Whitney Biennial 2014

Designed and organized to replicate the 2014 Whitney Biennial, this diverse and dynamic catalogue reflects the eclectic nature of the exhibit itself. Divided into three sections, each is devoted to the choices of one of the Biennial's guest curators, who, for the first time in the exhibition's history, were chosen from outside of the Whitney and outside of New York City. Each essay is revealing in its own right: Comer's for interrogation of American art and identity; Elms's for his impressionistic and impassioned account of the curatorial process; and Grabner's for her vision of curation as curriculum and art exhibitions as potential classrooms. Every section includes splendid color reproductions of the artwork along with essays by art critics, poets, academics, and other artists in the first section, essays by the exhibited artists themselves in the second, and interviews with the artists in the third. The catalogue's strength is its diversity of image, idea, and text. Though its visual, textual, and intellectual multiplicities can be disorienting, perhaps this effect is intentional. The book will be of great interest to all invested in contemporary art and its curation. 250 color and 50 b&w illus. (Mar.)