Whitney Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York City, focuses on twentieth-century American art while giving real attention to living artists and their work. Its permanent collection holds more than 18,000 pieces. Founded in 1931 by the sculptor and collector Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, it grew out of her earlier gallery work after the Metropolitan Museum of Art declined a gift of nearly 700 American works. Among the paintings listed here are several by Edward Hopper, including Sunlight in a Cafeteria-style scene, alongside works by Jasper Johns, George Wesley Bellows, and Arshile Gorky.