Whitney Museum Plans Public Art Project On The Hudson River

WHITNEY MUSEUM, NY — The Whitney Museum is developing plans to bring a “ghost monument” to the Hudson River Park, proposing a haunting public art installation that would appear to float on the river.

Museum officials presented the project to the public for the first time on Wednesday night. The museum, located at 99 Gansevoort St., has been quietly developing the concept with the renowned American artist David Hammons for months.

Hammons’ idea is to create a simple, open structure that would be moored on the southern edge of the Gansevoort Peninsula and stretch into the Hudson River, Whitney director Adam Weinberg explained on Wednesday. The concept is an homage to the American artist and architect Gordon Matta-Clark, who famously crept onto the peninsula’s Pier 52 to cut openings in an abandoned warehouse there. In 1975, Matta-Clark illegally worked on the peninsula for months to create “Day’s End” by sawing cut-outs from the warehouse. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Hammons, considered one of the most innovative artists in the modern American art scene, approached the Whitney with an idea for the project in 2015, shortly after the museum moved from its former home on the Upper East Side to its current location in the West Village. The 74-year-old has worked in New York City for decades; he once famously sold snowballs outside of the Cooper Union in the 1980s, in a piece titled “Blizz-aard Ball Sale.” One of his most recognized works is the “African-American Flag.”

Hammons’ piece would recall both Matta-Clark’s previous work and the broader history of the Hudson River waterfront, Weinberg said.

“The idea is that it is a ghost representation of the pier shed that was originally there,” Weinberg explained “So that what you’re looking at is an evocation not just of Gordon Matta-Clark but...also of all of the history of the waterfront.”

Hammons’ structure, also titled “Day’s End,” would be the same size and in the same location as its predecessor. It would be accompanied with additional programming to explain the work’s concept and the history of the Gansevoort area.

Whitney officials have worked with Hammons on a feasibility study over the last year, and will soon begin the permitting process to proceed with the project. Weinberg declined to give a specific cost estimate for the work, but said it would cost “millions of dollars.” Hammons is donating his time and labor, and the Whitney will fundraise the money to create and install the project, Weinberg said. The final structure would be donated to the Hudson River Park, the waterfront park that stretches from Battery Place to W. 59th Street and includes the Gansevoort Peninsula.

It’s unclear when construction could begin, but Weinberg estimated that the installation would take between eight and 10 months. An environmental assessment would be conducted before the project was submitted for approval. Weinberg noted that the structure wouldn’t impede access to the waterfront.

Jane Crawford, Matta-Clark’s widow, joined community members and Whitney officials to hear the first public presentation of the project on Wednesday. Matta-Clark died from cancer at the age of 35.

“I think Gordon would be very honored that David Hammons chose to recreate this piece in his own words as a public work that is so inclusive,” Crawford told Patch after the presentation. “I think David’s rendering is so poetic and thoughtful and works on so many different levels. It’s just brilliant.”

Lead rendering credit: courtesy of the Whitney Museum; secondary image credit: Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, Artists Rights Society.