments. The first, covering the years 1900 to 1950 - on view through August 22 - was organized by Barbara Haskell, a senior curator at the museum. The second - scheduled to open on September 26, 1999, and run through mid-February 2000 - will cover the years 1950 to 2000; Lisa Phillips, recently named director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, organized this section in her former role as Whitney curator.

The first installment will be presented chronologically, in groupings that reflect general thematic divisions: "America in the Age of Confidence, 1900-1919"; "Jazz Age America, 1920-1929"; "America in Crisis, 1930-1939"; and so on. The artists chosen to exemplify various historical trends are as diverse as the themes explored. The show includes not only painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, design, music, dance, literature, and film, but a farrago of artifacts and texts meant to convey something of the flavor of each era. It is easy to imagine the hodgepodge that might result, but if the disparate information is judiciously managed, the results will undoubtedly do much to illuminate the inherent diversity of American art (thereby answering, or at least usefully complicating, the question on which the show is predicated). In the part of the exhibition devoted to the '20s, for example, American consumerist society is well represented by four Precisionist paintings - Stuart Davis's Odol, 1924, and Lucky Strike, 1921, Gerald Murphy's Razor, 1924, and Charles Demuth's Figure 5 in Gold, 1928. Taking their place within a broader visual culture ("Art is witness to its time," Haskell explained when questioned about her modus operandi), the paintings appear alongside commercial photographs by Charles Sheeler and Paul Outerbridge, a cocktail shaker by Norman Bell Geddes, and an ensemble of furniture by David Deskey (who designed the interior of Radio City Music Hall in 1930).

Intel Corporation is sponsoring "The American Century," and an integral extension of the exhibition will be an in-depth website, designed by the chip maker but initiated by Ross. The site will allow users to access information meant to enhance their understanding of a particular work of art (high-speed terminals will be installed in the exhibition itself). Although the organizers warn that the website is "not a substitute for experiencing original works of art," it is likely - and perhaps portentous - that far more people will visit this site than will attend the show.