Today’s West

Current Exhibition

Today’s West

Mezzanine Level overlooking the Hub

Today’s West features selections from the Whitney Western Art Museum’s collection of contemporary art created since the 1950s. The subjects are familiar: the land, peoples, and wildlife of the American West. However, unconventional techniques and styles and modern-day themes distinguish these artworks from their historical counterparts.

Artists today contribute to a rich creative legacy in the West. Some work in the representational style championed by European and American artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Others draw inspiration from historical Native arts. Still others look to larger global trends for inspiration; they embrace abstraction, create social critiques, appropriate concepts from other artists or popular culture, and experiment with new materials and methods.

By innovating, adapting, and responding to the changing world around them, contemporary artists help revise outdated narratives and expand definitions of western American art. Their work calls us to contemplate the American West anew.

A Sampling of Some of the Artwork on Display in Today’s West