The Whitney Museum Celebrates the Completion of David Hammon’s Day’s End

On Monday night, the Whitney Museum of American Art hosted a dinner to celebrate the completion of David Hammons s Day’s End. An exoskeletal-esque structure on the West Side Highway inspired by a building that once sat there exactly, it’s meant to signify the ever-in-flux New York City landscape and, for modern-day passersby, it’s positively unmissable. But the museum still had things to fete so on Tuesday night, it hosted yet another dinner; this time to honor three individuals whose support helped to realize Hammons’s art piece and get the Whitney through the tough year that was 2020. They were: museum trustee Raymond J. McGuire, board member Laurie M. Tisch, and artist Fred Wilson.

Though Whitney’s gala dinners usually take place inside the museum’s sprawling Renzo Piano-designed space, this time it was hosted across the street. In a tent on the west side of the West Side Highway, 150 guests (who either provided vaccination cards or were rapid-tested on-site) gathered just as the sun was setting. Attendees included artists and art-world regulars: Thelma Golden, Julie Mehretu, Dodie Kazanjian and Calvin Tomkins, Dawoud Bey, Paul Arnhold, and Wes Gordon.

For many in the crowd, the night out was their first in over a year. The weather was as delicious as the food prepared by Marcus Samuelsson, and the room was in high spirits. The tented outdoor space, which was done up in shades of lavender as an homage to museum board member and fashion designer Pamella Roland’s debut fragrance, was designed by David Stark and offered prime views of the Manhattan skyline.

“The Whitney has been open now for the past nine months to provide sustenance to our local community,” said the museum’s director Adam Weinberg. “Tonight the Whitney is back, and tonight, New York City is back.”